Issue-oriented policing: avoiding the cookie-cutter approach. (Police Practice).

A cookie cutter is a device used to maintain a consistent pattern of cookies cut from dough. A "cookie-cutter approach" describes any attempt at replicating or maintaining consistency of an effort or program. Unfortunately, many agencies too often apply the cookie-cutter mentality in attempts at furthering the cause, practices, and philosophies of community policing. A philosophy that emphasizes effective working partnerships, community policing was designed to reunite the police with the community. (1)

Topsham, Maine, is an emerging commercial center of approximately 10,000 residents along the middle coastal area of Maine. Several large retail businesses have opened stores in the community, which have brought more consumers, as well as residents, to the area. Although Topsham's population has grown substantially over the past two decades, the number of officers in the Topsham Police Department (TPD) has remained the same.

TPD implemented community policing in the mid-1990s. Begun as an effort to return to what often is considered old-fashioned policing, many agencies emphasize police working in collaboration with citizens of a community to devise strategies to combat crime and other issues that detract from the quality of life. TPD has worked with this mind-set since the mid-1990s using a strategy called Enhanced, Neighborhood Policing (ENP). ENP attempts to provide a certain level of autonomy for officers to promote a problem-solving atmosphere, which often is stifled in more traditionally structured law enforcement agencies.

A Traditional Approach

TPD has experienced varying degrees of success since initiating the ENP strategy. The first Topsham community to introduce this type of policing was the Woodside Neighbors. This group established themselves as an example for others to follow in such areas as retention, organization, civic responsibility, and interest to the ever-important problem-solving process and worked with law enforcement in a team effort. However, attempts at replicating this success in other Topsham neighborhoods have met with interest levels ranging from moderate to nonexistent.

The ENP practice was designed to have an officer assigned to a particular neighborhood within the community. This officer would serve as the contact person to the department, a facilitator for meetings, a conduit to other agencies and departments, and the overall resource agent to the neighborhood. One of the more unusual aspects of ENP included having officers spend the majority of their shifts within their assigned neighborhood working on their issues and leaving only to answer emergency calls elsewhere. According to ENP belief, random patrols rarely reduce crime or fear of crime in the community. As designed, ENP ultimately would reduce the volume of annoyance calls, thus leaving the officer available to work on more serious issues, such as property crimes or drug abuse. Because TPD routinely staffs just one or two officers during the evening hours and due to the existing dynamics of the town, freeing officers to maintain this pattern became prohibitive.

The lack of officer interest and participation presented another problem with community policing in Topsham. Without a reward or punitive system in place to use with officers who did well or those who refused to get involved at all, mostly due to contractual obligations, the administration felt hindered in fully instituting ENP.

Topsham remains one of the largest communities in Maine that still clings to the town meeting form of government. Their usual 5 percent voter turnout at the annual town meeting indicated the lack of civic interest TPD faced when encouraging citizen participation. Instead, they found a rise and fall in citizen interest with each neighborhood crisis. When a particular problem became public and occurred frequently, the turnout at neighborhood meetings grew tremendously and citizens overwhelmingly wanted to participate. Unfortunately, as soon as the problem was resolved, attendance declined. Further, a military installation near Topsham results in a high transient population, and, as a result, many residents fail to take hold of an ownership in the community.

Due to the combination of financial restraints and the tremendous growth of Topsham, both of which place a premium on TPD's services, the agency no longer could support or further its ENP efforts with the necessary resources. Also, with the lukewarm response from some neighborhoods, TPD could not justify the continued effort in those areas. Because TPD did not want to totally abandon the community policing philosophy or the ENP, they reevaluated where they were, what they needed to do, and what they had to offer.

Despite sustaining a low crime rate for a community this size, TPD became plagued by traditional annoyance complaints that occupy a great deal of time and effort, which only diminishes the quality of life for citizens. Therefore, with these complaints in mind, TPD revised their approach to community policing by applying the practices and philosophy to issues, rather than neighborhoods.

The Solution

TPD uses the interests and skills of their officers to address specific and identifiable problems that, ultimately, will benefit a larger number of residents throughout the entire community. As currently designed, TPD's chief of police and sergeant will maintain contact with the community policing advisory board and existing neighborhood groups and serve as coordinators and facilitators with participating officers, an initiative they titled initiative issue-oriented policing (IOP).

For an initiative to receive the police chiefs support within this program, an identifiable problem or issue must exist with a workable plan for resolving or addressing the problem. TPD places very few limitations on this effort, but emphasizes issues that will have the most impact on residents. For example, TPD consistently receives nuisance complaints involving all-terrain vehicles (ATV) and snowmobiles. To reign in the violators and reduce the number of complaints, one TPD officer, who is an avid rider, formed a snowmobile/ATV club to provide an atmosphere where the riders will govern themselves and work toward developing trails and programs for riders. Through education, training, and developing structured activities, TPD hopes that unsupervised and unstructured riders will find enjoyment in voluntary compliance with the law and safe-riding procedures.

Other traditional problems for TPD involve traffic violations and complaints. A TPD officer who has a passion for and a proficiency in traffic enforcement coordinates special details addressing high-complaint, high-volume, and high-risk traffic areas. Two other officers work on school-based and juvenile issues, such as TPD's police cadet program, while another officer serves as a media and public relations coordinator. Other officers will join these groups as they develop interests and experiences in problem areas and when they become comfortable with this approach.

Issue-oriented policing has several advantages. First, the problems addressed often are felt throughout the town, thus, problem resolution will benefit a greater number of residents, even those who had not participated in the previous ENP efforts. IOP also provides an avenue for officers to further their personal passions or to develop an interest in a specific field. TPD anticipates greater commitment by the officers because of a natural affiliation and ownership in the chosen project.

Conclusion

Because this new approach is still in its infancy, Topsham Police Department will have to wait to determine whether issue-oriented policing will have a lasting effect on the quality-of-life issues that the agency commonly faces and hopes to address. It has, however, produced a positive impact on participating officers that was sorely lacking with previous cookie-cutter community policing efforts. Enthusiasm by police officers is a by-product all administrators seek. Further, many residents have responded to and benefitted from this new strategy.

The Topsham Police Department has not abandoned community policing or minimized its standard response and investigative services. The department merely uses its existing resources in such a way to maximize its organizational options and strengths.

Endnotes

(1.) Kenneth J. Peak and Ronald W. Glensor, Community Policing and Problem Solving: Strategies and Practices, 2d ed. (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, Inc., 1999).

Lieutenant Edmondson serves in the Topsham, Maine, Police Department.