Assignment: New Police Chief's Community Policing Initiative

Here's What Happened . . .

The newly appointed police chief wants to reinvent policing in Centervale. Community policing has been discussed in the past, but the chief considers the previous efforts inadequate and wants to infuse energy and a new vision. At a recent public meeting, the new chief talked about a desire to move toward a new model of what she calls "Centervale Policing, a Community-Based Approach."

The city manager, mayor, and council are anxious to embrace something positive regarding public safety, and they have good reason:

• The former chief was accused of racial profiling and removed because the allegations of racial profiling were not addressed by the police department.

• The new chief has implemented training to address these issues and has been working to demonstrate that the department is doing a good job and is not racially profiling. However, the new chief realizes that trust is built over time, and she feels this new community approach will help build that trust.

• Further, the department recently came under scrutiny when some heavy-handed techniques of the department were widely publicized.

• Once again, most of this happened as the new chief was being selected and was just another negative issue for her to deal with as she took command of the department. As noted above, she has addressed this problem with training and new policies, but her concern again is that she needs to establish trust with the community.

You can assume that the chief's approach is a reasonable method to reduce the problems from occurring and that, at this point, the main concern is one of community perception based on the past incidents.

City management, the mayor, and the city council want a report the explains the purpose and benefit of the new policing plan and a brochure to distribute to the community that outlines the key components of the chief's new policing plan.

Since you have been working with the police chief on this initiative, she asks you to:

• Prepare a 2- to 3-page report to be distributed internally to department employees on "Centervale Policing, a Community-Based Approach."

• Develop a brochure on the same topic for the community. The minimum size for your brochure is an 8½ x 11-inch sheet folded in half. This will include a half sheet front, two half sheets inside, and a half sheet for the back. If you choose to go to a trifold brochure, you will have six, one-third sheet sections to fill. Therefore, your submission should be at least 2 pages on which you have two or three columns so that if it were printed, it could be folded into a brochure.

Here's What You Need to Do . . .

In the 2- to 3-page report, include the following two sections:

• Explain how the allegations against the former chief undermined the department's efforts to build a positive relationship with the community.

• Justify the reason the department is making the change to "Centervale Policing, Community-Based Approach," a new community-policing philosophy. (Remember, this report is selling this new plan to the department's employees.)

In a brochure, include the following information:

• Summarize the history of community policing and explain why it is an effective philosophy in modern policing.

• Identify the benefits of implementing community policing for this particular community, including how the department intends to use the problem-solving Scanning Analysis Response Assessment (SARA) model. Make sure you address the new plan with specifics of community history.

• Outline the initial steps for engaging the community and building trust between the community and the police department.