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 officers are watching. Businesses appreciate door pulls at night and in-person visits during the day. Be visible.

Get out of the car. Enjoy the benefits of foot patrol! (Or bicycle patrol in good weather. We have two bikes.)

Village maintenance

The officers working for the village are the only ones who regularly traverse every street and alley.  Which means they can help us out by regularly reporting 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.

Coordination with the Neighborhood Watch

We currently lack a neighborhood watch program but that doesn't mean we shouldn't start one. This program has been described as "organizing all the nosey neighbors" to function as an extra set eyes and ears for law enforcement. And thereby afford an extra layer of village safety.

I brought this up in the November 14 Safety Committee meeting and was opposed. Doesn't mean I won't try again.

This is a wonderful concept to discuss but difficult to organize. It would need to be volunteer-led, and anyone who's struggled to keep a volunteer organization going (church committees, scouts, boosters, civic events, service clubs) would understand the roadblocks. But if a few dedicated people can demonstrate effectiveness, fund-raising would be less of a problem.  I'm sure I could talk my fellow village council members into appropriating the relatively few dollars needed for supplies and the like. 

If you're interested in starting a Neighborhood Watch program, call or email me.