A sliver of Kansas City’s population is responsible for the majority of shootings and homicides, police officials say. That sliver of people...
Read full entry »Hubert Williams will retire as president of the Washington, D.C.-based Police Foundation on June 30 after 27 years as president. The organization's board retained the executive recruiting firm of Korn/Ferry to help find a successor. Board chairman Weldon Rougeau said the scope of Williams' "experience and influence on police policy is considerable." He said the foundation "has successfully assisted police departments seeking to increase community satisfaction with police service and implement community policing strategies."
Williams was appointed foundation president in 1985, succeeding the late Patrick Murphy. Williams was police director in Newark from 1974 to 1985. The Newark Police Department was the laboratory for early Police Foundation studies key to the evolution of community policing—The Newark Foot Patrol Experiment and a federally-funded fear reduction experiment.
Read full entry »James Q. Wilson, a political scientist who coauthored the influential "Broken Windows" article in The Atlantic Monthly in 1982, a touchstone for the move...
Read full entry »Nashville police handled the lowest number of murder investigations in 45 years in 2011, and leaders say building better relationships with residents may be a factor, reports The Tennessean. Police classified 51 deaths as murders in 2011, the lowest since 1966 when there were 49. The department says 36 of the 51 homicide victims last year were African-American. Ten were white and five Hispanic. In 2010, there were 60 murders in the city.
Police have stepped up their presence in troubled neighborhoods, spending more time talking with residents and working to build trust through neighborhood watch groups and the clergy. The improved relations sometimes allow police to collect information and thwart some violence before it erupts. “While it is very difficult for one agency or group to influence a city’s murder rate, a community wide commitment against violence and gun play can make a difference,” said Police Chief Steve Anderson. James Thomas, pastor of Jefferson Street Missionary Baptist Church, has seen a marked difference in the way police interact with residents. “The black community trusts the police department more than in the past,” Thomas said. “There is a real dialogue with the police department. The black community knows when they walk into the chief’s office, the chief will be there.”
Read full entry »By Joseph Kolb
U.S. law enforcement has been quietly using drones, also known as UAVs, to patrol remote rural areas since 2009. Civil liberties advocates worry about the implications.
Read full entry »Robert White, 59, who is moving from Louisville to head Denver's police force hasn't always had smooth sailing, says the Louisville Courier Journal. He battled a reputation among some in the community that Louisville police were trigger-happy officers who were not to be trusted. He’s also encountered criticism from some officers who disagreed with policy decisions, ranging from decentralizing units to charging for use of patrol cars while off-duty.
He presided over a merger of city and county police departments that it required overhauling policies and procedures as well as a lot of logistical restructuring. The larger task was melding two cultures into one, producing a philosophy that would guide a united department. White’s willingness to make himself available has been a key to helping the community move past controversial issues, said the Rev. James Tennyson, who heads the Justice Resource Center. “We haven’t seen eye to eye with him on a lot of things,” he said. “But his door was always open to us. We could sit down and come to some type of resolution to a problem.”
Read full entry »By Stephen Handelman
A pioneering approach that brings police, community leaders and troubled youth together is demonstrating
remarkable results in many U.S. cities.
Southeast Raleigh accounted for 60 percent of the 34 citywide homicides in 2008. Since then, there's been a remarkable turnaround, says the Raleigh News & Observer. The police district in the area saw homicides drop to three last year; so far, there have been three this year.
It's too soon to declare victory over violent crime, but authorities credit a crackdown on the worst offenders and an equally intense focus on providing new educational and recreational opportunities to those most at risk of committing crimes. The police department has gone back to the most fundamental of policing strategies - getting officers out on the beat, consulting with residents to find new solutions, and mentoring youngsters. "What we are doing is what officers did years ago," said Capt. Andy Lull. Lull, 50, and a 25-year veteran of the police force, sees the difference when he drives through the formerly crime-plagued neighborhoods.
The federal Community Oriented Policing Services program, whose existence was threatened by the House Appropriations Committee, may be saved by the Senate...
Read full entry »Congressional budget-cutting could handcuff the federal grants now filling law enforcement coffers, McClatchy Newspapers report. For politicians, this means dicey choices ahead. Yesterday, underscoring the real-world stakes, Justice Department officials announced a $25 million grant for California from a federal law enforcement program that some in Congress want to cut. A separate law enforcement grant program beloved by California police chiefs and sheriffs was slated for elimination altogether by the Republican-controlled House Appropriations Committee.
