The VALUE of Community Policing

By: R.A. Maginnis

Many a rticles and books have been written about the history of community policing and how it works.  This paper will explore the value of Community policing.   To fully understand the enormous value of this program we must examine the, who, what, where, when and why of community policing.

With all the reports in the media of thefts, robberies, break-ins, and violence on the streets of their communities, the public is looking for solutions.  The value of community policing is obvious to those of us who have been involved in this for years, however, to truly understand the importance of community policing, a brief history of policing in general is necessary.

Policing, on a historic scale, is a relatively new concept. The laws of nature ruled the world for millions of years, with “survival of the fittest” being the usual outcome. When mankind formed tribes they initially looked after each other. Eventually the tribes created kingdoms, led by a lord, king, or emperor, who was responsible for law and order. He seldom had the time or desire to deal with individual problems.

It wasn’t until the mid 19th century that Sir Robert Peel (“The people are the police, the police are the people”) developed the concept of policing as we know it today. Peel modeled his police service after the only other structured organization of the day, the military.

Peel outfitted his police officers in uniform and put them on the street with the people. If a police officer could assist an individual with a problem, he would.  If the problem was more serious, all pa rties involved would appear before a magistrate, or a learned person, who resolved the issue. As the problems became more and more complex the government was called upon to pass more and more legislation to guide the magistrates and make the resolutions more consistent.

Policing has tried to keep pace with the changes in society; as we moved from horses to bicycles to motor vehicles, so did the police service. The first big change in policing came with the invention of the telephone and later, the radio system. Until the mid 20th century a police officer, on patrol, would call in every hour to get messages. This was an improvement, but it still left a lot to be desired. In built up areas a call light, which was placed on the top of tall buildings or poles, would be lit when the officer had a call. Noticing the light, the officer would return to his office or call in to get his messages. Although this, too, was an improvement, it still left something to be desired in an emergency.  At this time the concept of Community Policing was alive and well as the police officer was out amongst the public. He knew the people on his patrol and they knew him.

We started to depart from a Community Policing concept when radios where installed in cars. The officer, working from his car, could respond to the radio calls. This was effective for emergency response but was the beginning of the end for his direct involvement with the community. Spending all of his time responding to radio calls, the police officer became more and more removed from the general public. 

In the late 1980’s we realized that the officers had become so removed from the general public that they had lost touch with the issues that were of real concern to the community. Enter Community Policing.

Since its modern-day inception, the term community policing has caused confusion. The very words, community and policing, together present an oxymoron.  The word “community” suggests a warm and fuzzy group of people with family values, whereas the word “policing” conjures up personnel putting people in jail. There certainly is a conflict then when people hear the two words put together.

Many years ago in California, the term ”thin blue line” first appeared in print. This term implied that the police where alone in the fight against crime.  In my opinion, this term has done more damage to policing than one can imagine.  The concept of the thin blue line corresponds to police officers protecting the public against vicious criminals and bad people. The difficulty here is that the public is made up of people.  These people are individuals who the police officer on the street interacts with. Therefore, there is no public to protect because they're all individuals.  This concept from a police officer's perspective is one of us vs them, the “us” being police officers or anyone in uniform and the “them” being the rest of the population.

Over the last few decades policing has become a business. Business plans, budgets and operating manuals are all prepared, just as in any other business. The difficulty with this is that police service was a personal service dealing with individuals supported and paid for by the public.  When you turn this service into a business it becomes totally impersonal. Business plans, by necessity, have built-in safety margins for problems that arise.  The individual does not have the luxury of built-in safety margins; they function on the hope that crime prevention will prevent crime from happening to them.  If you ask a member of the public what they would prefer, the prevention or crime, or the investigation of crime after it has happened to them, there is no doubt what their answer will be. 

In my opinion, Community Policing is the last proactive tool that the public has to realistically deal with crime, and more importantly, crime prevention.  Therefore, it is up to us, as citizens interested in public safety, to encourage and support all levels of government and its agencies, service groups, and the general public to embrace the concept of Community Policing and support it.

