NCJ Number
69959
Date Published
1969
Length
58 pages
Annotation
The community relations efforts of the South Bend, In., Police Department Community Relations Bureau are presented in this final report for 1968 and 1969.
Abstract
The bureau's goals include greater public cooperation with the police department, the reduction of racial tensions in the community, closer cooperation between police and other community agencies, and more attention to juvenile offenders and delinquency-prone youth. One of the bureau's projects was a Crime Alert program which permitted citizens to phone in emergency reports over a special police telephone number. Red phones were set up in the police department, and calls coming in on these phones were answered immediately. As a result of this program, every professional burglar known to be operating in the city was caught at least once or prevented from committing a crime, and commercial burglaries reached a new low. Another project involved courses in Afro-American history for all police rookies as well as in-service training courses to increase police awareness of the problems of blacks in the community. Softball contests between police officers and minority youths were organized in order to improve relations; a seminar on the role of police in a period of transition was held for police and citizens, and in-service training courses were conducted in order to inform officers of the roles of other city agencies. Other projects were a Police Community Relations Mobile Office, established on a means for setting up a headquarters in an area of possible disorder; a Community Radio Watch program for citizens with two-way radios in their vehicles; and a Rumor Control program, a 24-hour telephone line for fielding citizens' inquiries about rumors. A number of recommendations for the future include more police protection, faster police responses, and the elimination of organized crime. A list of suggested reference material for police community relations is provided.