NCJ Number
76293
Date Published
1979
Length
79 pages
Annotation
Police innovations in South Carolina are described in the areas of training, crime prevention, undercover fencing operation, personnel promotion assessment, manpower deployment, and a juvenile diversion project.
Abstract
Steps in developing a police training module are described, and an illustrative training module is provided which teaches officers proper procedures for processing a rape victim through the medical system in accordance with procedures which obtain maximum physical evidence. The formation and operation of a regional crime prevention program for three counties are also considered. The program focuses on burglary target-hardening and juvenile delinquency prevention programs in the schools. The undercover fencing operation described succeeded in securing 100 arrests from 250 fencing transactions, with a 100-percent conviction rate with only 6 to 8 cases pending. Convictions were aided by videotapes of the transactions. A new promotional system used by the Columbia Police Department is described; it includes a board's assessment of how candidates for promotion perform in dealing with situations simulated to resemble those likely to be encountered in the job for which they are seeking promotion. Also described is a manpower deployment program designed to fit the needs of an understaffed department which must cover a large geographical area with an urban, suburban, and rural population, with clusters of settlements in remote areas. The juvenile diversion program described is intended to create a meaningful diversion for those juveniles who have already committed either a criminal or status offense and provide a preventive program for those juveniles at high-risk of committing an offense. For individual articles, see NCJ 76294-98.