Recent events in our country have led to a number of knee jerk reactions in the passing of laws and policies. When community policing committees meet, they discuss current issues and propose resolutions that satisfy the general understanding and will of the public.  These committees often make recommendations to government agencies proposing a sound course of action.

Community Policing has benefited not only citizens but all levels of government, federal, provincial and municipal.  The examples that follow, illustrate the positive impact community policing has made.

The universality of this program is the people that make up the committee. The program works, whether in rural settings, towns or subdivisions of a big city.  The program adapts itself to the community. Committee members bring the communities problems and fears to the table and, the same committee suggests a resolution acceptable to that community. 

Over the years I have organized several Community Policing committees in various locals.  When concerned members of the public meet with both local politicians and police services they are able to  assess the needs in their community and the support necessary to form and operate a successful Community Policing Committee. From my experience, a public meeting, identifying ideas, issues, and concerns is an effective way of enlisting support from the general public. A date and place for the Committee meetings should be arranged. For example, the second Tuesday of every month at the Town Hall.

Invitations should be sent to local service groups, business associations, religious and ethnic groups, as well as members of the local council, asking for pa rticipation in the Community Policing Committee. It is essential that a member of the local police service attend every meeting.

The diverse makeup of the Community Policing Committee by itself is a crime prevention initiative.  The meetings provide an opportunity for attendees to get to know each other on a personal basis.  As we begin to understand each other, ignorance is often replaced by understanding, and respect for differences. 

As the committee evolves, members are invited to bring concerns and issues of public safety for their respective group, or organization, to the policing committee for discussion. Once the issue has been discussed, a plan of action is formulated.  The committee member returns to their group or organization with a report prepared by the committee and approved by the attending police officer.   While it is important the member report to their group it is equally important that they do not divulge the details of the plan. An example would be a problem at a stop sign. Committee members should report to their group that the local police have been advised and will look after the problem. They should not release any details, (a police officer will watch the stop sign between 4 and 6 pm on Friday nights). Any release of details would obviously defeat the purpose of this enforcement initiative.

Involving the media, such as the local newspaper, in Community Policing is also essential. In a successful Community Policing endeavor, the media can be utilized as a means to report the date, time and place of upcoming meetings, as well as the agenda, including local concerns.  The public should be given an opportunity to bring their own issues to the meetings. 

Every Committee should have a structure. There should be regular elections for the position of Chair, Vice-Chair, Secretary and Treasurer.

The committee should raise funds or have plans to raise funds to finance such things as information flyers, public meetings and to support any crime prevention or public information initiatives.

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The Port Stanley Community Policing project is a good example of the execution of this process and has utilized each one of these community policing concepts. The committee members present a good cross-section of the population of the area, representing service groups, businesses and politics in the area.  The committee meets on the second Tuesday of each month, at the community policing office.  Because of the regularity and consistency of these meetings, the entire community knows when and where to raise their safety issue concerns.  The committee has also established a volunteer program which staffs the community policing office daily throughout the year.  The volunteers have provided 1400 hours of service to the community, repeatedly confirming the value this innovative concept produces.   They direct people to appropriate agencies, and lend a sympathetic ear for those members of the community who need someone to listen to them.  They have reduced the number of hours the police officer spends assisting citizens to obtain help or dealing with issues that are not reactive police matters.  The volunteer members of the Port Stanley Community Policing committee, along with the office volunteers, have accomplished great things in the Port Stanley area.

The following summary lists some of the accomplishments of the committee.

The committee has:

-         Sponsored the Block Parent program in the community placing signs in suitable homes and attending at local schools to educate the children on the Block Parent program.

-         Sponsored and supported a local Tragic Events Team. This team of trained professionals is called to the scene of a tragic event to assist local police and to council survivors. Office space and pagers for this project were supplied by the committee. The committee also supported the team with the local police service.

-    Attended and made several presentations at the local council, along with their police officer.  Created a local Neighbourhood Watch Program and lobbied local insurance companies to lower insurance premiums for active members of the Neighbourhood Watch Program.

