Historical signed letter, March 1982. The writer’s assessments and opinions are preserved and attributed.
After the unsuccessful Team Policing plan, a misguided five-year experiment in the 7th District, we are urging a renewed crime fight in all of the districts, aimed at truly joint efforts between police and citizens. What is needed is Neighborhood Police units in high crime residential areas, as requested some eight years ago at the former Women’s Crusade Against Crime.
As founder and co-chairman of that group for seven volunteer years, I researched with members of the Crusade Police cornmittee, the concept of Neighborhood Policing.
We then requested the “formation of several Neighborhood Police Units, special teams of police officers, who can familiarize themselves with the residents, the streets, stores, and crimes in certain neighborhoods, and devise a joint method of attacking the problems in conjunction with the citizens living there.” We further noted “that in many of the neighborhoods citizens are completely frustrated by the crime next door, across the street—and their only resource—is a police officer who may be a different one each time, unfamiliar with the people and their problems, or he may be a part of a spotty foot patrol system assigned on an occasional basis, and may not even know the names of the streets.” At that time we Crusaders offered to play a very active role in reporting crimes, supporting the police by seeking improvements in the criminal justice process, in the courts, in the pressing for more issuance of warrants, in seeking more witness cooperation, and speedier trials. Unfortunately, there were those who took the idea and designed a highly complex Team Police, which set one police district apart from the other eight districts with resulting frictions. Five years was too long for such an experiment, for even if it had proven successful in the Seventh District, it was not needed in all other districts, due to the diversity of peoples; problems and needs.
We were led to believe that there would be a lifting of police morale by specialized training in detective work, fingerprinting, photography, to make the officers “jacks of all trades,” and a ten-hour, four-day work week, giving Team officers much freedom to come and go.
But this made it impossible for victims to reach officers to discuss their cases. How could top commanders run an efficient overall police operation when one district had an independent five-year plan?
And carried to the other districts, would this not have decentralized the Department, which must function as a quasi-military organization to protect us in an organized manner?
Now let us return to the Neighborhood patrol concept, and place the same officers on the streets to know the residents.
We suggest that one shift be ordered to overlap the previous shift with time for briefing on continuing problems, so officers can get the lay of the land. Is this not a logical approach in any game plan in a battle against one’s opponents, in this case, the criminals? Neighborhood Watch or Block Watch programs will be of little use if officers, not briefed on the area and its suspects, respond to the calls. Efforts should be made to improve communications between the arresting officers and the detectives, and contact then made with the victims.
If police morale is low, what of the morale of the victims, who many times hear nothing after reporting a crime?
As victims of crime, we request officers whom we can get to know, and with whom we can work closely so as to make more progress in removing these criminals. Thus we may lift the morale of not only the police, but the victims, and in turn the community! Delphine McClellan Partners Against Crime Together
Originally published in The Paper, March 1982.
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Original source: SD_Times1982_03.pdf, printed page(s) 2; PDF page(s) 2.
