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U.S. Department of Office of Justice Programs

CharlesB. De Witt, Director August 1992

.- in Seattle: a I A Model Partnership Betweem#-* ., ,,

Citizens and etb d..~$"I %. a -3

When citizens and police in South Seattle NU'S early research on comprehensive Police Department to conduct a descriptive banded together to fight , quarterly programs focused on research project on the South Seattle crime crime statistics showed dramatic improve- policing, community involvement,and prevention efforts that led to community ments in the quality of life. Citizen activity environmental security strategiesas policing in the . spread in the city's other three police pre- exemplifiedin Hartford's Crime Control cincts; now community policing is a going progr-m. A city's postwar changes concern throughout Seattle-a citywide success. "Fear of crime" studies in Houston and ~~~d that communitycondi- South of downtown Seattle and the city's j The story of this successshows what can tions, the "Broken Widows" of which racially mixed Central Area lies Rainier happen when citizens work in partnership James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling Valley (see figure 1). Businesses along its with the police to prevent crime and create wrote,' help to define crime's interaction main thoroughfares,Rainier Avenue and safer neighborhoods. with community life. Also, "problem- Martin Luther King Way, focus on lower oriented pol icing^studies in ~~~f~lkdem- middle-class and working-class needs. (To the West is a heavily industrial area and, Community policing onstrated how police, as individualsand as an institution,can assume an innovative further still, West Seattle-geographically separatedfrom the rest of the city and The National Institute of Justice (NU) has and participatory role in community life. reached by bridges and causeways.) been a leader since the mid-seventiesin the As paft of its efforts to increase infoma- development and implementation of what tion about communitypolicing, NU Rainier Valley once resembled the rest of is now called community policing. granted funding in 1988 for the Seattle Seattle: prosperous, progressive,demo- graphically two-thirds white with fair-sized

The outlines of a new direction for police, trolling crime, particularly drug trafficking. urban areas. Other publications are planned known as "community policing," emerged This approach calls on police to exercise both on projects in Madison, Wisconsin, and in the 1980's in response to a rising tide of initiative in identifying the source of problems Houston, . crime in the 1960's and 1970's. The ap- and imaginativenessin enlisting community proach affirms the importance of police help in developing solutions. We also know that citizens have a stake in and citizens working together to control their neighborhoods and, when given a NIJ is currently engaged in a comprehensive crime and maintain order. chance, will work hard with police to take program of research, technical assistance, and back their streets from drug traffickers and NIJ has been conducting research in com- training to encourage innovations in commu- other criminal elements. In South Seattle munity policing for more than a decade and nity policing and police-citizen partnerships to that is exactlywhat citizens and police did, a half. Early field experiments tested combat crime and drugs. The Institute is also working together. By puttingtheir story on various police-citizen partnerships and evaluating neighborhoodpolicing projects these pages, NIJ encourages citizens and ways in which foot patrol, door-to-door funded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance. public servants in other communities to contact, and other positive contact between We believe in community policing's potential take heart and do likewise. police and citizens could reduce the fear of for better, smarter enforcement. This crime and improve neighborhood life. Researchin Brief on South Seattle's police- Charles B. DeWitt citizen partnership is the first in a series of new Director Later, the Institute explored various facets National Institute of Justice of the problem-oriented approach to con- NIJ publications on community policing in African-American and Asian minorities ( Fiaure 1 and smaller groups of Hispanics and Na- tive Americans. After World War 11, two City of Seattle large new public housing projects and an influx of African Americans from the Seattle is located on a peninsula in Puget Sound. The shaded area is the Southeast, loosely Central Area increased the proportion of referred to as Rainier Valley, where formation and activities of the South Seattle Crime low-income min~rities.~ Prevention Council began in 1987. However, the Southeast failed to keep pace economically. New construction declined. The crime rate rose. Confident of their long-standing political clout, community activists met in the 1970's with city and officials, LAKE CITY including the county , to express GREENWOOD their concern over what they perceived to be a crime wave. Their Watch pro- NORTHGATE gram helped defeat two perceived NORTHEAST as lax on offenders. Furthermore, a pre- cinct police promoted team BALLARD policing and community involvement, a /-A GREEN LAKE proposal that won much citizen support. UNIVERSITY In 1979,the mayor established the Eco- nomic Renewal Task Force of Rainier MAGNOLIA f Valley. This was preceded by a Block 1 Watch program to cut the rate of residen- -"--..P.m...- tial burglary; the Nation's first Business CAPITOL HILL V Watch program to tackle commercial 1 burglaries; and the Crime Prevention League to serve as the southeast Seattle CENTRAL AREA business community's private crime fight- ing agency. ELLIOT BAY Narcotics and street crime Then crack cocaine came to Rainier Valley. Paralleling developments in the rest of the city, , and Nation, cocaine use spread in minority areas, especially the housing developments. The city's narcotics viola- tions rose from 582 in 1983to 4,850 in 1989.Police discovered fortified homes dealing cocaine, and street gangs infested parks, parking lots, and other public areas. Calls for started to climb in 1984 (see figure 2). I Community organizations and police tried tough new tactics. A black activist whose father was a became security SSCPC Target Area officer for the housing projects and gave police information they needed to get search warrants. The Rainier Char@er of Commerce also launched a cleanup and antigraffiti drive. For its part, the Seattle Police Depamnent set up a precinct Anticrime Team (ACT) -- -- Figure2 Calls for Service Seattle Police Precincts: 1982-1 989

1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989' YEAR

Calls for service' rose sharply throughout Seattle from 1984onwards. While they declined slightly beginning in 1988 for other parts of the city, in the south they continued to rise. This trend may reflect a rise in public awareness of police services following the formation of SSCPC. (See figure 3 for a picture of crime trends during the same period.) 'This includes all on-views/callsfor service. Citywide total CFS 1989 = 429,960.