-         Obtained a charitable tax number from the government to allow any sponsors of the Community Policing Committee a tax break for their support of the committee.

-          Arranged for the presentation of home and safety seminars by the Community Policing Committee, the local fire department, and local insurance Companies. All these seminars were well attended by the public.

-         Lobbied the local police service for a marine patrol of the adjacent lake and rivers.

-         Held a youth forum at which local youth where encouraged to express their concerns and offer suggestions to resolve some of the youth problems in the area.

-         Supported the Crime Stoppers Program, posted posters and elicited the support of local businesses.

-         Attended at the local school to support the school crossing guard program, and arranged for training of the volunteer school guards. The committee also presented the crossing guards with certificates of appreciation and arranged gifts for the students involved.

-         Started a volunteer program where volunteers manned the Community policing office for 4 hours a day (longer in the summer months). The program was well received and benefited the public and the local police service.

-         Bought a video camera and taped household belongings for local residents, both for insurance purposes and a personal record of belongings.

-         Produced a Marine safety sticker to be handed out by the police marine unit to vessel owners who had all the safety equipment in good working order, improving marine safety and reducing water related accidents.

-          Helped shut down a local drug lab.  When the local fire chief and chairman of the Community Policing Committee became suspicious after investigating a house fire, he took the local Community Policing officer to the scene, resulting in charges laid against two people. 

-         Lobbied the local council and police service for more officers at peek vacation time. As a result more officers were assigned to the community during these periods.

-         Sponsored members from the local committee, so they could attend a provincial Community Policing Conference. The members brought back information on the latest crime prevention programs for the committee to review.

-         Encouraged the local public school children to decorate and paint the windows of the community policing office for the Christmas season each year.

-         Sponsored local youths, and transported them regularly to youth special events in a nearby city.

-         Lobbied the local courts to have young offenders put on a strict curfew while awaiting a hearing or while on probation.

-         Substantially reduced occurrences of minor mischief in the town by both talking with youth and adults about the program and by encouraging the public to report what they have seen.

-         Promoted a visit from a police officer from Manchester England (a very large city) to discuss Community Policing. This visit confirmed that the Community Policing program is virtually the same in both communities and that the problems facing the committees are surprisingly similar.

-         Sponsored an annual Easter egg hunt for children under the age of 6.

-         Sponsored a safety contest at the local public school and awarded prizes to the winners at their annual assembly.  

-          Assessed the need for road signs and traffic control, and purchased signs that assisted in relieving traffic congestion on long weekends.

-          Assisted the Ministry of Transportation with a seat belt survey in the community, which showed a very high compliance with the seat belt laws.

-         Attended the local school with Block Parents and the local Police officer, and presented a Block Parent seminar to all the kindergarten and Grade 1 students.

-         Held a dinner and presented ce rtificates to outstanding members and the local newspaper reporter for their valued work.

-         Assisted the local optimist committee with their annual children’s safety fair.

-          Arranged for and took local politicians and community members to the Provincial Police headquarters, Orillia and to the Ontario Police College for a tour of the facilities.

-         Supported and facilitated the formation of a local VCARS committee.  (Victim Crisis & Referral Service)

-         Arranged for and fingerprinted children for their parents’ at most local fairs and events.

-          Lobbied for and furnished a large new Community Policing office, supplying furniture and computers for the office.

-         Produced a regional Community Policing newspaper eliciting support and a rticles for local police services and community Policing committees.

-         Purchased 2 hand-carved wooden statues of police officers to decorate the yard at the Community Policing office.

-         Obtained uniforms for both members and volunteers.

-          As a result of their efforts, lowered the crime rate in the town, for  four consecutive years.

-         Entered floats and marched in all of the local parades.

-         Obtained surplus computers from local business and governments and supplied them to local schools.

-         Lobbied all levels of government for a stricter young offenders act.

-         Published, as a result of their efforts and programs, more than 170 newspaper a rticles in local newspapers and had several features on the local television channel.

A list of Port Stanley Community Policing achievements in 2005 follows:

1)      Our volunteers put in approximately 1400 hours either manning the office or assisting with events related to Community Policing.

