Communication and Connecting the Dots
Last month, I introduced the “crime control model” as the means in which the Perris Station delivers law enforcement services to the communities it serves. Now, I would like to share with you a little more from behind the scenes. Why do we think that this model of policing is a better delivery of service over the prior methods used by most policing agencies across the United States? Key to this model is communication.
Over the years, I have watched how law enforcement departments deploy their resources. For the most part, we have simply assigned an officer to an area for a given shift then moved him/her to another area the next shift depending on the needs for coverage on any given day. Moreover, we have often overlooked the need to share information in an organized and effective manner.
Oftentimes, officers working different days of the week or shifts within a day have dealt with on-going problems within a specific beat, yet knew nothing of what the other was doing. More surprising was the lack of accountability or responsibility to “solve problems” in order to prevent future crimes from occurring.
For the most part, officers would begin their shift in an assigned area with little knowledge of crime trends; whether they patrolled their beat with purpose or happenstance depended on the individual officer’s self-motivation. More likely than not, the officer waited for a call for service to come to him/her, which is clearly a reactionary mode of operation. Following the call, there was little in place to ensure that information learned from the call would be shared across shifts or with other officers assigned to the area as well. In short, and by no fault of the officers, opportunities for “connecting the dots” were lost.
At the Perris Station, we recognized our own deficiency in the area of communication and developed an intricate means to ensure that information is shared across shifts, areas of responsibility, and at all levels of the Perris Station. Today, we have assigned officers to serve as coordinators for each “zone” or beat area. These officers are given great latitude to work when and where problems are occurring most often in their given zone. Additionally, these officers work and communicate closely with the shift officers, who are assigned to patrol the zones 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Primary communication occurs through a detailed pass-on system, which allows any officer assigned to work in a specific zone to review and provide information (i.e., crime trends) about the zone.
Every two weeks, the station crime analyst creates a report on crime trends. The zone coordinator officers, in conjunction with the crime analyst, will conduct an analysis of the crime trends and develop a response to the identified problems. The purpose of the response is to reduce or prevent the opportunity for further crime from occurring. Certainly, this is easier said than done; however, the intent is to develop conversation amongst the officers on patrol, the zone coordinators, shift supervisors, and station management. If we are forced to know what the crime trends are, to review them, talk about them, and share information with each other, we are bound to develop the means to reduce and prevent them from reoccurring.
As I have shared before, crime is normal in our communities. Crime will rise and fall from time to time; however, staff at the Perris Station is responsible for knowing why it has gone up or down. We are interested in knowing the strategies and tactics that work to drive crime down versus those that do not. In the end, this model, by its mere design, encourages responsibility and accountability for each officer to be effective.
James P. McElvain
Chief of Police