Community Policing Consortium Unites City Against Crime
Eric Ortner
North Buffalo Rocket / West Side Times
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VISTA workers, VIABLE volunteers, Community Police Officers, block club leaders, local dignitaries and religious leaders and members of various community based organizations all took part in a Community Policing Consortium which was held Friday and Saturday at Rich Products Corporation. Photo by Eric Ortner |
January 2000: A Community Policing Consortium took place at Rich Product Corporation's Renaissance Center on Friday the 14th and Saturday the 15th. The location seemed particularly fitting because on Tuesday, January 11 there was a terrible shooting just 6 blocks away on West Ferry, which left 3 people injured, one of them an innocent bystander.
The Policing Consortium was organized by Ken Sull of the International Marketplace, CPO Joe Luciano, Crime Prevention Specialist Cathleen Fawcett, Michele Graves, the Police Commissioner’s Community Liaison, Lawrence Rammuno Chief of Patrol, and Jim Lorego president of the International Marketplace. This particular event was part three of a series which will continue into the future.
Various community leaders from all over the city were invited to attend and learn a bit about successful community policing. The consortium was a federally funded program that was led by three consultants. One consultant, Michael Anderson, was a former police officer in New Jersey. The second adviser, James E. McIver, has worked as a higher education administrator for 28 years. Thomas Rhatigan, the training coordinator for the Community Policing Consortium for the National Sheriffs Association, was the third instructor for the consortium.
The three gentlemen were very informative about Community Policing. By text book definition, Community policing is a public and private sector organizational philosophy and management approach that facilitates community, government, and policing partnerships; collaborative problem solving; and community engagement to address the fear and causes of crime, and other quality of life issues.
Mayor Anthony Masiello and Council-member Nick Bonni-facio were on hand on Friday. The mayor said he was here to discuss the, “state of police relationships.” He continued, “I know, as your mayor, that we all have the same goal.” That is to reduce crime in the city. He further commended the participants of the consortium by saying, “We wouldn’t be doing as well without your involvement.” The Mayor also commented about actions City government has taken to reduce crime, such as 120 mobile computer terminals, along with digital mug shots. He also mentioned the Flex Squad and the gang suppression unit which have received a substantial amount of funding.
What became clear in the program on the second day was that there is a great need for vision in community policing. In order for a successful partnership between the police department and the community, there has to be a general consensus of what the desired goal is. An exercise was conducted which required small groups to illustrate what their vision of the city was. It came as no surprise that the various depictions all showed the same objectives in different ways. This common goal focused all the different aspects of the community: the people, the businesses, the religious institutions, and the government working as a cohesive unit to improve life.
Councilmember At-Large Charley Fisher, and Deputy Police Commissioner Pelletier spoke to the Consortium about their agendas. Pelletier admitted that the C.O.P.S. programs have failed in the past. She said, “We are willing to admit that we’ve made mistakes. But these are mistakes that we couldn’t afford not to make. Collectively as a community we have grown together.” The deputy commissioner believes that the past problems with the C.O.P.S. stations were all part of a learning process and the program will be more successful in the future due to the new knowledge.
Probably the most useful information that came out of the Community Policing Consortium was a problem solving method called SARA (Scanning, Analysis, Response and Assessment). This is a circular process which often requires the problem solver to go back to earlier stages of the process or jump ahead to later ones.
In the Scanning stage of the process a neighborhood has to identify the problem. A textbook example: residents in a neighborhood have been repeatedly setting fire to a dumpster. When the fire department comes to extinguish the fire, the residents throw rocks at the fire fighters.
The next and perhaps the most important stage of the process is Analysis. Analyzing the situation is what creates an understanding of the conditions that caused the crimes to occur. It is important to include all of the affected parties, such as the residents, property owners, local government, police department, and people who are responsible for the crime. In the dumpster example, Analysis determined that the conditions which caused the fire and rock throwing were that the owner of the dumpster was not emptying the trash. This created a bad smell and attracted rats. So in frustration the residents lashed out.
The Response stage of SARA is where the parties involved develop and implement solutions to the problems. In the dumpster example, the response to the problem was to have the owner of the dumpster empty it more often.
Assessment determines whether the response was an appropriate way to solve the problem. The example showed that had it been decided to eliminate the dumpster, trash would have accumulated, and other problems would have developed. The cycle of SARA would then have had to been reexamined to find a different Response to the difficulties.
The most important factor in the success of community policing is consensus building. This includes an agreement on what specific problems that affect the neighborhood should be addressed. It is also important to reach an agreement on ways to resolve issues at hand.Overall, those who attended the consortium could leave knowing that they were not alone in their struggles to improve Buffalo. Many members left believing that this same group of people should form a permanent affiliation with a purpose of improving the quality of life city wide.