2)      Our volunteers patrolled, with our speed sign, repo rting speeders traveling the local roads. Other Community Policing Offices have borrowed the speed sign to source data for their areas as well. These reports are sent to the St Thomas OPP Office on Hwy 45.

3)      A “Snowbird Patrol” has been created for residents who leave the area for the winter. Once a week, we confirm that their property is intact and report any problems to their appointed contact person.

4)  Extended hours have been implemented at the Port Stanley Policing Office, through the addition of new volunteers. The office is now open daily for the convenience of our visitors and residents.

5)      We have continued to provide “Fingerprinting Clinics” for local children.

6)      The office has been used for meetings held by the St. Thomas Detachment of the OPP.

7)      The committee sponsored one of our volunteers to attend the CPTED Course presented by the OPP.

8)      The committee sponsored a volunteer to attend the Community Partners Empowering Seniors CP AC Conference in Ridgetown, Ontario.

9)      The committee ordered and we distributed over 200 copies of an information booklet “ A Guide to Programs and Services for Seniors in Ontario”. Seniors in our area use this brochure to learn how to access various programs available to them. This program was implemented with information obtained at this conference.

10)  Obtained a graffiti remover on a trial basis in an effort to clean up graffiti in the village.  This was suggested at the CPTED Course.  

11)  We obtained, packaged and distributed a number of Security Advisories issued by the Royal Bank of Canada to the businesses in Port Stanley and continue to update them.

12)  We supported and adve rtised two community events presented by the OPP for the residents on “Breaking and Entering” and “Community Policing through Environmental Design” (CPTED).

13)  We entertained a speaker at one of our meetings on the “Race Against Drugs”.” Race Against Drugs” is a program that was initially presented by the RCMP but is currently being presented with RCMP and OPP assistance by Community Policing Offices.

14) We have addressed council on issues pertaining to parking and signage in Port Stanley.

15) Sponsored our Annual Easter Egg Hunt.

16) Sponsored advertising for our local Skating Team.

17) We most recently have supported the Lioness Club for the Annual Christmas Parade by decorating and entering a float in the parade.

18) A Christmas lunch was presented for volunteers and committee members in appreciation of their assistance during the past year.

We are currently working on presenting this program and anticipate holding one of these events in our area in 2007. It is a very complex program supported by a large number of  sponsors and has been very effective not only in deterring today’s youth from being involved with drugs but could also involve topics such as “Farm Safety” and “Water Safety” which would be extremely valuable to the youth in our region.

As you can see the activities of the Pt. Stanley Community Policing Committee show no bounds. Each activity the committee completes strengthens the concept of Community Policing and reduces crime in the community.  Every event that brings adults and youth together will show immeasurable benefits in the future.

I have advocated for the older style of Community Policing where the local committee meets regularly even if there are no issues to be resolved.

In 1992 the concept of Community Policing was introduced to Port Stanley and its first full year was completed in 1993.

I did so by opening the office to the public for 4 hrs a day manned by community volunteers. A program was created so that the volunteers could handle such things as lost and found property and non criminal occurrences; forms where made up and the volunteer would fill one out for each contact; these forms where collected by the on-duty police officer and then dealt with appropriately. The volunteers took great pride in their achievements and even paid for shirts with their crest on it so they could be identified as the on-duty volunteer. They wore their shirts to public meetings and visit the local school with their police officer for safety seminars.

This continued until the restructuring of the OPP. A new detachment commander refused to let the volunteers file out reports from the public and would not let them wear their shirts. This was an enormous blow to these volunteers, but they continued to man the office, phoning the Com. Centre when a member of the public attended and then turning the phone over to that person.  Needless to say interest in this program is waning.

I recently located the stats I prepared for my year-end report 1997 that was submitted in Jan 1998. I then requested the year-end stats for 2006 for comparison purposes.

Port Stanley Stats. 1993 to 1997 @ 2005 to 2007

The Stats from 1993 until 1997 where submitted by me in January 1998.