comprising a sergeant, a , and two in 2 months, the increasingly in- tion of patrol officers in the South Precinct. uniformed officers-not to make arrests volved community voiced continued sup- While the immediate concern was the but to disrupt or destroy drug operations. port for the original ACT procedures. rising commercial burglary rate, an ulti- Although the team's efforts drew wide Furthermore, the commercial burglary rate mate concern was the economic and social community support, a department review continued to rise. future of the Southeast. Many of those at of its tactics led to a restructuring of the the meeting had businesses there; most still ACT operation. Raising a new lived there. e department directed the new Anticrime community voice The editor and publisher of the South Dis- Ram to adhere strictly to established trict Journal had called the meeting. He departmental procedures, with more em- At an informal gathering at the Rainier had close ties with Chamber of Commerce phasis placed on making arrests. Yet even Chamber of Commerce in the spring of members and with police officials both in though the new ACT squad made 422 1987,some citizens questioned the motiva- the South Precinct and throughout the city. The police precinct commander, who Giving special training for precinct per- Choosing police targets frequently attended subsequent meetings, sonnel "to provide liaison between the convinced the businessmen and women community, the [advisory] committee, and SSCPC discussed targeting of crime prob- that the commercial burglaries were tied to the South Precinct." lems at an early meeting, 2 weeks before the prevalence of crack houses and drug its activity became official, but adjourned Providing special community support for lack of a quorum. The clear implication use. The business leaders then met with the "if the [Police] Department has insufficient mayor to propose a program that included: was that when a quorum was present, this funds." community organization, despite having no A community review committee to set Although police department negotiators formal government , could decide priorities for reducing crime. were unable to promise additional re- where police would concentrate their Greater productivity and better commu- sources for the South Precinct without efforts. nication within the police department and disrupting citywide patterns, they did point A truly radical departure in American other city departments. out ways of stretching available precinct policing was now under way. At subse- resources. A proactive, not reactive, police quent weekly meetings, with police com- response to citizen concerns. Community negotiators felt the word "ad- mand staff present, targets were selected, visory" meant "partnership," that the com- added, or classified as "pending" or "re- Standards of achievement for police munity truly would exercise a strong voice solved''-all by formal parliamentary from the chief on down. in selecting police targets and goals. Police motion. Reporting procedures to assure citizens felt they had the legal power to run their The chosen targets were, for the most part, the police were making progress. own operations. Still, they were aware that those the police determined were the prin- the Chamber had the power to take its case cipal hot spots in the Southeast. The com- The mayor expressed faith in the police to the press. munity agreed. The issue of "power" or chief who, in turn, encouraged police su- "control" as opposed to "advice" did not pervisors to meet frequently with the citi- Neither side overplayed its hand. The advisory committee's powers remained yet arise because there was no controversy zen group. At those meetings, the police over the action itself. stressed the legal, administrative, and bud- ambiguous, but a pattern of cooperation getary restraints they faced. Although dis- developed, In testimony before the city With the dominant initiative in selection couraged by this, the community group council, the police chief praised the coming from the police, police targets

considered its previous years of coopera- community's intervention into their social could be specific locations and offenses or " tion with the police and decided the com- problems. more general problems, such as abandoned munity itself would have to supply the cars. The precinct captain's biggest con- "vision and imagination" to solve its Crime prevention cern over abandoned cars was their use for problems. drug dealing. The citizens were more con- group reborn cerned with appearances in the neighbor- The police, for their part, discovered they hood. Yet even before the citizen concern faced not a group of mere complainers, In January of 1988, the Chamber resur- rected the corporate shell of the defunct had been made known, SSCPC went along looking for quick fixes, but people seeking with the captain's suggestion. broad-based, long-term solutions to the Crime Prevention League (a private crime problem of crime. Rather than using infor- fighting agency formed in 1984 that had mation supplied by the police to attack the since faded because of a lack of funds) and Dealing with targets police, the citizen group lobbied before the changed its name to the South Seattle city council and for more police Crime Prevention Council (SSCPC). consisted of aggressive funds and powers. patrol with special attention to the targets. This became a self-perpetuating assem- Officers were expected to visit these at In September 1987, the Rainier Chamber blage of community organizations, not an least twice each shift, fully documenting of Commerce submitted a plan to the open membership association. The lightly the visits in special log entries. mayor that proposed: publicized regular meetings were attended only by approximately 17 members In addition, police reviewed crack house Increasing South Precinct staff by 15 (whose attendance record ran