Re: 911:: Community Policing

[Guest guest]

Hi Jen,

Our department is considerably smaller and we could use some revamping of our

codes as well...however, currently we use the following for the types of

calls you described:

Confused person = Mental Disorders

(This code covers a multitude of things but is always considered a 2 person

response because of the potential for there to be a problem, for them to be

combative, etc.)

Stanbys to receive personal property = Escort

(We always inform the party that a)this cannot be scheduled in advance and

b)is for 15 minutes max. If someone wants an officer to stand by for 3 hours

while they empty an entire house they have the option of hiring an officer

private duty.)

Class C Theft = Larceny

(We have a $100. limit...if under that and no suspects it is taken over the

phone...if over that an officer responds if the caller is at the location

where the theft occurred...if not they come to HQ)

Foudn Property = Found Property! :`)

(We usually ask them to bring to HQ, if they can't we will go to them only if

it is property that can possibly be returned to owner, is a weapon of some

type, etc.)

We have no officers assigned to HQ, if there is a walk in an officer is

called in but some calls (like stolen plates w/no suspect) we (dispatch) take

the info, enter it in the system then an officer writes the report whenever

one happens to be at HQ.

Hope this was what you were looking for!

Coleen

[Guest guest]

At the Kansas City Police Department we have 5 different priorities for

calls....

Priority 1, quickest response, usually lights & sirens (injuries-ambulance

enroute,weapons involved,shootings,cuttings,etc)

Priority 2, (disturbances,prowlers,domestic violence assaut,etc)

Priority 3, (911 hang ups,etc)

Priority 4 (Suspicious Party, Veh or Activity, Non-Injury Accident, etc)

Priority 5, these calls have up to a 4 hour delay on response time (assaults

that occurred on another date, property damage (no susp still in area),

stolen autos, recovered stolen autos, illegally parked vehs, etc

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 8/24/2000 2:55:21 PM Eastern Daylight Time,

Jenlmat@... writes:

<< I need some advice on community policing. >>

Can you be a little more specific about what you mean by Community Policing.

It doesnt sound like we are talking about the same thing.

Toni Wyman, (CTO)...Gwinnett County Police, GA (just N of HotLanta)

770 Hi Hope Rd, Lawrenceville, GA 30046

(These are only my opinions, not my agency's, after all they are the

government and they have opinions of their own)

For liability reasons my posts and opinions are to be reprinted with my

permission only. ALSO any solicitation of business with my agency should

come through me if you have my name from this list. NO outside solicitors

may contact anyone other than myself.

Email to: E911GAL136@...

[Guest guest]

I guess I didn't explain myself very well......I understand what community

policing

is.....we're revamping to see what sort of calls we can get rid of that get

officer

response so that the beat officers will not be tied up on b.s. calls....and

can take

care of business in their beats. I'm interested in how other depts handle

these

calls. Thanks to all for your responses!

[Guest guest]

Community policing, is when the officer patrols the same area day in and day

out to get to know the citizens and the area better. Usually as part of

community policing he or she also lives in the patrol district assigned to,

with banks giving a loan reduction to live there. It is felt if the officer

lives in the area crime will go down as he or she knows the people better

and there is always a presence.

[Guest guest]

We have civilian desk officers and public service aides who take a lot of

paperwork-intensive calls. They can take things with no suspects

(missing/runaway juveniles, lost wallet or cell phone, stolen bicycles, house

and car burglaries, etc). The public service aides are mobile and can go meet

the complainant. They are also certified to do parking enforcement. The desk

officers handle a lot of the walk-in traffic at the precincts. If they find in

the course of their investigation that there is a suspect or something else that

goes beyond the scope of their duty, they call for a deputy to respond. It works

rather nicely for everyone concerned.

One of the things they are talking about doing to save work for the road

personnel is to put a deputy in the comm center, to handle legal advice calls

and take reports that have a suspect but really don't require a deputy response.

This would be a great thing but I can't think of anyone (not even me) who would

want to do this job on a permanent basis. (It makes me wonder if that is what

they have in mind for me though!)

Michele Hriciso

Brevard County Sheriff's Office, FL

Homepage: www.thecluster.com

E-mail: E911Tigger@...

ICQ #28949458

AOL or MSN IM - E911Tigger

Re: 911:: Community Policing

I guess I didn't explain myself very well......I understand what community

policing

is.....we're revamping to see what sort of calls we can get rid of that get

officer

response so that the beat officers will not be tied up on b.s. calls....and

can take

care of business in their beats. I'm interested in how other depts handle

these

calls. Thanks to all for your responses!

[Guest guest]

Community policing up here. Well, they got rid of all the major crime

units. Beat officers handle and investigate every crime in their district

including murder. Even if they have no specialized training. The senior

homicide detectives were let go in a cost saving measure. Needless to say

the solve rate has decreased to about 40 percent.

[Guest guest]

Lots of reasons we can't rotate deputies through comm center, here are some of

them:

1) The biggie that we always bring up is, once we get a deputy trained in how to

use the CAD/phones, that deputy goes back to his/her precinct. Doesn't help us

much to always be training someone who is going to leave - heck, we have a hard

enough time training the ones we hope will stay.

2) The deputies whine so much about being in the comm center because they think

that it is beneath them. The problem really is that once they sit in there for a

few minutes, they realize that they can't do what we do and still keep their

sanity. It also takes all the fun out of their favorite hobby - dispatcher

bashing. Quite frankly most of the deputies are not worth their presence unless

they are on light duty and worked in the comm center prior to becoming a deputy.