The stats from 2005, 2006, and 2007 where given to the Port Stanley Committee by their C/O.

It took the first five years to reduce crime by 27% this trend has continued and after 15 years of service o the community their crime is now reduced 66%.

I was amazed to find that in 2006, the office had received 791 calls for service and of them 140 where criminal offences.

How did we reduce the Criminal offences so drastically and why are there still so many calls for service?

There are many explanations for crime reduction and each of us has an opinion. Here are some of mine. I have always upheld that a community that stands up and states in a loud voice that they will not tolerate bad social behaviour, will produce a safer community. Including and encouraging volunteers in the community to meet regularly and share their thoughts can only better the entire community.  

This brings me to Dr. Clinton’s message. Dr Clinton is a child physiatrist at McMaster University who believes that a child as young as 2 years of age receives messages that form who they will be. I listened and agreed with her completely and I want to give you this to think about.

In 1993 the community policing program in Port Stanley initiated non police activities, The volunteers went to the public school in the Community Policing Shirts, on the days when vaccinations where being given and handed out candy and fruit to the students. They held an Easter egg hunt for all children under 6 yrs of age followed by hot chocolate and Kid Printz completed by a police officer.

They asked local young people to paint Christmas scenes on the office windows and the entered a float in the Christmas parade having auxiliary officers handing out candy along they parade route. These events still continue today. The committee has also held social functions for young people and helped provide a skate board park.

Returning to the message we received from Dr Clinton, that what young people are going to become and who they are is formed in their very early years, I submit to you a theory.  All the children who were introduced to Policing through the volunteers, and contact with officers in a social environment, who were between the ages of 2 years and 10 years in 1993 are now 16 to 24 years old. Has their behaviour been positively influenced?

Calls for service in 2006 appear to me to be reasonably high, and I wonder if the old program of volunteers fronting calls in Port Stanley would returned some time to uniform police officer to do reactive policing. If a senior is lonely and wants to talk to someone, wouldn’t it be more effective to use a volunteer instead of a front line officer?

The biggest question is WHAT IS PROACTIVE POLICING?

Along with the message that the community will not tolerate bad behaviour, have we started to accomplish what Dr Clinton is advocating?

Who can help us? The following are exclusively my thoughts.

Police Management and bureaucrats have control over their recourses and have the ability to implement pro-active initiatives. The problem I see is that these people are required to maintain a budget and apply for funding. If their policies and procedures result in increased Community safety and reduced crime how can they approach government for more funding?

Fear of crime = funding.

Insurance companies; the prevailing logic is that if we reduce the number of property crimes we reduce the amounts of money that Insurance companies are forced to pay out. If payouts are lowered, however, there is  an expectation that the insurance company also lower its premiums. For a business that cuts its profits from their gross income, why would they try and lower that income. $$$

This brings me to the area that I feel we have a real chance of support. You have often heard me say ask someone “would you like me to investigate a break-in to your home or do my best to prevent it.”

 Taking the dollars out of the equation, quiet often personal items having great sentimental value are stolen and when you talk to the victims they state that the items are irreplaceable and they would pay anything to get them back. What about those who have been injured physically or mentally?

These are the people who can help us! The public sees the value of pro-active policing.

There is a formula for policing; I believe it is one officer for every 700 residents. (Stand to be corrected) We must convince the politicians and the public that this formula is a must regardless of whether crime is lowered or not. This gives police management some leeway to mobilize their personnel as needed. We must convince the politicians that pro-active policing must be a part of policing and legislated.

The billions of dollars spent on policing in the dominion of Canada are almost entirely spent on reactive policing with an extremely small po rtion spent on proactive policing.  In the late 1980s the concept of Community Policing as we know it was born.  This is an innovative way for police services to have low-cost proactive policing.  This concept is well received by the public who wholeheartedly join the Community Policing effort.

