NCJ Number
151300
Journal
American Journal of Police Volume: 12 Issue: 3 Dated: (1993) Pages: 1-9
Date Published
1993
Length
9 pages
Annotation
The Police Department of Fort Worth, Tex., has initiated many changes in its operating procedures to improve service and implement community policing; this proposed extension of these efforts would involve citizens more fully in their own protection and security.
Abstract
In a city with an eroding tax base and an increasing crime rate, the agency has 1,041 authorized sworn positions and made approximately 800,000 calls in 1991. Programs in place to make service delivery more flexible include flexible scheduling for certain investigative functions, the funding of overtime from salary savings from vacant positions, a computerized report system with direct entry, contracted jail services with the county, call management systems, and store fronts to increase police-citizen contacts. In addition, the agency began decentralizing in 1987 and began developing the concept of community policing more fully in 1991. A proposed method of extending this approach would be a system in which citizen groups are notified about certain types of calls. To implement this concept, additional computer equipment would be needed. The program would also bring costs to the police agency. It would require additional management, would lack a method for updating the information received about a call, and would raise control issues regarding who received the call at the block captain's residence or what was done with the information received. Nevertheless, this approach would increase police-citizen cooperation by providing organized blocks and neighborhoods with information on a real-time basis.