about 80 reports from the community hotline. Con- sworn officers and several . percent) and a few invited guests. Either firmed reports were added to the target listr Creating a Community Advisory Com- the precinct captain or one of his lieuten- By the end of the first year, police were mittee "to develop the program" and its ants attended as a full participating working on 39 targets, successfully "com- guidelines. member. pleting" nearly half. By the end of the following year, the other half had been Obtaining "total support" from the chief The police "members," high ranking as taken care of. Twenty crack houses were of police, the mayor, and the advisory they usually were, talked as frankly as the included in the initial 39 targets, and most committee for the precinct commander, civilians. They freely discussed police were closed within the first year. Yet po- who would head the program. plans and tactics that, in a group consid- lice and community had to persist in ef- ered less "a part of the team," would have forts to drive crack houses permanently out been considered strictly confidential. of an area since these tended to move from place to place. At SSCPC meetings,police reported in detail on criminal or disorderly behavior at the targets. Citizen representativesre- ported, too--on how citizens, no longer afraid of being accosted by drug dealers at stops, began to use public transporta- %onagain and how graffiti or prostitution declined in a given area. The targeting procedure reaped other ben- efits as well. It gave the police a chance to interact with the community around spe- cific public issues. This went be- yond "public relations." Citizens learned how the criminaljustice response to crime works (or doesn't work). For example, when arrested drug dealers showed up on the streets again, people realized that ar- rests alone did not assure public safety; the rest of the criminaljustice system had to follow through. Targeting also broadened the police's outlook. When the community put pressure on landlords who were not cooperating in the civil abatement process to evict tenants Police had an activepresence in many neighborhoods,includingseveral housingprojects where who deal in drugs, the connectionbetween residentmanagers were concernedabout drug-relatedcrime. OficerMarsha Wilsontalk with the a community's pressure and a suddenly managerof MartinLuther King Apartments. cooperativelandlord was soon clear to the police. Thus encouragedby the community's help, the police viewed their work differently the Narcotics Division, which assigned it through posted signs) that trespassing was from before. The target selectionprocess for followup investigation by patrol, the illegal and that violators would be cited. directed their attention away from mere Anticrime Team (ACT),the narcotics More than 100 businesses signed up, and response to individual calls toward broader street team, or narcotics .Usually 1,044 persons received citations. responsibility for dealing with community a precinct officer in the area of narcotics activity did a followup investigationto Pay telephone program. Standardpay issues. phones were put on a "call out only" sta- substantiatethe activity. If further action tus. Once the phones could not receive Despite a few administrativeproblems, was required, the officer notified ACT, the incoming calls, drug dealers could no including some dissatisfactionwith a lack narcotics street team, or other detectives. If of patrol officer input into the target selec- the activity was not substantiated,an offi- longer use them to receive messages. Dur- ing 1988, 13 phones were put on "call out tion, the procedure was successfulin either cer or sergeant contacted the complainant displacingor ending illegal activity at the to report this fact.Police followed up 1,219 only" status. targets. such reports in one year. Owner notification (drug trafficking Criminal trespass program. civil abatement program). This program Programs aid crime control owners gave police advance permission to gave property owners quick notice that enter such as parking lots their tenants faced legal action for using their property for drug-involved purposes. Concerns were wide ranging and led to the or exterior stairs to investigateand poten- Originally started by the police department development of several key programs and tially loiterers.Police could cite or strategies. These included the following: arrest individuals who might have been as a mere warning that illegal activity was being carried out on an owner's premises, Narcotics activity reports (NAR's). loitering to do drug transactions, even though the transactions were not taking the program became part of the city's Citizen complaints of drug activity were implementation of the State's 1988 place at the time. The trespass program received by phone or in person, at the Abatement Law. ) station,on the beat, or through the commu- required a first warning (either in person or nity hotiine. Each NAR was forwarded to Two warnings are given to the owner of a cerned abandoned cars. Police arranged for neighborhood had ever heard of SSCPC, ( property where narcotics activity has been the removal of so many cars that the tow- At a followup meeting, an SSCPC member observed and documented through search ing company temporarily ran out of space took one of the incensed protestors aside to warrants. If the problem is not corrected to store them. As the abandoned cars be- compare notes, converting him instantly to after the second search , a final gan disappearing from the streets, citizen an SSCPC activist. abatement notice is mailed and abatement calls shifted to calls about drugs, especially Transferring its efforts less from race to proceedings are initiated. The large - crack houses. race than from neighborhood to neighbor- ity of owners (90 percent) have been re- At first volunteers manned the hotline, but hood, SSCPC