Contemporary Components
of Community Policing
By Michael F. Masterson
Good morning. Welcome, and thank you for choosing Boise as your Crime Prevention Conference site. Contemporary community policing involves three important components: reactive, coactive, and proactive. The reactive response is highly visible and evident to our public—the uniformed officer on patrol; the plainclothes detective conducting case follow-up investigation; and the community service specialist taking cold crime reports, recovering found bikes, and photographing and processing evidence. The coactive component is symbolized in Neighborhood Watch programs, educational partnerships with schools and community groups, or working with businesses to lessen workplace violence, vandalism, thefts, and robberies. A Crime Stoppers program is another example of a citizen-led board of directors working in unison with law enforcement to solve crime throughout the Treasure Valley area. The proactive components are limited in nature to conducting a home or business security survey, educating students on Internet dangers, or instructing young people on protective dating behaviors. Our traditional hi-touch outreach efforts now must be coupled with hi-tech measures as well.
One exciting example I have to share with you today is a collaborative project with a locally based (and one of our nation’s fastest growing) technology firms to transition Neighborhood Watch from telephone-tree notifications to geo-based interactive information sharing. Residents of specific neighborhoods will be able to click on a link for their neighborhood map to see where a crime has occurred with limited details or a message from the investigating officer or assigned detective asking for information to solve the crime. A second click on the crime incident location will provide an immediate e-mail response to the investigator or crime prevention specialist or allow the citizen to send an anonymous text message or tip to our crime solvers program.
I am equally proud of my department’s submission for an award based on our organized retail crime interdiction project that combines all three components (reactive, coactive, and proactive) of community policing. The Crime Prevention Unit supervisor, a civilian, has connected our large retail stores and business community by e-mail addresses where photos of individuals suspected of criminal behavior are shared with dozens of loss prevention agents and law enforcement officers. Additionally, business owners can directly contact interdiction team police staff via cell phone, and monthly meetings are held with loss prevention and law enforcement staff to share information and address problems. This endeavor has proven a powerful tool in thwarting organized retail theft groups from stealing large amounts of merchandise. Other jurisdictions, local and national, have requested training on the methods we use to make this program a success.
Finally, the workshops offered through your conference are timely and forward thinking in helping us create a preferred future for crime prevention. We need to equally balance our presence in virtual space with physical space. The people we serve are meeting more frequently in virtual space for everything from seeking a date, buying a coat, and paying their bills to applying for a checking or savings account. At the same time, crime prevention specialists must meet in person to forge relationships, exchange new ideas and best practices, and discuss ways we can become more effective in the two most underutilized but most promising components of our work: proactive and coactive policing.
Unfortunately, many police agencies today devote only a small amount of their resources to crime prevention education and partnerships. And, I am as guilty as most of my colleagues in understanding the importance and potential of crime prevention initiatives. But, you continue to give us our greatest rate of return on the small investment we make in your work.
Best wishes for a productive conference. Enjoy your stay in one of our country’s safest and most livable communities.
| Chief Masterson heads
the Boise, Idaho Police
Department. He delivered
this speech to graduates
of the Idaho Peace Officer Standards and Training Academy. |
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July 2009 | FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin
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