A community policing plan for the village

The job of village government is to make the town a better place to live, and the village marshal is part of that effort.

Night Shift

People like having cops on patrol while they're sleeping. The first two years I was on council, we budgeted for 200 hours of policing for a 168-hour week. But for one reason or another we never got close to 24/7 coverage. The sheriff suggested to us the idea of having two officers working staggered weekday shifts, 7am to 3 pm, and 7 pm to 3 am. Then we can fill in with part-timers on the weekend, budget permitting.

Safety routines

Patrol the school bus stops. Patrol the school zones at least enough for everyone to know the police are watching. Businesses appreciate door pulls at night and in-person visits during the day. Be visible.

Enjoy the benefits of foot patrol! (Or bicycle patrol in good weather. We have two bikes.) We learned from our discussions with the sheriff's office that many deputies are eager for a community-policing gig where they can get out of the car.

Report potholes, streetlight malfunctions, missing or obscured signs and other maintenance issues. Plenty for the second-shift officers to do.

Neighborliness

Good Neighbors make the town a better place to live, so crack down on the bad actors: noisemakers, footloose teenagers and aggressive, unrestrained dogs. There are remedies in the law for all of this, and usually it takes only an officer’s friendly knock at the door.