gradually spread its um- sponsive, and only a small number of later an answering machine that had been brella. Neighborhood leaders seeking premises actually go through the entire put into use for after-hours calls was used empowerment and self-respect found they abatement process. for all calls. The recorded hotlie greeting, could quickly tie their own anticrime cru- A landlord education component was originally very brief to conserve storage sades to the larger effort of SSCPC. incorporated into the abatement program. capacity, was expanded for more effective Spreading its geographic influence gave SSCPC sponsors a series of training ses- police followup. The expanded greeting SSCPC the ethnic diversity it sought. sions for apartment owners and managers encouraged callers to supply details needed on how to keep their property drug free. about the address, date, and time of the Police liaison broadens SSCPC's strong link to the real incident. community, heretofore seen as an obstacle A different lack of diversity appeared in Garden program. A two- to building a broader base in the cornmu- the original arrangement in which the officer police car was dedicated to work in nity, turned out to be an asset in this case. citizen group, arguably a somewhat elite two housing projects located in the South SSCPC could reach into the network of one, communicated mainly with precinct Precinct area. The officers, who were not apartment owners and operators to encour- command-level police officials: the pre- responsible for responding to any but age them to attend the workshops. SSCPC cinct captain, occasionally a , but extreme radio calls, used con- representatives and the South Precinct only rarely a sergeant, much less a patrol ventional neighborhood-oriented police captain showed the landlords how they officer. tactics, even though the layout of the could legally screen renters for previous projects did not encourage a walking beat. drug involvement, require that tenants keep The police department's Crime Prevention They checked on drug activity and made the apartment drug free, and obtain police Division, staffed mainly by em- arrests when needed. Usually the same two assishce during evictions. ployees rather than sworn officers, was officers were assigned to the car, and the responsible for such activities as Neighbor- Antigraffiti program. "Paintouts" were a residents grew to feel they "owned" the hood Block Watch and Business Watch. popular activity for anticrime volunteers. garden car. But the division had little rapport with the Launched by the Rainier Chamber of Rainier Chamber of Commerce and re- commerce,-the program gained the sup- Gaining broader participation ceived public criticism from the Chamber. port of both the police and SSCPC, which Only after the Crime Prevention Division promotes the program in its information Heightened police presence and activity packet. Some police officers have partici- was reorganized in 1989 did relations eventually led to broad community sup- improve. The Crime Prevention Division pated in the paintouts in addition to look- port for the SSCPC-police partnership. began to assign Block Watch organizers ing for and citing people making graffiti. Although dominated from the start by In 1989, Seattle's engineering department permanently. Before then, once Block members of the powerful, politically so- Watch was established in a neighborhood, received funding for an antigraffiti coordi- phisticated, mainly white Rainier Chamber nator as well as paint for the program. In the organizers were reassigned to other of Commerce, SSCPC acknowledged its neighborhoods. addition, the city's Summer Youth Em- responsibility to extend its activity and ployment program (a supervisor and seven power to hibroader community. Relations between SSCPC and the Crime staff) joined the effort, and a graffiti hot- Prevention Division now became more line was established, with calls relayed to Early efforts were not promising. When positive. Even the crime prevention orga- the engineering department coordinator for SSCPC delegated two white members to nizers began to stop into the South Precinct followup. seek out additional black representation, station more frequently. they discovered that membership in black C Telephone hotline. This is basically an organizations and churches tended not to anonymous tipline. However, callers were be geographically based and that few were Involving other city agencies urged to use it for any prob- located in the South Precinct (most were in lems that were not "91 1emergencies." If the Central Area to the north). Inevitably, other public agencies were they wanted to sacrifice anonymity in affected by the SSCPC-police partnership. order to learn the results of a call, they In mid-1989, however, a large middle- The Seattle Housing Authority (SHA) had could leave a phone number or address. class neighborhood group met at the South already developed a tough of evict- Precinct station to express its anger over a ing tenants found with drugs and worked Much to the surprise of SSCPC and some rash of burglaries. SSCPC sent representa- in close cooperation with the police. The of the police, 40 percent of the calls con- tives, though few from the aggrieved second-ranking SHA official participated in SSCPC meetings. Although at first SHA discovered it could play a positive role in crime prevention effort. The plan had did not feel participation in SSCPC needed controlling crime. several provisions. to extend to the housing projects' onsite managers, pressure and encouragement The West Precinct lies mainly in the down- Crime Prevention Councils. The plan from SSCPC led to SHA's advocacy of Seattle area encompassing the central authorized the city to allot $95,000 each increased resident manager involvement in business district. It houses a host of social year to increase citizen involvement in controlling drug-related