NCJ Number
72069
Date Published
Unknown
Length
14 pages
Annotation
Many of the special services performed by the police which would ordinarily be considered outside the normal scope of police responsibility are discussed, and recommendations are made concerning police disengagement from them.
Abstract
Many special services rendered by the police are clearly outside the scope of normal police department responsibilities and belong to a more leisurely past when police concerns were not so demanding. Some of those services which are currently being practiced around the country include security checks on the homes of vacationing owners, disaster control leadership, business licensing (taxicabs, magazine and other door to door salesmen, itinerant peddlers, operators and employees of pool halls, etc.), bicycle licensing, marking auto accessories as an aid to the investigation of auto accessory thefts, operating emergency ambulances, policing private establishments and events, initiating and coordinating alarm or alert systems to inform merchants and other businessmen of active criminal operations, inspection of industrial, commercial, and residential properties to suggest crime reduction techniques, and maintenance of recreational and social programs for children and youths. Recommendations focus on police disengagement from nonpolice activity, shifting routine activities to the private sector, to off-duty patrol officers, or to volunteer reserve or auxiliary forces. Others suggest police action in building security inspections, disseminating messages of police interest, crime alert systems, personal property registration, and emergency assistance preparedness. Police must work only at those tasks which directly or indirectly accomplish police objectives. To do more will inevitably impair police effectiveness.