Page 12 - 1Proactive Policing

Pro-Active Policing

A revitalized Neighborhood Watch program consisting on community coordinators watch

coordinators and block captains all working toward a common goal.
Citizen's Patrol groups throughout the City acting as eyes and ears to observe suspicious activity
and eliminate problems.

Safe Streets NOW! Working to get rid of nuisance properties through civil remedies.
The Drug Abatement Response Team (DART) involves the City Attorney, Housing Inspection and

the police in identifying properties that have a long history of ongoing narcotic activities. In a six-
month period, over 70 drug houses were targeted for abatement action.
Officers are able to spend more time working with citizens to solve crime and disorder problems.

With better police-citizen communication, officers can more effectively use and share crime
information with the public.

Officers who know both a community's problems and its residents can link people with other
public and private agencies that can help solve community concerns.
No single agency can solve complex social problems alone. A combined community-police effort

restores the safety of our neighborhoods and business districts.

Major Facts of Community Policing:

The focus of Community Oriented Policing is problem solving. POLICE WILL STILL RESPOND

TO EMERGENCIES. However, many calls to the police are not police related and are more
effectively handled by other agencies. As the number of non-emergency calls decrease, benefits

to citizens increase.
The impact of alienation is especially relevant as the contemporary community policing movement
emphasizes proactive law enforcement strategies. Effective community policing requires that

police officers work closely with local citizens in designing and implementing a variety of proactive
crime prevention and control measures. To accomplish these initiatives, it is crucial that officers

feel closely integrated with the majority of citizens in the community they serve. Typically, this
means that officers perceive themselves as sharing important community values and beliefs and
being confident of community support in the decisions they make.

Much rhetoric about getting tough on criminals or about establishing community policing lack the
understanding of why crime takes place and therefore are short-sighted in terms of possible
impact by the proposed policies. Typically, these policies are ideologically driven and if they have

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