Murder, Chicago And Other Cities. The Limits Of Technology. Bread And Butter Police Work

        There was an article regarding possible new reliance in Chicago on implementing certain technology in high crime areas to reduce murder, shootings and other violent crime. The article cited other cities that used the technology, finding it expensive and not effective.

        There is no substitute for basic police work that seems straightforward to implement, but in fact is not if there are certain barriers in the way. Here is a basic guide to what are those barriers, and what can be done to have a truly effective police department. (Murder and violent crime are affected by what what police departments do or do not do, but have much to do with other variables, including family, culture, and so forth).

         First, technology and gadgets are not substitutes for police work. They can be aids, but are nothing more.

          Second, the bread and butter of real quality police work are officers on the ground on patrol. There cannot be undue reliance on police officers driving around in cars, because although this is necessary, it is incomplete. Police officers driving around in cars never truly become part of the community, nor can they engage with the community to the degree that an officer on foot can. To effectively patrol high crime, at risk communities, it is necessary to have officers on patrol in vehicles, along with officers that patrol on foot. Officers on bicycles can also be useful, depending on weather and other factors.

           Regarding officers patrolling on foot....This is the essence of true community policing. Not the convoluted academia produced paper ridden nonsense now called community policing. This means officers are assigned to the same neighborhood or beat, day in and day out. It is their responsibility to learn their beat like the back of their hand, and actively patrol it. In this way, they become part of the community. An officer riding around in a squad car, responding to one radio call after another, can never achieve the high level of community interaction and concentrated patrolling as can an officer on foot. The walking beat cop becomes an effective deterrent, an integral part of a community that is not seen as an outsider, a positive role model for children and youth, and a rich resource for knowing who are the criminals and what they are up to. Average people are more willing to provide useful information to a cop they know and trust, and that they see almost every day.

       Third, to have an effective patrol force of officers on the ground, there has to be a streamlining of the police department. It cannot be laden with layer upon layer of administrators, paper pushers, do nothing supervisors and clout privileged people that consider themselves exempt from real work, supervisors supervising supervisors ad nauseam, unnecessary bureaus, units, divisions, that are smoke and mirror diversions and unnecessarily wasteful. 

        There is no substitute for on the ground police patrol, no matter how much a police department  or those that profit from convoluted nonsense pretend otherwise. Patrol, the bread and butter of police work, needs officers on the ground, and their supervisors on the ground with them.

         When a police department is streamlined, and the unnecessary nonsense and waste is removed, there is more than enough manpower for effective patrol. 

          Officers assigned to neighborhood beats must be motivated. They cannot use this as an opportunity to hide. Having a supervisory force on the ground, as opposed to hiding themselves and doing little to nothing, will set the right example. 

           No police department should have meritorious hiring that is nothing more than a masquerade (no matter how this might be presented otherwise on paper), for clout, cronyism, and political favoritism. If a police department cannot professionalize itself by ridding itself of clout and cronyism,  then that is an appropriate time for the federal government to take over the promotional process. 

            Clout and cronyism, with few exceptions, ensures mediocre leadership at best, and more often ensures incompetent, lazy, abusive, emotionally unstable leadership. 

             A professional police department does not rely on a numbers game, which is discussed in other blogs.

             Patrol, the bread and butter of police work, means cop in vehicles responding to calls and patrolling by vehicle, cops on the ground patrolling on foot the same beat day in and day out, and at times other cops on bicycles. It is not brain surgery to figure this one out. But it is hard to implement when police departments are ridden with unprofessionalism, waste, cronyism, inappropriate promotional practices, and smoke and mirror games.