I don't mean to sound like I am slamming the deputies but realistically they are

good at their jobs and that's what they should be doing.

3) The road deputies would argue that if they have to do it, then the sworn

deputies in court services should have to do it too. That opens a can of worms

we'd just as soon keep closed.

4) It's too expensive to keep them in comm center when they don't have to be in

there.

5) The county is over 70 miles long. Comm center is in the extreme north end of

the county because that's where the county seat is. There are guys that work

down south that see the north precinct maybe once a year if they are lucky; if

they don't have to come up they don't. There will be more than one whiner that

will holler about having to drive 50+ miles to north precinct in his

county-fueled, county-owned take-home car once a year to work in comm center.

6) As short as we are on dispatchers, we don't have enough road patrol deputies

either. There's no way any sergeant is going to give up a body to sit in comm

center unless said body is already on light duty.

Annette, I think the rotation idea would work great in a department that is not

so geographically large and doesn't have as severe of a staffing shortage as we

do. FDLE recommends 2 officers for every 1,000 people and I think we have 1.2

per 1,000 at the moment. We have a community policing unit that is just supposed

to do community policing functions but they are going out and working regular

patrol shifts once a week, as are the detectives. We have it bad in comm center

but they really have it bad out there. I wouldn't dream of depriving anyone of

their backup to make a deputy sit in comm center. It's great in theory but

unfortunately it won't work here, not now anyway.

I already know the ropes and I don't dislike dispatching ... I want the better

pay and promotional opportunities that come with the badge. The department

powers are well aware of this (to my dismay). I think they may keep me in comm

center because it would make sense to give me what I want (reserve deputy

status) but keep me where I already have expertise (comm center). <heavy sigh>

Michele Hriciso

Brevard County Sheriff's Office, FL

Homepage: www.thecluster.com

E-mail: E911Tigger@...

ICQ #28949458

AOL or MSN IM - E911Tigger

----- Original Message -----

From: Annette Hallmark

Why can't it be a " district " ? It should not be a permanent assignment. I'm

sure officers would like SOME time to be out of the rain/snow/sleet/sun.

I like this idea. The officers become more familiar with what the

dispatchers do and the dispatcher learn from the officers. Mainly because

of the off-mike comments we make that would require some sort of retort from

that officer as to why the officer acted that way. :-)

annette hallmark

-----Original Message-----

One of the things they are talking about doing to save work for the road

personnel is to put a deputy in the comm center, to handle legal advice

calls and take reports that have a suspect but really don't require a deputy

response. This would be a great thing but I can't think of anyone (not even

me) who would want to do this job on a permanent basis. (It makes me wonder

if that is what they have in mind for me though!)

Michele Hriciso

[Guest guest]

, GOOD LUCK!!!! Go get 'em

Lyn

magik@...

----- Original Message -----

To: <911consoleegroups>

Sent: Tuesday, August 29, 2000 7:45 PM

[Guest guest]

Michele,

The reason why I ask is that at PD, when I worked there years ago,

the desk officer position was a " district " . They worked desk to greet

people and take reports. Eventually, they started hiring civilian intake

people to fill this position and the only time an officer fills the desk

spot is if they are short intake people. They are very short on officers

(have been for quite some time) A point of discontent with many of the

officers.

At my part time agency, they combined a jailer/intake/calltaker position.

These people work their butts of between the lobby, dispatch and the jail.

Since they move around so much, they also take the computer returns and

messages around the PD.

I understand completely about your department's set up. While the idea

might be nice, it's not really practical.

We had kicked around a desk officer position idea. Hasn't gotten really

far, especially since we have a pregnant officer doing the warrants, taking

reports and helping in dispatch.

annette

[Guest guest]

----- Original Message -----

From: Annette Hallmark

<snip>

At my part time agency, they combined a jailer/intake/calltaker position.

These people work their butts of between the lobby, dispatch and the jail.

Since they move around so much, they also take the computer returns and

messages around the PD.<snip>

We couldn't even do something like this because our booking area is at the

jail, which is a good 15 miles from the comm center.

<snip>

We had kicked around a desk officer position idea. Hasn't gotten really

far, especially since we have a pregnant officer doing the warrants, taking

reports and helping in dispatch.

<snip>

Even our warrants department is separate from comm center. They have discussed

combining warrants and comm center. Guess who works in warrants? Overwhelmingly

staffed with comm center rejects. So they said the people who couldn't do

phones/radio would be in a " teletype technician " status for lower pay.

Hmm ... this is starting to sound a little like the way it was when I started

there. You did teletype and phones, then got radio duties added on later. If you

couldn't hack radio, you went back to doing teletype and phones.

Sounds like it wouldn't be a problem but it was! Not only did you have to hang

on to people who couldn't cut it, the people who were radio trained worked

nothing but radio because there were never enough radio people. That gets old

when you have other options. Now everyone is completely cross-trained and it

works out much better for everyone concerned.

I wish my department wasn't so geographically and monetarily challenged. There

have been some great ideas from people on this list that would work if the money

was there and the distance could somehow be made irrelevant.

Michele Hriciso

Brevard County Sheriff's Office, FL

Homepage: www.thecluster.com

E-mail: E911Tigger@...

ICQ #28949458

AOL or MSN IM - E911Tigger