Police Chief Prentice Sanders: Community Policing is a Good Reform

There has been a great deal of discussion in our City and around the country regarding police reform and the best methods to accomplish that reform.

Being a police officer is an awesome task when you take a close look at the vast responsibilities an officer is assigned by virtue of being a police officer. Policing in a democratic society is a constant challenge which must be met by the entire community.

Police officers are the most visible symbol and presence of government authority. Their daily interaction with the public reflects the community's level of trust for the government in general - and as individual citizens.

Police officers are on the streets every minute of every day. Therefore, every action an officer takes can be life altering and can have serious ramifications affecting the public generally and individuals specifically. These interactions also affect the individual officer and his/her police department as part of the government.

This is true of all police agencies, arguably more so than any other front line municipal employees. Thus, as chief of police, all actions by my officers are always an issue of concern as well as the perception of the citizens we serve.

For community policing to work, the police and the community must work together in a trust-based partnership with commonly agreed upon goals and objectives. This is the basic element of community policing.

For the most part, we are enjoying a high level of success in these areas in San Francisco. It is a work in progress with reachable goals in sight.

In my opinion, and in the opinion of most contemporary law enforcement executives and criminal justice scholars, community policing is arguably the most effective reform in American law enforcement in the last 50 years.

Community policing is a program which delivers police services that recognizes and responds to the varying characteristics and unique needs of diverse communities. This type of program fits the needs of San Francisco.

There are two complementary components to a community-policing program which I employed during my administration - community partnerships carefully matching officers and programs to the needs of the community, and the establishment of problem-solving teams with strong community input and department support.

Building the partnership comes first. The partnership is a way of getting to know the community being served, including getting acquainted on a personal level. It is important to meet the grass-roots leadership and unique people who live in the community.

Each station captain is assigned the task of involving his or her station personnel in every facet of community life and submitting a plan outlining possible techniques to build the needed partnerships.

Experience quickly pointed out that a police officer must know the community he or she serves in order to effectively fight crime and disorder problems at their very roots. Effective policing and realistic problem-solving depends upon knowing the territory and the people the police officer serves.

The residents of the community must be convinced to join the police officers in the planning and implementation of programs to not only prevent and fight crime, but also to solve quality-of-life issues in their neighborhood.

For example, a neighborhood street clean-up caused a significant drop in street drug sales. Untidy streets tend to draw street-level nuisance-type crimes, such as drug sales, prostitution, gang hangouts, etc. Each community officer is trained to acquire the assistance of other governmental agencies to help with non-criminal situations as well as seeking charitable organizations to join the team.

The establishment of community policing in San Francisco is a proud accomplishment during my administration as assistant chief and chief of police since 1996. I believe it is a reasonable expectation that more highly engaged and motivated police officers will endeavor to enhance the quality of police services to the communities they serve.

We have made great progress with community policing. Let's continue building the partnership. Your police department is dedicated to providing you with the very best service possible.

San Francisco Police Chief Prentice "Earl" Sanders is retiring Sept. 13.