crime and partici- service agencies, including release centers precinct work. This took the form of grants pation in community cleanup programs. for parolees, food and shelter missions for to SSCPC and other crime prevention street people, shelters for battered women, councils to pay for recordkeeping, mailing SSCPClobbied legislative branches and alcohol and drug treatment centers, and lists, board support, and other expenses. various agencies of the city government. shelters for runaway or abandoned youth. Its purpose was twofold: to obtain more Police Department Advisory Councils. resources for the police and to further the It also has a growing number of luxury Funds were also earmarked for the devel- goals it shared with the police. Particular condominiums; two popular tourist areas, opment of citizen-based councils that efforts were directed to the strengthening the Pike Place Market and Pioneer Square; would advise the precinct on of State antidrug that the police and a nationally known sports facility, the community issues. Precinct commanders had long desired. All the top commanders Kingdome. would have input into the selection of board members as well as agenda items. in the Seattle police joined in the lobbying,- - Downtown has a number of small business as did a number of city organizations. groups such as the Pioneer Square Busi- Community-PoliceTeams. A key recom- Pressure was similarly applied to other ness Association and the Pike Place Mar- mendation of the consultants' study that parts of the system-to the ket Association. There is also a large was incorporated into the Public Safety prosecutor's office to urge that drug traf- umbrella organization, the Downtown Action Plan was to introduce into each fickers be charged with the most serious Seattle Association, that conducts some of precinct of the city a community policing crime legally possible-and to other city the most effective lobbying in the city, team composed of five officers and one agencies to solve community public safety typically in favor of police budgets. sergeant. The team would give full-time attention to community policing and would problems such as poor lighting in the The Pioneer Square Business Association parks. be specifically excluded from the responsi- helped lead strong lobbying efforts for bility of answering 91 1calls. The purpose better control of work release probationers; )This pressure showed that successful col- of creating the specialty teams was to lock enforcement of liquor , including t laboration between SSCPC and the police the concept of community policing into prohibition of open bottles in public; and was taking place. The police reported the each precinct. problems that needed to be solved, and for foot and police patrols in SSCPC applied the pressure that brought downtown areas where young people The East and South Precincts actually about action. congregate. implemented the team idea ahead of the funding package. This served to the Citywide coordination concept Ad identify potential problems, Spreading to other such as the perception that the teams had parts of the city In spring 1989, the city and police depart- "soft" jobs and the need to develop special ment brought in a management consulting training, operating procedures, and per- SSCPC operated in only two of the three firm to recommend improvements in pub- formance evaluation criteria for the offic- "sectors" of one of the city's four police lic safety. The consultants recommended ers on the teams. Close communication precincts. But when quarterly crime statis- the addition of 147 sworn and civilian and coordination within the department, tics indicated the South Precinct was show- positions to the police department as well together with judicious selection of targets ing substantial improvement (see figure 3), as citywide expansion of the South Pre- appropriate to the specialized team ap- a loosely formed group in the East Precinct cinct partnership. This involved develop- proach, were deemed important in mitigat- (the Central Area and Capitol Hill) sought ing citizen-based advisory councils in all ing these problems. guidance from SSCPC. The group ob- precincts to play a strong role in advising tained a grant to hire away an SSCPC Joint Parks Department and Police precinct commanders on community Guild Program. Funds were allocated to a activist to work in the East Precinct. By- affairs. laws, loosely patterned after those of program in which police union volunteers SSCPC, were used to establish the East The city accepted the team's recommenda- would work with older youth in an evening Precinct Crime Prevention Coalition. tions and incorporated them in a referen- hour recreational program. The Police dum, the Public Safety Action Plan, which Guild had been eager to work with the Originally interested in a broad range of was placed before the voters in November Parks Department in developing such a social problems such as teen pregnancy, 1989. It gained overwhelming approval program. housing, and substance abuse prevention, and furthered the joint interests of SSCPC Youth Intervention Program. The plan the East Precinct decided by the end of and the police by strengthening not only ) 1988 to concentrate on criminal justice called for a program to be jointly planned the police but a number of community by the police, the Department of Human issues. Rather than complain about prob- organizations that were helping in the lems and demand police action, the group Resources, the schools, and community Fiaure 3 Part 1 Offenses Seattle Police Precincts: 1982-1 989

982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 YEAR

Serious crime rose throughout the city beginning in 1982 and 1983.The reverse in this trend that began in South Seattle in 1987 and in other parts of the city in 1988 indicates the positive effects of SSCPC's and eventually other precincts' policecitizen partnership.

