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Tag: policing green

  • Foot Patrol: The Colonel Speaks

    Continuing my conversation with Colonel (Ret.) Margaret Patton of the Baltimore Police department, I recently received this email:

    I read your added chapter[the new chapter in the paperback edition of Cop in the Hood].You should be a police chief. The term “Policing Green” is very catchy and, more important, very smart.

    Foot patrol is a key to addressing crime and working with the community in a positive manner. The idea of using a monetary carrot for the officer and linking it with the reduction of the use of gasoline was brilliant.

    My husband, before he made sergeant, was a foot officer in south Baltimore before it was a trendy place to be but he loved his foot post. Cross Street Market was on his post and he still remained friends with many of the people he met during that time. I remember meeting the “Chicken Man” who sold chickens (of course) at the market soon after we married. Several of his friends from his foot post came to his funeral as well as his fellow foot officers from “way back when”.

    My husband always said that he was sorry that he ever took the sergeant’s test because he enjoyed his foot post so much. He said that a foot post was one of the department’s secret gems (“gems” may be my word but you understand).

    We speak, but who listens?

  • Two Legs Good; Four wheels Bad

    As a cost saving move, more foot patrol in Boston. Reported in the Boston Globe.

  • Foot Patrol

    Kind of like my idea, Policing Green. Officers turn to foot because of rising gas prices. Here’s the story from the New York Times. Thanks to Charlene, a former student of mine, for sending me the article.

  • Is foot patrol right for you?

    Foot patrol may not be right for everyone. How do you know if foot patrol is right for you and your neighborhood? Ask your mailman. If your mail is delivered in a cart pushed by a walking mailman or woman, police should be on foot. If your mail is delivered by truck, foot patrol may not be right for you.

    Side effects of foot patrol include decreased fear, better quality of life, fewer broken windows, more fit police officers, greater interaction between police and neighborhood residents, and generally improved police/community relations.

  • Policing Green

    Cops want more money. Citizens want more foot patrol.

    We can have both. I call it “Policing Green.” Give cops the gas money for their shift if they agree to patrol without a car for that shift.

    The environmental link is mostly just a clever title to sell the idea, but it really would be green and save gas. At its core, though, it’s about policing.

    In an informal survey of my police officers students, every one of them would walk foot for their gas money. At least when it’s not raining.

    Police cars in the city probably go through about 6-8 gallons per shift. That’s $28-$32 right now. And even with giving this to police officers, departments would save money on cars upkeep in general. And as long as it’s the officers’ choice, everybody wins!

    Rather than asking what foot patrol does to improve matters (I believe it does, but it’s hard to prove), letting cops walk foot would shift the burden to asking what cars do to improve policing (and it’s been proven cars don’t improve patrol). Simply placing the burden on defending car patrol would be a huge and productive shift in police culture and patrol.

    Even better, you would let patrol officers determine the best way to police without cars. From the top down, it would never work. From the ground up, this could be effective.

    Here’s the system: at the start of the shift, officers either take the car keys or don’t. Anything else is up to them. They can grab their keys any time they want. But if they do, they don’t get the gas money for the day. They’re welcome to get a ride to their post. But they’re not allowed to team up with another officer in a car and split the gas money. That’s the only rule.

    Brilliant or crazy?