Both proactive policing and crime prevention are very difficult to substantiate singularly because there are no statistics that prove when something doesn't happen. To give you an analogy of crime prevention I’d like to tell you a short story about my best friend.  He was involved in an automobile accident on the 401 Highway.  A tractor-trailer hit his car on the driver's door.  To describe his injuries it suffices to say that everything left of center was broken or damaged.  It is now one year later and he is doing well but it is doubtful he will ever go back to work.  The other day we were driving the Highway near the scene of his accident which was just past the service center. He looked at me and said “What would have happened if I had stopped for a coffee”.

This is what Community Policing does.  It stops for coffee on the road of life and changes its course.  Every time a young person is in the presence of a police officer at a community event and finds out that the police officer is just a good person doing a necessary job; every time someone initiates a crime prevention initiative; every time citizens’ perspectives of each other are changed, the community becomes a safer place.

Today’s society has adopted an attitude of downstream thinking.  Without statistics of police organizations, government and the public who are interested in policing cannot measure the value of proactive policing. Therefore they are skeptical of supporting organizations that practice Community Policing.

Recent Community Policing conferences have reached out to government, insurance companies, lawyers, and big business.  Without statistics to support the success of a crime prevention initiatives of Community Policing all of the above have failed to support the efforts of volunteers and community members trying to share crime prevention initiatives. (We now have some stats although it is a very small sampling.)

If any of these agencies were to go out to a member of the general public and ask them if they would like them to spend a few hundred dollars to prevent someone from breaking into their home or spend thousands upon thousands of dollars catching the person responsible for the break in, after the fact, there is no question what the answer would be. The downstream thinking of government and other agencies baffles me. The only thing that I can think of is funding…if the population is fearful there will be a debate when funding is asked for or rates are increased. 

The provincial organization called the Community Policing Advisory Council of Ontario was established in the early nineties in the Ottawa Kingston area has since grown to be a provincial organization with representatives from all corners of our province.  This organization has annually put on conferences dealing with community policing issues focusing largely on crime prevention but dealing with social issues and issues of current concern.  Topics such as organized crime, youth gangs and violence, partners preventing victimization, and seniors’ issues have all been addressed.  During each of these conferences attendees have the opportunity to network with each other sharing stories and problems and solutions and failures.  Upon returning to their home communities they have been encouraged and invigorated to deal with and resolve problems and issues. Presently this organization is endeavoring to compile as list of Community Policing best Practices.

In dealing with the problems at the community level it was important for this organization to ensure that attendees had an understanding not only of the nature of the crime but the prospective of both the victim and the person responsible. For example when we dealt with youth we had to remind the attendees of their youth and the careless invincible attitude that young people have.  When dealing with seniors issues it was important that the attendees understood that seniors, having been the pillars of community, were ashamed of the fact that they were victims. The result, therefore, was that they were reluctant to report anything that had happened to them; that they had let this happen to them. 

Problems and strengths are the same; the diversity of the volunteers involving community policing as well as the individual attitudes and ideas make the process cumbersome.  The end result is that at the conclusion of a meeting or a problem solving seminar there is a true reflection of what the community believes. It is very important that the Community Policing police officer and executives of the committee are aware of the difficulties and use them to come up with a successful and accurate reading of public perceptions.

This makes Community Policing a tremendous resource for all levels of government.  When the Community Policing committee makes a recommendation or sends a letter of concern to government, be it municipal, provincial or federal, it is generally an accurate representation of how that community sees that problem.  From a federal and provincial standpoint, the more Community Policing committees that submit information, the better able our politicians will be to have an accurate vision of public perceptions.

I believe I have made it clear the value of Community Policing, (knowing policing is divided into proactive and reactive policing, and knowing uniform police personnel are almost entirely dedicated to reactive policing) as a proactive tool is glaringly obvious.

Some of the administrative difficulties of Community Policing are evident in a paper written by Chief Julian Fantino when he was the Chief of the London Police Service The article stated that Community Policing was not an off the shelf item that could be distributed to all police services, leaving each service to make individual interpretations of the term. I believe his recommendation was to have some guide lines and expectations incorporated in the legislation.

I would ask all levels of government to seriously reconsider the value of Community Policing and lend their wholehearted support to the citizens who have embraced the Community Policing concept and are working hard to make their community and safe place.