Police Partnering with the Public

Law enforcement isn't often thought of as a partnership, but to police departments which employ the community-oriented policing philosophy, connecting with people in the community is vital. "Everybody has to be on board to make it work," said Clayton County Police Deputy Chief Greg Porter, who was tapped by Chief Jeff Turner three weeks ago to head up the department's committee on community policing. Porter said the committee, comprising upper-level managers of the department, works with business owners, the faith-based community, the homeowners associations, schools and other citizens in the community to address crime by improving community relations, enforcing laws in a manner that maximizes officers' time and analyzing available data to identify problem areas and devise strategies to combat crime. Maj. Stoney Mathis, who is in charge of the community-oriented policing unit at the Henry County Police Department, said interaction with the community, particularly in high-crime areas, helps "reduce crime and the fear of crime." "Citizens have a mistrust or distrust of police departments," Mathis said. "We're trying to change that." Mathis said community policing efforts in Henry have yielded positive results over the past three years. "Residential burglaries in Henry were reduced 26 percent from last year during the same time period," said Mathis, who said community policing played a significant role in that decrease. Mathis said community policing efforts in Henry are instrumental in dealing with nuisance crime and quality-of-life issues. The department regularly hosts courses on topics like senior citizens' safety, apartment dweller safety and female self-defense, he said. "It's a two-way street," said Dr. Robert Friedmann, professor of criminal justice at Georgia State University. "Police enhance community resources to reduce crime, and the community uses those resources. The whole idea of community policing is partnerships." Friedmann said in order for a community-oriented policing philosophy to be most effective, police chiefs and police departments have to work together to develop and implement crime-reducing strategies. "It has to work like an oiled machine," he said. Turner emphasized his vision for community policing when he became chief in Clayton last month. At the time, he said awareness, education and the cooperation of the public would be vital to reducing crime. Part of that education includes helping residents learn the skills to help police. "You'd be surprised how many times we actually passed the bad guys on the way into the neighborhood because we didn't have information to recognize them," he said. One criticism of the community-oriented policing philosophy is that it causes police to spend more time talking to people in the community at the expense of patrolling. However, according Police Benevolent Association Executive Director Joe Stiles, partnerships between communities and police departments help make the most of officers' time so they can more effectively serve a given area. He said people taking an active role in their communities would reduce the number of police responses to minor issues, thus allowing police to do their jobs more effectively. "It's the broken window syndrome," Stiles said. "If a community accepts that a window is broken, it keeps going." One tactic Porter hopes to use in the near future to reduce crime and increase accountability is assigning beats to give officers "more ownership" of the areas they cover. "Officers will get to know who belongs in a particular area and who doesn't," Porter said. "It's the Mayberry concept." Regarding the analytical component of community policing in Clayton, Porter said the department has a team that assesses crime statistics to evaluate problem areas and how officers in those areas are using their time. This, he said, increases accountability within the department. "We're trying to assess problems for specific areas before they come about," he said. And "we're dissecting problems as opposed to letting them fester." Mathis said in Henry, increased cooperation between citizens and the police has led to more arrests. "The reaction from the community has been all positive - except, of course, by criminals," he said. Staff writer Daniel Silliman contributed to this article.