(The FBI's Part 1 offensescomprise the followingserious : , rape, robbery,burglary, aggravatedassault, larceny-theft,arson, and motor vehicle theft.)

"; agencies. The program's purpose was to ing with citizens and other agencies based Despite this, the Seattleexperience indi- prevent youth from getting involved in on the concept of shared responsibility for cates there is cause for optimism. Even " gangs and to intervene with youth who community security. when the climate is at first confrontational, were already at high risk of involvement. police and citizens can still forge a positive Yet too often, the neighborhoods where working partnership. But the partnership crime is worst and poses the greatest prob- must be built step by step. These are the Lessons learned about lems for police and citizens are precisely stages that communitiescan often expect the neighborhoods where police have had communities and police to go through: few positive contacts with residents and no

Many definitions of community policing experience of cooperation.Their relation- Stage 1. This is the challenginglventing 8 exist, but they all have one element in ship to citizens in these areas is more likely stage, when citizens vociferously criticize common: a cooperativeapproach to work- to have been marked by distrust, confron- police methods and instances of abuse of tation, and hostility. power or fault the police for doing "too 'ittle, too late." The police, put on the Brought the need for adequate police allowed neighborhood residents to reclaim , can do little but explain their lack services to the'attention of the State legis- their parks and streets. of resources and power. Many of their lature, the mayor, city council, and upper accusers may abandon the fray once they echelons of city government. While this Communitypolicing may create have vented their anger. activity has the potential for inducing turf problems. Stage 2. At this organizationalstage, neighborhoods to compete with each other for services, in Seattle police managers Other public agencies areoften surprised at participants agree to "play ball." Commu- the amount of work created for them when nity members start to attend meetings were able to prioritize and allocate re- sources in a way that was fair to all groups. police become concerned with community regularly, ready to work on specific issues. problems; some may not be able to re- A stable relationship is developed within spond as quickly as police and citizens which police and community can hammer Some conclusions would like. For instance, some agencies out a mutual agenda. In addition to identifying the steps toward must follow a very slow and careful legal Stage 3. Now police and community, fruitful cooperation, one can distill several process in dealing with such problems as having formed a stable relationship, com- other lessons from the Seattle experience building code violations. A housing mit to action. This is the success stage. in community policing: agency does not want the police to dictate Actions are accomplished. Success breeds its processes and priorities any more than the police want to be managed by a not only more success but also a trusting Traditionalpolicing and community relationship. The group is even secure citizens league, policing must remain partners. enough to weather turnover and changes in A related problem arises when it is clear leadership. Traditional police methods are not, as that a call by a business leader to the Stage 4. In the final long-termstability many fear, incompatible with community mayor's office brings a faster agency re- stage, the group can mount continuous policing: Community policing is not just a sponse than one from the neighborhood efforts to resolve problems as well as re- joint problem-solving process. It can also police officer. In Seattle this politicization cruit wider community representation. involve arrest-oriented, get-tough solu- became a two-edged sword. On the one tions. The difference is that under commu- hand, officers were in a position to mobi- nity policing, the "tough" police action is lize some action by the community to New roles for the community not a surprise to the law-abiding commu- produce a response by the agency. On the P nity. In fact, it may have been requested by that have successfully imple- other hand, if the agency perceived that the $ residents and citizens working with the mented community policing methods, police played such a role, interagency police. Seattle is having little difficulty citizens and citizen groups have fulfilled a conflict resulted. blending the traditional and comrnunity- variety of roles to help police enforce the oriented policing approach. Community- Community policing, and the workload . In Seattle the community: Police Teams work in tandem with regular implies for other agencies, suggest the Supported traditional police efforts by patrol to handle the full range of public need for municipal leadership to mandate helping select targets for police action. safety problems. some common interagency goals and chart a new way for agencies to operate together. Sent a message to potential lawbreakers that a neighborhood was off bounds, for in- Some communitypolicing programs are natural. New coordination links musl stance by painting out graffiti with police be created by police. officers painting beside them. A more livable neighborhood is good for Community policing may involve con- Served as the "eyes and ears" of the po- its own sake. The argument, for example, scripting the entire department into solving