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Community Oriented Policing
In order to meet the public safety needs of the citizens of Riverside County in the 21st century, the Sheriff will be implementing a strategy of community oriented policing. The goal is to implement Community Policing by the year 2000. To accomplish this we will begin by utilizing Problem Oriented Policing to deal with issues in the community. As our experience grows, the program will incorporate the principles of COP into the Department's operation. This approach to policing is being 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 new spirit of cooperation between public and private agencies. The Sheriff's Department will utilize various programs including Problem Oriented Policing (POP) to set in motion community policing. The community policing must be flexible and customized to fit specific neighborhood areas.
The multi-year community policing plan will use existing community based programs operated by the Sheriff's Department and develop 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 will insure a flexible response that meets the individual needs of the community.
The Sheriff's Department serves a diverse population in communities spread across 7,310 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. In order for COP to be implemented across a large diverse county, empowerment of local Sheriff's stations is essential. As part of the development of the Sheriff's five year COP program, each Riverside Sheriff's patrol station will respond with POP programs serving the needs of the various communities within their station boundaries.
Initially, POP will be implemented with limited resources. In order to encourage innovative approaches, each station will compete for the limited resources available under the COP program. This will be handled by evaluating various proposals from each station. This will allow the Department to develop innovative solutions with the full participation of the communities they represent.
Community policing is intended to be the guiding philosophy for the Department'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.
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. PRINCIPLES OF
COMMUNITY ORIENTED POLICING1. 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 Department, 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 Department 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 Department 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 Department must continue to maintain the ability to respond to immediate crisis and crime incidents. COP broadens the effort of the Department to one involving the community in working with it toward a common goal.
7. COP plays a crucial role within the Sheriff's Department, by providing information about the community and its problems, and by enlisting community support for the Department.
8. COP provides decentralized, personalized law enforcement service to the community. It recognizes that the Sheriff's Department 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 Department can modify and adapt to meet its needs.
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