The New York City Police Department announced a new policing strategy yesterday aimed at keeping crime low while also improving the at-times strained relationship between officers and the communities they serve, the Associated Press reports. The program, “One City: Safe and Fair Everywhere,” is being launched after an 18-month department review by Police Commissioner William Bratton. He said the plan will give New Yorkers “a more intimate” relationship with police officers by fixing cops in particular neighborhoods, allowing them to get to know local residents. Some officers will now patrol the same beat day after day, building a rapport with residents who would soon become familiar faces.
Those officers will also be freed up from chasing 911 calls so they can instead build trust, something Bratton and Mayor Bill de Blasio believe will improve locals’ opinions of officers, which in turn could lead them to be cooperative with investigations. “(Residents) will see the same officer day in and day out, the same officer in the same beat and the same sector,” said de Blasio. “That’s going to create a deeper kind of trust.” The neighborhood policing approach sharply differs with the stop, question and frisk police tactic that for years had been used by officers, disproportionately affecting black and Hispanic men and building distrust of police in communities of color.