Crime Prevention

In Florida, every law enforcement official uses the tools of planning, management, and evaluation. For example, a patrol officer plans how to cover a beat, makes rounds or manage activities, and evaluates how they did at the end of the day. An officer plans what to do and how to do it before taking action. Unfortunately, this same approach is not consistently applied in police agencies and security operations as a whole. In fact, although a certain degree of planning is usually conducted by all prevention organizations, the major emphasis has traditionally been on the management and evaluation of an officers work; every sergeant knows to manage a police force in such a way that the commander will conclude that they are doing a good job. The major purpose of the discussion that follows is to provide crime prevention personnel information about planning, management, and evaluation so they can take advantage of those tools in performing their jobs.

Planning

One of the most effective tools available to a crime prevention unit is planning. Police and security authorities across the country have come to recognize the importance of this tool as a critical factor on which the ultimate effectiveness of operation depends. Although total agreement does not exist as to the most effective planning method, there is general agreement that planning should be regarded as an indispensable function. Unfortunately, although a certain degree of planning is carried out in all police and security operations, neither the substance nor level of intensity of the process has been sufficiently systematized to realize its full potential. One possible reason for the limited application of planning as a management tool within such organizations is the false...

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..., town meetings, radio and television call-in programs, and similar methods open to all residents. Some police officials meet regularly with citizen advisory boards, ministry alliances, minority group representatives, business leaders, and other formal groups. These techniques have been used by police chief executives, district commanders, and ordinary patrol officers; they can be focused as widely as the entire jurisdiction or as narrowly as a beat or a single neighborhood.

The techniques used to achieve citizen input should be less important than the end result. Community policing emphasizes that police departments should seek and carefully consider citizen input when making policies and decisions that affect the community. Any other alternative would be unthinkable in an agency that is part of a government "of the people, for the people, and by the people."