By DAVID TELLER
Staff Reporter
Police work has changed.
With all of the advances in technology and communications, police officers know exactly what's going on, but only if it gets reported.
Beginning the first of the year, Lt. Dave Mather of the Cheney Police Department is heading up a community policing program where the department will begin taking a proactive approach to connecting with Cheney residents and establishing a personal line of communication.
“We're only as effective as the trust that the community has in the department and with the level of communication,” Mather said.
He said the department has done a good job building trust with the community, but have not done a very good job reaching out to build communication levels and finding out what is going on in the neighborhoods. “There are some things that really irritate people that are going on,” Mather said.
He plans to divide up the city into seven sections and assign an officer to each section. The sections are divided geographically, but Mather attempted to combine a variety of neighborhoods.
Each of the zones has residences the CPD are aware of and each has an even amount of issues already in place. The work is evenly spread out based on what the department has seen in the past.
Division is tentative and subject to change as need arises.
“It's just a guess at this point,” Mather said.
In each section, officers will take time off of their proactive patrol to get to know their assigned neighborhood and connect and interface with the community where they explain the program.
By getting to know police officers, people that see or know things that happen but choose not to do anything about will be more inclined to report suspicious activity.
The officer will better know what is going on in neighborhoods.
Mather added the department wants to be responsive to the needs of the community.
He said he wants the perception of when people call, the Cheney Police Department will solve the problem. “When they call us were going to do something,” Mather said with intent.
Sgt. Lisa Rosier (Ret.), school/public safety liaison to the Cheney Police Department said the idea started from some new ideas applied to old procedures.
It's a way of reverting back to the old practice of police walking beats.
She said when police were put into cars they lost that contact.
“Community policing is about partnerships between the police and community and public safety is more effective when the police and the community get together to develop strategies to solve concerns and issues within their program or neighborhood,” Rosier said.
She added the program teaches the community on what they can do so they can become a partner to police.
Mather said the first step in implementing the program is to sit down with the officers and discuss immediate expectations. He said he wants them to identify what are the major things in their area, and compile list of what is known.
Next the department will reach out to business owners, apartment managers and to the neighbors and put together a neighborhood meeting.
Mather said maybe it's as simple as greeting someone raking leaves.
The program differs from neighborhood watch where the community watches itself. This one involves police, who partner with community and provide contact in the neighborhood.
The focus is law enforcement but it is also a quality of life issue by bringing other things to the table like barking dogs, litter and unkempt houses.
Approaching property owners or rental companies and getting them involved makes the community presence viable to renters. “A unified community is a very powerful voice,” Rosier said.
Funding the program will not affect overtime demand.
The department is not changing hours. Mather said the department is using available resources in a different way.
“The pay back in the end of this is going to be that (the residents are) going to become eyes and ears for us as well.”
David Teller can be reached at [email protected]
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