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In order to meet the public safety needs of the
citizens of Ste. Genevieve County in the 21st century, the Sheriff's
Office has implemented a strategy of community oriented policing. To
accomplish this we utilized Problem Oriented Policing
to deal with issues in the community. The
program also incorporates the principles of COP into the Office's
operation. This approach to policing has been implemented across the
country. Each agency has adjusted the definition of community
policing to incorporate the variety of programs that need to be
offered to increase the safety of their citizens.
Community Oriented Policing (COP) is intended
to promote a spirit of cooperation between public and private
agencies. The Sheriff's Office has utilized various programs
including Problem Oriented Policing (POP) to set in motion community
policing. The community policing is flexible and customized to
fit specific neighborhood areas.
The multi-year community policing plan used existing community based programs operated by the Sheriff's
Office and developed new concepts to reduce crime in
neighborhoods. These programs include crime prevention officers,
school resource officers, and special investigative teams that
operate on a County-wide basis. No single program or approach will
address the variety of public safety issues in the communities
served by the Sheriff. The implementation of programs at station
level insure a flexible response that meets the individual
needs of the community.
The Sheriff's Office serves a diverse
population in communities spread across 600 square miles. Some of
these community areas include retirement centers, suburban
residential areas and rural communities. No single law enforcement
program will meet the needs of such a diverse area. As part of the development of
the Sheriff's COP program, the Ste. Genevieve County Sheriff's
Office will respond with POP programs serving the needs of the
various communities.
Community policing is intended to be the
guiding philosophy for the Office's interaction with the
community in a partnership to reduce the impact of crime. What is
different about this program is the commitment. Community policing
will not happen overnight. It will require time and the full
participation of both deputies and citizens.
PRINCIPLES OF
COMMUNITY ORIENTED POLICING
The following principles of Community
Oriented Policing will help guide managers, supervisors and deputies
in developing a partnership with the community. COP does not mean
that a deputy gives up "standard" law enforcement tactics. Enforcing
the law is the primary responsibility of a deputy. POP is designed
to have deputies focus on the problem. In the past, deputies have
had to frequently return to the site of a call to deal with a
problem that is classified as not being a "police problem." COP
provides deputies with the tools to attack the problems that reoccur
in a neighborhood and to work on finding a more permanent solution.
1. Community Oriented Policing is both a
philosophy and an organizational strategy that allows the deputy and
community residents to work closely together in new ways to solve
the problems of crime, fear of crime, physical and social disorder,
and neighborhood decay. The philosophy rests on the belief that
law-abiding people in the community deserve input into the police
process in exchange for their participation and support. It also
rests on the belief that solutions to contemporary community
problems demand freeing both the people and the police to explore
creative, new ways to address neighborhood concerns beyond a narrow
focus on individual crime incidents.
2. Community Policing, as an organizational
strategy, first demands that everyone in the Office, sworn and
classified personnel, must investigate ways to translate the
philosophy into practice. COP places a greater emphasis on the
autonomy of line-deputies, which implies a respect for their
judgement as professionals.
3. The Deputy acts as the direct link between
the Sheriff's Office and the community. Deputies must expand
their efforts to directly communicate with all members of the
community. It will require direct, face to face contact with the
people they serve.
4. COP requires the deputies to go beyond
responding to calls for service and making arrests. They have to
develop long-term initiatives that will involve community residents
in an effort to improve the quality of life in an area. COP involved
bringing together the citizen and the deputy to find creative new
solutions to local concerns involving crime, fear of crime, disorder
and decay.
5. COP implies a new contract based on mutual
trust, between the Sheriff's Office and the citizens it serves,
one that offers the hope of overcoming widespread apathy, at the
same time restraining any impulse to vigilantism. The deputy will
serve as a catalyst to motivate the community to develop the
resources to solve a problem, obviating the need for individual
reaction to a problem.
6. COP does not eliminate the need to react to
police problems. The Sheriff's Office must continue to maintain
the ability to respond to immediate crisis and crime incidents. COP
broadens the effort of the Office to one involving the community
in working with it toward a common goal.
7. COP plays a crucial role within the
Sheriff's Office, by providing information about the community
and its problems, and by enlisting community support for the
Office.
8. COP provides decentralized, personalized
law enforcement service to the community. It recognizes that the
Sheriff's Office cannot impose order on the community from
outside, but that people must be encouraged to think of the police
as a resource they can use in solving community concerns. It is not
a tactic to be applied and then abandoned, but a new way of thinking
about the police role in society, a philosophy that also offers a
coherent and cohesive plan the Sheriff's Office can modify and
adapt to meet its needs. |
