Memo - Community Policing
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To: Honorable Mayor and member of the City Council
CC: Steve Mielke, City Manager
From: Chief Craig A. Reid
Date: 4/1612003
Re: Council Work Session-Community Policing
It has been 3 years since I began my work as Chief of the Hopkins Police Department. From the
start I have used the Department Priorities outlined in the position profile for Police Chief
prepared when I was hired and the city's vision statement as the guidelines to develop
community policing for the Hopkins Police Department. I have found it very helpful tohave
been on board during the final stages of the Vision process. That knowledge has helped me
incorporate the objectives and strategies into the department activities.
I requested some time on the agenda so I could update you on the progress we have made. In
light of the budget restrictions, I feel this is an important time to discuss what changes we have
made and what developments are anticipated in the future.
The call load listed in the 2002 Hopkins Police Department Annual Report will be the basis for
discussion on many of the functions and responsibilities.
The Department Priorities in the position profile were developed by the Brimeyer Group, Inc. as
a part of the recruitment for my position listed fourteen items:
. Increase level of police visibility within the community.
. Create a higher police profile within the school district for all grade levels.
· Expand programs geared toward youth crime prevention.
· Focus on identifying and eliminating high crime pockets in the community.
. Promote the use of restorative justice and other alternatives in incarceration.
. Expand the use of civilian personnel and community involvement within the Department.
. Resolve the issue of providing the proper level of dispatch service.
· Evaluate staffing capacities and the need for additional or reassigned staff.
· Maintain a strong presence in neighborhoods and in the business community.
. Maintain an updated and current policies and procedures manual.
· Work closely with public safety departments in adjacent cities on areas of mutual
concern.
· Implement needs technology changes in the areas of records management, incident
management, and the area of utilizing a statistical approach to monitor community
concerns.
. Explore the efficacy of implementing a Citizens Academy.
· Work with other City Departments (Building Inspection, Health and Planning) to deal
with community issues in an organized fashion.
.; -,
Apri/16, 2003
I plan to present a brief history of department operations, an update of changes I have instituted
in the last 3 years and steps I see as necessary to incorporate these goals into the department
culture. I look forward to your feedback and discussion on department objectives.
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Bish Johnson
.rom:
ent:
To:
Subject:
Virgina Carter
Wednesday, April 16, 2003 2:04 PM
Sish Johnson
Article for the Council packets from the chief
COMMUNITY DOCTORING:
A MEDICAL ANALOG TO COMMUNITY POLICING
Excerpts from an article written by:
Joseph A. Harpold, M.S.
BACKGROUND
Police executives today are struggling with changes in the style
or philosophy of policing in their communities. The demand for change
in police organizations is not new. The response to societal change has
been a police organizational issue since Sir Robert Peel penned his
Principles of Law (Radelet & Carter, 1994). In his writings, Sir Robert
Peel envisioned the relationship between the police and the law-abiding
citizens in a free society. In dealing with the demands for change in
the style and delivery of police services, it is important to re-read
these principles in order that we not lose sight of what the
relationship should be and how the duties of the police should revolve
around this relationship.
411reel's Principles said that:
1. The basic mission of the police is to prevent crime and
disorder...
2. The ability of the police to perform their duties is dependent
on public approval...
3. The police must secure the willing cooperation of the public in
voluntary observance of the law to be able to secure and maintain public
respect.
4. The degree of public cooperation that can be secured diminishes,
proportionately, the necessity for the use of physical force and
compulsion in achieving police objectives.
s. The police seek and preserve public favor, not by catering to
public opinion, but by constantly demonstrating absolutely impartial
service to the law...by ready offering of individual service and
friendship to all members of the society without regard to their race or
social standing."by ready offering of individual sacrifice in protecting
and preserving life.
6. The police should use physical force to the extent necessary to
secure observance of the law or to restore order only when the exercise
of persuasion, advice, and warning is found to be insufficient to
achieve police objectives; and police should use only the minimum degree
of physical force which is necessary on any particular occasion for
achieving a police objective.
~. The police at all times should maintain a relationship with the
public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are
the public and the public are the police; the police are the only
members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties
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which are incumbent on every citizen in the interest of the community
welfare.
8. The police should always direct their actions toward their
.functions and never appear to usurp the powers of the judiciary...
9. The test of police efficiency is the absence of crime and
disorder, not the visible evidence of police action in dealing with them
(Radelet & Carter, 1994, Table 1-1, p.9).
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