Community Policing
Definition of Community Policing: A partnership between the community and police, working together to improve the quality of life in a community.
Benefits
- Long Term Problem Solving
- Provides Full-Service Policing
- Holistic Approach to Problem Solving
- Multi-Dimensional Problem Solving
Train Police and City Staff
To Include a New Training Bulletin, specifically designed for Capitola. Training in Community Policing / Problem – Oriented Policing. Completed in November 2001.
Identifying Problems
- Problems identified by Police personnel
- Problems identified by City staff
- Problems identified by merchants
- Problems identified by the community
- Problems identified by visitors
- Problems identified by other agencies
Project Oriented Policing (POP)
- Beat Binders identifying active projects for each Officer
- Master File Index
- Database to track activity and closure of projects
- Status Reports for review and sharing with community
- Closure Letters to the Chief and involved stakeholders
- This process helps organize and prioritize projects based on group input.
- Creates document to record problem solving efforts
- Helps improve efficiency & accountability
- Chronicles the problem solving effort through structured reporting and logs
- Can be supplemented by reports, photos, news articles, letters, arrest reports, etc.
- Once training of staff is underway solicitation of Stakeholders occurs and we train together
- Partners identify problems / issues & prioritize in order of importance.
- Start small and refine process
- By starting small we have a better chance of success!!
- Gain consensus or agreement as to what problems to tackle first.
- Commit or recruit resources to tackle various problems
- Learn as you go
- Take the advantage of past lessons and other’s hard work
- Market Success and take time to recognize accomplishments
- Continue to refine Problem Solving Process
The Problem Solving Wheel
Utilizing the S.A.R.A. model
S.A.R.A. stands for:
- Screening
- Analysis
- Response
- Assessment
Don’t Be Afraid to Fail
- Without risks there will be little growth and creativity
- Encourage risk taking
- Ask for help with ideas and resources
Departmental Responsibility
- Departmental Vision must include Community Policing Values
- Department sets goals and objectives for each rank and classification of employee
- Performance is measured against these values
- Supervisors and Command Staff encourage and mentor subordinates
Community Responsibility
- Community must help identify problems
- The community must participate in problem solving
- Stakeholders need to get involved
- Volunteerism has to be promoted by the community
- Community must acknowledge successes
