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Crime Prevention, Community Policing and Community Education <br />Although these were presented as separate areas in the interviews, everyone thought there <br />was strong linkage between them which makes them difficult to consider separately. <br /> <br />For some time the Ramsey Police Department has practiced a form of Community <br />Oriented Policing. It has been the Chief's philosophy that each officer should be a <br />generalist, capable of handling all the aspects of the job rather than specializing in one <br />area. As generalists, officers follow cases from the initial complaint through final <br />disposition unless unusual circumstances require that they be referred to the department's <br />investigator. Handling cases in this manner promotes good relationships with citizens <br />who seem to prefer that they deal with one person consistently rather than a parade of <br />different people at different stages. Patrol officers have also been able to volunteer for <br />assignment to particular districts within the City. The goal is to become familiar with and <br />familiar to the residents and businesses in that geographic area. Officers note that while <br />they think the community policing concept is great, in reality there are too many <br />interruptions to do it the way it should be done. Additional challenges to the traditional <br />model include the fact that Ramsey has no "downtown" or "main street" and in some <br />residential areas homes are separated by large lots. <br /> <br />The department has two certified "Crime Prevention Specialists." Nearly all of the <br />current activity in this area involves reacting to requests rather than initiating projects and <br />programs. Most people thought commercial/industrial properties should get more service <br />for their tax dollars, including more frequent police contact to provide security advice and <br />premises cheeks, and maintenance of an up-to-date list of property keyholders to contact <br />in case of emergency. (Because Fire and Community Development also maintain <br />keyholder lists, this function should be a cooperative one.) Officers believe that if they <br />could spend more time working with troubled families in their districts on problem <br />solving, it would prevent problems from escalating and requiring law enforcement <br />intervention later. <br /> <br />Most people thought that although there is always room for improvement in the area of <br />community education, the department already has several successful ongoing programs, <br />including KidCare ID and the annual Bike Roadeo. Each issue of the community <br />newsletter includes an article on some City ordinance or safety issue. In addition, officers <br />respond to requests to conduct classes on topics such as gun safety and snowmobiling. <br /> <br />People offered a variety of ideas that could be explored to increase the department's <br />capacity in the areas of crime prevention, community policing and community education. <br />An option suggested by several people is to free up the time of patrol officers by having <br />non-sworn personnel do some of the tasks that don't require a sworn officer. Non-sworn <br />assistance might be in the form of staff such as a community service officer to respond to <br />animal control calls or an intern to handle the logistics of setting up a community meeting <br />so the officer can concentrate on the presentation or an administrative assistant who <br /> 3 <br /> <br /> <br />