Community Cops Sheriff’S Department’S Community Policing Program Brings Crime Prevention To A Neighborhood Level

Cops should help people.

People should trust cops.

It sounds simple, but the Spokane County Sheriff’s Department knows that doesn’t always happen in the Spokane Valley.

So like other departments nationwide, including the Spokane Police Department and the King County Police, the Sheriff’s Department is adopting the community policing philosophy.

By having a community policing effort, officials believe they’ll be able to fight all types of crimes in neighborhoods by identifying the problems and tracking complaints about suspects.

“The focus isn’t just crushing crime. It’s prevention,” Undersheriff John Goldman said. “It certainly doesn’t mean we’re abandoning traditional law enforcement. We see this as an enhancement.”

In the past, residents have called Crime Check or 911 about vandalism, rowdy neighborhood youths or suspicious activity.

But instead of getting a response, Goldman said the residents get frustrated.

They’re told to make a report. They’re told to call the next time it happens. They may never know what comes of their report, even when an arrest is made.

That’s a system that doesn’t invite the public to share information and the Sheriff’s Department knows it.

Officials think their new philosophy help.

People can call or visit a neighborhood substation, where crime prevention programs will be offered and volunteers will take reports and answer questions.

So far, three Spokane Valley communities are the guinea pigs in the Sheriff’s Department plan to renew trust and cooperation between officers and citizens.

The Sheriff’s Department will open a substation in a duplex at 15th and University. That site, which should open later this year, will serve as a resource center for other neighborhoods wanting to organize and open a substation.

Residents of Otis Orchards and Trentwood also are trying to open substations.

A volunteer coordinator and patrol officer will train people who want to volunteer at the substations.

Deputies and detectives who cover the substation areas will be encouraged to do paperwork and interviews there. That way, they’ll develop a rapport with volunteers and citizens who come in, Goldman said.

Volunteers will have to undergo criminal background checks.

Goldman said crime prevention programs, such as Block Watch, will be moved into the substation at 15th and University.

The goal is for neighborhood troublemakers and problems to be identified so they can be stopped all together, rather than just fighting individual calls in an area as if they’re unrelated.

“It is impossible for law enforcement to respond to every incident and impact crime,”said Kelsey Gray, a consultant to the Sheriff’s Department.

Gray is a Washington State University organizational development specialist.

She was hired more than two years ago as the Sheriff’s Department underwent changes, such as embracing the community policing idea.

Since then, the entire Sheriff’s Department, including the jail staff, has been trained in community policing.

Community policing isn’t a new idea in law enforcement.

It’s a return to the patrol beats of the 1950s and 1960s when officers knew the people they served.

The King County Police has eight neighborhood “storefronts,” which serve diverse communities, from a low-income area with public housing to a posh, suburban neighborhood where homes begin at $200,000.

King County officer Rick Chubb said the program works because neighborhood officers are assigned to each area and don’t respond to individual calls of crime.

Instead, they work with neighborhood volunteers and residents solely to determine what the problems are and how to attack them.

But he says community policing can work anywhere, as long as the department is flexible and supportive of the effort.

“What King County does might not work there,” he said.

Residents in the city’s West Central neighborhood began Spokane’s first substation after two neighborhood girls were abducted.

Since then, Spokane police have assigned five neighborhood resource officers to the city substations.

Recent problems with three of the five officers have led some to argue that these officers need to be carefully chosen and then given enough supervision.

“Certainly, selection for these roles is critical,” Goldman said.

The Sheriff’s Department wants to maintain an environment in which citizens feel comfortable coming forward with their concerns and ideas.

“We’re not going to dictate to people how things should be,” he said.