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Community Policing is a philosophy and an or ganizational strategy that promotes a new partnership between people and their police. It is based on the premise that both the police and their community must work together to identify, prioritize, and solve contemporary problems such as crime, the fear of crime, illegal drugs, social and physical disorder and overall neighborhood decay, with the goal of improving the overall quality of life in the area.
Successful Community Policing is based on the following principles:
> Identifying and arresting criminals helps prevent crime and makes neighborhoods safer.
> Preventing Crime is as important as arresting criminals.
> Preventing Disorder is as important as preventing crime.
> Reducing crime and disorder requires that police officers work cooperatively with people in neighborhoods to identify their concerns, establish a partnership with them and work with them to solve neighborhood problems
Community Policing requires a department-wide commitment from everyone, sworn and civilian, to the community policing philosophy. It also challenges all personnel to find ways to express this new philosophy in their assignments, balancing the need to maintain an immediate and effective police response to emergencies and individual crime incidents with the goal of exploring innovative proactive initiatives aimed at solving problems before they occur or escalate.
Community policing succeeds when police officers are decentralized on permanent beats, where they are charged with the responsibility , and enjoy the freedom and autonomy to operate as community based problem solvers who work directly with the neighborhood residents. Their assignment is to help make neighborhoods safer and better places to live and work.
How does this affect me?
A community oriented Police Department is a police organization that enables and empowers its police officers and civilian employees to function as enforcers of the law, maintainers of public order, community resources, and neighborhood organizers to work alongside residents, helping them to effectively prevent, resist and eliminate criminal behavior and other types of disorder in their neighborhood, while adhering to the Constitution and to the rule of law. Community Policing is not a program, it is a philosophy. It is not what we say, but what we do!
Although every police officer within this agency is trained in community sensitivity, the Fort Lee Police Department assigns several officers who strictly conduct community policing seminars and projects on a full time basis.
You may see some of these officers riding specializ ed police bicycles. These officers welcome your comments and expect to be stopped and spoken to. Through the sharing of ideas and concerns we feel we as a police department will be better able to serve you.
An example of some of the projects and seminars initiated by the Community Policing are the various school based programs initiated by the unit. One such program is the Fort Lee High School DWI program at the senior level. This program is an intensive program designed to target drinking during prom and graduation time. The program has received national recognition and is being implemented as a model program for the State of New Jersey.
Other programs include seminars for our local businesses. The Community Policing Division working in hand with our Emergency Service Unit conduct a seminar for individual banks in town. These seminars discuss the current trends in flimflams, bad checks etc. that bank personnel may experience. The seminar includes a simulated bank robbery. The simulated bank robbery test the skills of the bank employees in describing the actors and following their standard operating policies.
Other programs initiated by the unit include various home owners groups, and senior citizens groups. Home owners and seniors are given tips in protecting their property and what to watch out for concerning crime. |
