Starting as early as December, Department of Public Safety officers will be assigned to patrol specific campus regions in an effort to facilitate communication between DPS and the Brown community. The initiative, spearheaded by Lt. Kevin Andrews, is intended to accelerate the crime investigation process and streamline communication between the community and law enforcement officials.
Ultimately, the initiative, known as "community policing," should build a safer, more connected community, Andrews said.
"A lot of older people would say it's going back to the era of the foot cop, but it's more complicated than that," Andrews said. "A wide array of service-oriented organizations in the community is involved."
Currently, each DPS officer patrols a large campus region - North Campus or South Campus. Under the new system, each will patrol a much smaller territory. With community policing, 30 DPS officers will negotiate which regions will be their territory. Regions are small - for example, Wriston Quad is a region by itself. Each region will be covered during three daily shifts.
Assignments will last one to two years, but a concrete figure will emerge as the plan develops further. Currently, DPS is hiring new officers to fill the positions of two officers who are transferring out of the department in coming weeks.
When the interviewing process has concluded and the community policing plan is put in place, officers will be encouraged to familiarize themselves with residents of their particular region and anyone who regularly visits or works in the region during their shift, in order to establish a viable line of communication. Officers will first contact residential counselors and will later branch out to meet administrators, faculty and students.
However, community policing can only be effective with the full cooperation of the community, Andrews said. "DPS is just the catalyst to get the community involved in crime prevention," he said. "The community needs to take an active role in keeping Brown a safe place."
Andrews emphasized that offhand comments and suggestions may prove to be significant elements to solving an ongoing investigation or deterring a crime. "It may seem that it's really nothing, but a little thing like spotting some guy on a corner every morning may have something to do with a crime."
While community members are currently allowed to discuss concerns with DPS, Andrews feels community policing will cause a dramatic improvement in communication. "Through constant interaction, community members become more comfortable with an officer and apt to voice their concerns," he said.
Michelle Nuey, manager of special services for DPS, said she believes community policing will "maximize the relationship between officers and the community." By stationing officers in permanent locations, "Officer A will know X, Y and Z in a building. They'll be able to establish a clear and prolonged post. It definitely facilitates police-community relations if you can put a name with a face," she said.
The new system engenders a quicker response, with officers closely in touch with a small community, rather than a centralized patrol less aware of specific campus regions. While officers will patrol a small area, this will not bar them from responding to calls from other areas. But responding to crimes is not the primary goal of instituting a community policing program, Andrews said.
The hope is that community policing will be a more effective means to deter crimes from happening at all, but the community must play a role, he said. "As far as response to crimes that may occur, it will more or less stay the same, but we want to be more than an organization that responds as things happen."