lice by manning a hotline for receiving that painting over graffiti and removing broader community problems, or it may crime information from citizens. abandoned cars should reduce crime is intuitive to citizens in livable neighbor- focus on establishing specialized units, * Obtained legislative help for police by hoods. Such activities unite the community freed from responding to 911 calls. One of lobbying and testifying on behalf of laws and send a message that residents care the problems with specialty units is that and ordinances that would give police about what happens to their neighborhoods they become isolated from other units and forceful tools, especially to stop drug loi- and are watching. It tells would-be law- from patrol. tering on private property. breakers that criminal activity will no Although it is often prudent to get the Provided feedback to police on the suc- longer pass unnoticed. But in Seattle, it is programs going with specialized teams like cess of their efforts by organizing dinners also clear that the removal of "bad actors" Seattle's Community-Police Teams, or by and special events where officers and su- from the neighborhoods is what most initially testing the program in certain parts pervisors were thanked for work well encouraged the residents to act. Police of the city, the whole department needs to done. These special occasions provided the cleaned drug trafficking out of a park and be brought on board as local conditions ormal vehicle for recognizing police that outlying streets. Reducing the criminal and constraints permit. In any event, com- jfs frequently missing under traditional po- element meant reducing fear of crime; it munity policing will require more coordi- licing methods. nation and enhanced infonnation sharing not only between police units, but ideally Communitypoking duties require Establish the partnership nature of the within city government as a whole. oocer skius diflerentjhomthose community-police relationship in the early used in tmMonalpoking. stages. Whenimplementetl, community Officers using community policing strate- 0 Develop clear and reasonable goals and policing may influencecitizen calls time schedules; pushing too fast involves a for service and neighborhood gies need to think independently and cre- atively. They must be able to develop large degree of risk. crime levels. appropriate steps for solving problems. 0 Secure the commitment of city and Community policing tactics presume an Seattle's lesson is that departments imple- elected officials at an early stage. understanding that not all calls for service menting community policing techniques Develop programs (and communica- require the immediate, car-on-the-way must modify their recruitment, selection, tions mechanisms) with other city depart- response of decades past. In the Seattle and training programs to develop a core of ments and service delivery groups. South Precinct, however, calls for service officers with the initiative and instinct for have actually increased since SSCPC working with the community and with Begin with an evaluation plan. began, while declining in the rest of the government agencies. A first step for po- city. Although the number of serious lice departments is to develop standards for Research recommendations crimes declined throughout the city, the recruiting, training, and evaluating staff decline was most dramatic in the South assigned to community policing duties. Update and extend research on the rela- Precinct areas where SSCPC was most tionship between decay, physical disorder, active. A successfulcitizen-police partnership fear, and crime. expands its goals and membership Incorporatingcommunity policing Study the financial impact on police to include broad segmentsof the and cities of the community-oriented into a department's operatiolaal community. approach. structure may require sensiti* to issues of police accountahiliQ. While at first the partnership may address Explore whether and how community- only a selected group of issues that are of oriented programs may displace crime Community policing holds that neighbor- concern to a limited number of residents, (move it from one neighborhood to hood officers should be able to use their the success of the police-community part- another). in taking whatever action is nership requires an expansion of both its Review the coordination needed be- necessary to solve a problem. These ele- goals and participants. This is clearly the ments, however, may create concerns tween police and other departments in or- course taken in Seattle, where SSCPC and der to enhance this process. about the appearance of corruption, exces- the police found that many resources they sive force, and "letting the officer own too needed to solve their local problems rested much of his beat." with the State legislature, the city council, Evolution of a true Typically, modem policing employs rota- or public and private agencies. In reaching partnership out to these entities and to the diverse tion of assignment (among other tactics) to The Seattle experience offered no new prevent such abuses. Arbitrary rotation, elements within their own community, SSCPC and the police not only achieved answers to the frequent definitional de- however, is antithetical to the idea of com- mand, "What is community policing?" It munity policing. Under this style of polic- their initial goals but also were able to see them eventually adopted citywide. has, however, underscored the need for ing, an officer is encouraged to get to police and citizens to share responsibility