In essence that was
the message delivered by John Crew of the American Civil Liberties Union and Booker Neal from the Community Relations Service, a cosponsor, to a surprisingly large audience that made their way through the deluge that flooded
the roads leading to the Community Policing Symposium in Hayward last month. The Symposium was designed to give a community perspective on community policing and provide people working in communities with the information they
need to advocate for community policing and partner with police departments that are attempting to institute it.
Justine Lovig from the National Consortium on Community Policing, Jane White from the National Center on
Community Policing, Police Chief Samuels from Oakland and Chief Calhoun from Hayward concurred that community policing does not work unless the community and the police department view themselves as being full partners in trying to
maintain peaceful relations among the people living, working or spending leisure time in the jurisdiction. Overcoming mistrust between the community and law enforcement is not an easy task according to Eli Reyna who works
with law enforcement on behalf of the Orange County Human Relations Commission. It takes a number of meetings and opportunities for interaction before trust is built, but once communities and law enforcement build that trust
it leads to an effective working relationship where each plays a critical role in meeting the mission of community policing.
Ilene Gusfield from Conciliation Forums in Oakland described her organization's work with the Oakland
Police Department as one of three model projects complementing community policing programs in Berkeley and San Francisco. Police identifying issues that are amenable to mediation refer the disputes to locally based dispute
resolution programs.
Speakers emphasized that police officers who view their job as primarily responding to calls for assistance and "catching the bad guys" are part of an out-dated system that is rapidly changing.
Those involved in community policing view their job as primarily identifying local conditions and issues that lead to criminality and taking steps to remedy them. Responding to a criminal act is still part of the job but it
is like a doctor putting a band-aid on an infectious sore. It has to be done, but the real work is to find the source of infection and take action to cure it. It is the expanded view of the work that separates the
philosophy of a police department committed to community policing from one that is not.
Changing the philosophy of policing has significant impact on the structure of policing itself. Chiefs Calhoun and Samuels both
stressed that adopting a community policing philosophy requires a change in the way budgeted funds, staff, and decision making are distributed within the department. Staff need to be freed up to devote time to identifying and
responding to community issues, the hierarchical top-down system of decision making has to give way to decentralized administration to allow decision-making at the local level.
Fred Latham, Director of Police Services and
Assistant City Manager for the City of Santa Fe Springs, sees Community Policing as a step toward the eventual of integration of law enforcement into the spectrum of human services provided by local government since all levels of
city and county government should be accountable for eliminating conditions that may lead to threats to the safety of the public. The City of Santa Fe Springs houses the police department within a Public Safety Building where
a staff psychologist, social worker, youth and adult parole officer, probation officer, and a cadre of civilian public safety workers are available to be dispatched to a call depending on the need. But the primary work of the
integrated department is to operate a system of early identification of issues, conditions or individuals that are at risk of leading to disruptive behaviors.
The City forged partnerships with schools, businesses, churches
and community organizations to help identify precursors of trouble including everything from deteriorating environments to people who are beginning to act out in a negative way. People working within those institutions are
given forms to fill out to identify a potential problem and send to the Department of Public Safety. Once the referrals are received they are sent to the appropriate city staff to address. If the referral is to an
individual he/she, and the family when appropriate, will be asked to attend a meeting with appropriate staff so that an effort can be made to find out what is going on and whether the City can help address potential problems.
The City solicited job openings, created a loan fund, and has other resources available to help people cope with issues that might lead to someone being referred to Public Safety. Its other resources can be used to address
environmental issues. Santa Fe Springs feels it has been successful in providing an attractive environment, free from the level of criminal activity that plagues communities that surround it.
