How Does Community Policing Work?

Police Department's Role

Community policing shifts the role of the beat officer and his first level supervisor from the incident driven law enforcer, to problem solver and facilitator. Enforcement tactics are not eliminated, rather the tools available to officers are greatly expanded.

A focus of Community Policing is problem solving. The police department still responds to emergencies. However, many of the calls to the police department are not law enforcement related. This type of call is better handled by other agencies. As the number of these non-emergency calls decrease:

  • Officers are able to spend more time working with citizens to solve crime and disorder problems.
  • With better offer-citizen communication, officers can more effectively use and share crime information with the community.
  • Officers who know both a community's problems and its residents can link people with other public and private agencies that can help solve community concerns.
  • No single agency can solve complex social problems alone. A combined community and police department effort restore the safety of our neighborhoods and business districts.

Community Based Police Programs

Here is a listing of our community based volunteer programs that we offer to our residents. If you are intertested in learning more about how Police Service works, what we do, how you can get involved, how you can volunteer your time, encourage youth to make a difference, or to fight crime, we have something for you, Click on the logo for more information about your program of interest!



Citizens Police Academy allows local residents a course on learning more about local law enforcement


CVOs are volunters who are utilized in traffic protection, traffic related services and local events


Crime Stoppers involving citizens in solving felony crimes, involving rewards for fugitive apprehensions anonymously. Call 288-STOP
The Explorer program provides an opportunity for young men and women bewteen the agers of 14 to 20 to experience first-hand how a police department functions.


The SBPD Police Athletic League has officers teaching local youth positive interaction through athletics.
VIPs

 VIPS volunteers are actively involved in assistance for traffic directions at natural and man-made disasters, large public gatherings, amongst other services.