One of the standard roles of any law enforcement agency is that of public outreach. Crime prevention comes to mind as an industry standard – the lock your car, take your keys traveling show. Sadly, this still is not being presented enough and many agencies have not made the adjustment to contemporary challenges of society. This is not to criticize but to open up the eyes of those who woefully will not wake up to this changing world.
Crime Prevention Past
In times gone by, the crime prevention survey was the standard offering to a resident or business owner. The crime prevention officer stopped by and gave tips on sight distances, locks, lighting and rudimentary safety tips. Let’s start a neighborhood watch and get to know everyone drill. I know this – I was one of those officers. Today, we now need to consider a vulnerability assessment framework for this service. No, this is far from semantics and will require training for staff and rethinking your service delivery. These are far more time consuming and a break from the norm.
Today’s threat to our customers is more than the traditional burglar of days gone by. Telephone, internet and mail scams are prevalent, and many have a technology conduit. The identity thefts have taken far too many victims and ruined lives. One population segment that we must increase our outreaches towards in the vastly growing senior citizen population. As we begin to live longer, and this group expands, so will the criminal focus preying on them. Not saying they are weak or frail, but many do not have the social media or internet savvy required to repeal phishing attacks or electronic scammers. Again, many come from a generation where you looked a man or woman in the eye, gave them your word or bond and it was binding truth. They need to be instructed on rejecting claims of these charlatans preying on them. Again, more than locking doors but locking their social media presence and hardening their hearts to smooth talking scammers.
In the past we had the fire departments perform the fire safety inspections – here is your smoke detector and where is your portable fire extinguisher visit. Great job for them but our new outreaches need to become more ‘all hazards’ approaches to our citizens and business safety. No, I am not inferring we do fire prevention, but a friendly reminder is not out of line. Here, we need to inquire if they have evacuation plans from a natural or manmade event? Do you have reunification plans during a weather emergency? If you have to evacuate in less than thirty minutes have you planned this out? In certain parts of this country many citizens understand these concepts due to hurricanes or tornadic events. As your service population grows and changes, make note of the changes and adjust your presentation to fit their needs. Your preparing them now will lessen your time invested in tending to their needs while there are other pressing actions to be handled.
Active Shooter for Adults
Without saying, police response to an active shooter event is a daily conversation. The question here is how have the adults been trained, if at all? My prediction is our school children who are trained in this at school have more training than their parents, we will have kids leading the adults. This is a major problem that needs considerations within your department’s outreaches. There are several models for active shooter for citizens by several organizations, perform your research as to which one will be the best fit for your community.
This will not be a hard sell and will be popular if not a frequent presentation. This is our ‘new normal’ to prepare our citizens to be their own first responder. The literature reveals that most caught in an active shooter event will be on their own for several minutes until first responders arrive. Their actions to this may hold a direct correlation in their survival. I strongly recommend you add a training such as this to your repertoire.
See Something – Say Something Redo
Post 911 everyone was told to report anything that could be a tie to terrorism or crime. For those of us back then, we ran our tails off checking into these reports. However, in the passing years, this idea of calling in tips has dwindled away in most places. Post active shooter events there are resounding statements of somebody saw something and said nothing. In our presentations to our citizens we must remind them to trust us to protect them. They can call and hopefully prevent the victimization of their community. Although this goes without saying, we need to restore with them their importance in making a difference in handling the new normal.
William L. Harvey | Chief
William L. "Bill" Harvey is a U.S. Army Military Police Corps veteran. He has a BA in criminology from St. Leo University and is a graduate of the Southern Police Institute of the University of Louisville (103rd AOC). Harvey served for over 23 years with the Savannah (GA) Police Department in field operations, investigations and completed his career as the director of training. Served as the chief of police of the Lebanon City Police Dept (PA) for over seven years and then ten years as Chief of Police for the Ephrata Police Dept (PA). In retirement he continues to publish for professional periodicals and train.