Taken together, the two vulnerable grant programs pose a political dilemma that is perhaps most pronounced for conservatives who must choose between two alluring priorities: Saving money, or siding with cops. "It's not a tough choice for me," said Rep. Dennis Cardoza (D-CA). "I think it's absolutely irresponsible for members of Congress to cut law enforcement funding." Even program skeptics acknowledge lawmakers may ultimately avoid dramatic funding cuts that can be cast as soft-on-crime. "I'd expect some of the money to be restored, because most members have not given up their addiction to pork," said David Muhlhausen of the Heritage Foundation. The funding announced this week come from the Edward Byrne Memorial grant program. Nationwide, the Byrne grant program provides about half-a-billion dollars annually. California's share in 2009 was $54 million.
By Jon Shane
A former Newark PD captain says the impending Department of Justice investigation will test whether police agencies can be persuaded to change their subcultures through performance management principles.
Read full entry »In a novel effort to increase surveillance in a crime-plagued area, Oakland city leaders have purchased a batch of cameras for merchants in the Fruitvale district who were unable to afford them, says the San Francisco Chronicle. The deal with the merchants, who must allow police to view the footage, comes three months after the slaying of a community leader, and as the city attorney's office seeks a civil injunction against alleged gang members in the neighborhood.
The 30 cameras were paid for with $35,000 in redevelopment money. They will be installed inside and outside of local businesses. Within hours of the April 8 slaying, merchants had a meeting with Mayor Jean Quan and Police Chief Anthony Batts to ask for help in reducing crime. They asked the City Council for more motorcycle cops and increased patrols. Officers on all-terrain motorcycles have been trained in recent months and are expected soon. "It's a sad commentary that these improvements in security come about because somebody was killed," said a bookkeeping business owner.
Eight Philadelphia police officers have been deployed to a few of the most blighted, crime-ridden neighborhoods to attend community meetings, clean up parks, bond with kids and basically do other "warm and fuzzy stuff," as Jerry Ratcliffe, chair of Temple's criminal justice department, puts it. Ratcliffe's studies partly inspired the initiative, which Mayor Michael Nutter wants expanded, says the Phildelphia City Paper.
It's a policing tactic that enjoyed some popularity in the '60s and '70s, says Ratcliffe, but gradually fell out of favor. The idea is to get cops doing things they weren't doing before. Since about a year ago, when the project began, the police have asked residents what services they need, and worked with other city agencies to get them. They've taken part in the reclaiming of an abandoned pool, helped get trash compactors installed, and played active roles in organizing a fair, demolishing several vacant buildings and tidying up dozens of lots. The program is "about changing the mindset of young police officers as to what their job is" — not just resident perceptions, says Temple's Ratcliffe. "It's not going to happen overnight."
Read full entry »About 150 officers fanned out one evening last week in an operation Dallas police will replicate nearly 30 times this summer in neighborhoods across the city, says the Dallas Morning News. Toting survey sheets and safety brochures, they focused on a half-square-mile sliver in a crime-plagued area called Five Points.
Children paused games of catch to observe the officers going door-to-door. "They’re scared of the uniform,” Detective Jeff Baumann says. The officers’ queries are central to Operation Heat Wave, a summer push to gather tips and reduce property crime across the city. Police have already received valuable information, including a fresh lead in a murder case. “It’s not just the surveys,” said Lt. Mackie Don Ham. “You can’t gauge the positive impact this has out in the community.”
Read full entry »In recent years, the San Diego Police Department has moved away from the core concept of "problem-oriented policing" that won it international acclaim in the 1990s, reports the Voice of San Diego. The number of police storefronts, which made officers more accessible to residents, has been cut in half. Code compliance officers, who address chronic issues like abandoned cars and party houses, have dropped from 20 to seven.
Under Mayor Jerry Sanders' proposed budget, the cuts would continue next year. The city would eliminate its four-member graffiti-removal team, shifting responsibility to other governments and local residents. Just four code compliance officers would remain. The efforts that people say defined the best qualities of San Diego government two decades ago would become an even smaller part of the city's new identity. Problem-oriented policing would move closer to becoming a lingering memory of a bygone era. The result: A police officer in San Diego today places greater focus on responding faster to dangerous situations than on preventing underlying causes. "They're about to unravel several decades of really good work," said Jon Shane of John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. "I don't think anyone has ever really embraced it like San Diego has."
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