know the community, become aware of a Having identified the lessons learned in for community security and has empha- neighborhood's dynamics, and develop Seattle, NIJ's reporting team offered 17 sized the usefulness of target selection and open lines of communication. All of this community-police program recommenda- a problem-solving focus. Usually, ad hoc takes time and would be undermined by tions and 14 recommendations for re- neighborhood groups organize around the normal police rotation cycle. search. A partial list follows. specific problems, but interest fades when Another important aspect of community the appears solved. In Seattle, the policing-target selection-need not cre- Program recommendations community and police continued their ate the risk of payoffs or corruption that partnership. f Strongly consider the community polic- some critics might predict. In Seattle offic- In 1987, when the SSCPC revolution was ing approach in all police agencies and ju- ers were dealing with an organized group growing rapidly, a new police captain took risdictions. This is in keeping with present of neighborhood citizens rather than with command in the South Precinct. He soon NU theory and policy, which holds that in individuals in defining issues to be ad- met with SSCPC and established his dedi- recent years discussion of the rhetoric of dressed and targets to be selected. cation to its principles. community policing has slowed its actual implementation, and that developing and When potential investigators asked him implementing successful community polic- about crime, he pointed out that crime in ing models should take immediate priority. the South Precinct was decreasing and :ing confined to smaller areas. A news- police work, the partnership is continually AsianpacificIslander, 3 percentHispanic, 1.4 photo showed him brush in hand, in civil- reinforced. percentNative American.Rainier Valley: 40 ian work clothes, at a mitipaintout. He percentwhite, 30 percentAfrican-American, repeatedly pointed out that he was raised in SSCPC's evolution from a committee of 5 percentHispanic, and 25 percentAsian and South Seattle ahd still lived there. Best of the Rainier Chamber of Commerce to a "other." all, he told SSCPC: working partner with the police has in- volved many discussions and decisions 4- 7 , . I In essence, what you are doing here is about each side's responsibilitiesfor ThisReseurch in Briefsummati-- - asking [the police] to do what I used to achieving common goals. At each juncture, descriptivestudy of tie south s #doas a young officer 20 years ago. decisions have been jointly taken and for- Crime ReductionProject conduc You're asking us to come out to the malized. These form the foundation for a for the National Institute of Just neighborhoods and get to know the workable collaborationbetween the police by Dan Fleissner, NicholasFed people. and citizens. Ph.D,,and David Klingerof the SeattlePolice Department: and I Even more than this, the Seattle experience Over time the partnership has developed Stotland,Ph.D.. ProfessorEmer can provide useful guidance and serve as a into an effective means of increasing com- of the University of Washington model for other communities that are inter- munity security by expanding its focus to ested in developing meaningful partner- encompass a range of issues that affect the Thefull report of the study willalso ships involving citizens and the police. quality of neighborhood life. It has demon- be availablein the near future. F'01- Several elements in the SSCPC-police strated that crime prevention, broadly de- informationon thispublication r 19 partnership experience in Seattle are par- fined, benefits from the joint attention of well asother N1J reportson con1- ticularly noteworthy: police and community. munity policing,write NU/NCTIRS, Box 6000, Rackville. The partnership has enabled the com- The seeds of the partnership between police call 800-85 1-3420. munity and the police to work together on and citizens were sown 5 years ago in the a day-to-day basis in the joint task of con- Rainier Valley section of Seattle. In the trolling crime and increasing public secu- short time since then the partnership has Findingsand conclusionsof the researchre- rity. Together, citizens and police define spread to the entire city.The citizens of ported here are those ofthe researchersand do the problems, select the targets to be ad- Seattle have endorsed the partnership's not necessarilyreflect the officialposition or "jssed, and in many cases share in devel- goals in a and committed pub- policiesof the U.S. Departmentof Justice. jping the strategies to deal with them. In lic funds to a stronger, safer community. short, the basis for the partnership is a The Seattle experience offers a useful TheNationalInstituteofjustice isa compo- sense of shared responsibility for commu- model of strategies for other cities to study nentof theOficeofjustice Programs,which nity security. and make their own. also includes the Bureau of Justice Assist- The partnership has provided benefits ance,Bureau of Justice Statistics, Ofice of for both parties that sustain and reinforce Notes Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Preven- the relationship between the police and tion, and the Ofice for Victims of Crime. the community.When citizens feel more 1.In Atlantic Monthly, March 1982. safe and secure, and when police experi- 2. Citywide,based,on 1987 data: 67 percent NCJ 136608 ence the support of citizens who lobby for white, 10 percentAfrican-American, 9 percent better legislation and more resources for