The End of Community Policing !!
The Chief of Police announced yesterday the end of community policing as we know it. It is being merged into the patrol officers and patrol officers will be called "Community Patrol Officers".
This is the same kind of spin the called cutting down the Natural Forests, the "Healthy Forests" program. Even using the best case argument for the changes, there will be 12 "Community Service Officers" left, instead of 41 Community officers.
1) Community policing is the most important tool we have to take back neighborhoods from criminals. Ending this is a huge mistake.
2) There was NO community input to the most significant change in policing in 15 years.
3) This was announced as soon as City Council choose the consultant to do the management review of the police department. The Mayor and Chief opposed the review, tried to narrow the scope of the review and opposed City Council's selection to do the review.
4) This is clearly a slap in the face of the City Council, the police officers and neighborhoods.
5) The goal is clearly to kill community policing before the community has an opportunity for input during the management review.
Karl Nurse
CONA Pres.
(for 5 more days!)
2 Comments:
After reading the articles, I came to a few thoughts.
1. They worded it very well to make it just boring and repetitive enough that some will give up on it and quit reading it. It could have been much clearer.
2. They talk a lot about how the "patrol" officers will have expanded duties to work more in the community, but fail to mention about the current cpo's new duties will take them out of our neighborhoods.
3. No matter how many times you call a duck a chicken, it's still a duck. They can call the new position "community patrol officers", but that doesn't mean they are or we get the same service.
4. Who will be coming to our local meetings? How much time will they have spent in the neighborhood? When we ask about a specific house, will he or she know what we are talking about? I see a lot of "I have to get back to you on that" coming.
5. Don't throw the baby out with the bath water. If some officers were not returning calls or going to meetings, call them on it. If I don't do my job, they don't change the process or my job, I get reprimanded or fired.
6. It's very smart of them to say they will have a review in March. Nothing like saying, "Give us three months and get back to us". After three months, when the fervor has died down, it will be much easier to extend the changes.
Just my two cents.
Bill
P.S. The articles I refered to were the ones the police released. One being their satement of policy change and secondly, the e-mail to the mayor stating the upcoming changes. I didn't want anyone to think I ment the articles in the papers.
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