Research indicates that police can improve their effectiveness and legitimacy by partnering with others to solve problems. Here are some ideas for partners you may consider in your problem-solving efforts:
1. Place managers can help increase your ability to strengthen guardianship at a location: Place managers include apartment/high rise owners and property managers, supervisors, valets, door/front desk attendants, parking garage attendants, private security guards, school principles, church leaders, neighborhood block captains, and even non-person managers such as surveillance technologies. Ways to partner: Know who they are and where they are located; make contact and have regular meetings or follow-ups; ask them for input on how to deal with problems; keep them informed through an email or social media system.
2. Your local crime analyst. Many of the proactive strategies in this Playbook require information that can be generated by crime analysts. Learn what they do, how they can help, the types of information they collect, and their thoughts on how you might be more proactive. The CEBCP has free resources on using crime analysis for operations, command, and first-line supervision.
3. Social and community services. In the area you patrol, there may be social and community services that are available for high-risk families and youth that provide addiction services or reentry and employment resources. There may also be community groups who specialize in tackling retaliation after critical incidents. You can provide this information to citizens, but also consider making contact with these groups to help facilitate crime prevention/reduction strategies.
4. Probation and parole. Understanding who the high-risk individuals are may require accessing updated information on individuals through probation and parole offices. This will be particularly useful for strategies targeting burglaries, high-risk and violent offenders, and gun crimes.
5. State’s Attorney. Partnering with the state’s attorney is needed in a focused deterrence strategy targeting high-risk and violent offenders, but the partnership might also be useful for gang-related interventions focused on gun crimes.
6. Researchers. There are many researchers who are interested in partnering with local police agencies to develop strategies to prevent crime and improve citizen trust and confidence. A bank of nearby university-affiliated researchers who work on crime projects and evaluation can be found at the eConsortium, a free resource from the CEBCP that links university researchers with criminal justice practitioners.
In an effort to provide helpful suggestions in areas that have not yet been fully studied or evaluated, we have included ideas for responses and activities that may not yet be considered evidence-based or evidence-informed. Therefore, not all actions and strategies included within this App are evidence-based or evidence-informed.