Community Policing Essay: Problem-Solving in Lake County, Florida
Small towns and big cities in the United States require law enforcement assistance to deal with issues. Such problems might be as little as a group of teens vandalizing buildings or as severe as widespread gang violence, drug trafficking, or a community struggling with many killings. When an issue is discovered, the community and law enforcement must collaborate to find a solution. Today’s police departments have adopted a community policing strategy to increase their visibility in neighborhoods and solicit input from local authorities and residents (Crowl, 2017). This study aims to single out one community policing effort in Lake County, Florida, that successfully lowered crime rates. We will also describe the measure and the community’s role in helping the Lake County Sheriff’s Office resolve the issue.
Once law enforcement agencies get engaged, new initiatives are often created to address the issue, and task forces may be established in severe circumstances. By bringing the community and law enforcement working together to tackle these issues, these projects and task groups have the potential to have a profound effect on the area. The community’s support is crucial to the success of these task groups and projects; without it, they would be far less efficient. To effectively collaborate with locals, police forces of today have established crime prevention units inside their departments. These units are devoted to stopping criminal activity before it happens.
Lake County, Florida, sits smack dab in the middle of the state, between two other major Florida metropolises: Orlando and Ocala. Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, was the site of one of the worst school shootings on February 14 2018. (Brezenski, 2018). Concerns about children’s safety at school were voiced by many in the Lake County community since the incident. At a public meeting in March 2018, community members and prominent Lake County leadership members shared their concerns with the school board. Bullying, drugs, violence, and insecurity were all named as issues. School violence is one of the most important things that need fixing to make schools a better place to study and for students to develop their character (Idris et al., 2018). The purpose of the discussion was to discuss possible solutions to the problem of school violence and ways law enforcement may be of more help.
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Lake County Schools and the Lake County Sheriff’s Office work together to place local education facilities with officers in every elementary, middle, and high school in the county. These deputies and police officers get specialized training in crime prevention and deterrence in the school setting. At that time, not even the governor’s grant could attract enough officers to staff all of Lake County’s available learning facilities. There was widespread indignation and a demand for action from the community. After lengthy deliberation, it was decided that schools without law enforcement’s presence should employ security personnel. The Lake County Sheriff’s Office recruits former law enforcement officers and military veterans to fill these roles, and the school district pays them a salary and provides them with training. As mandated by Governor Scott and requested by the community, this program ensured that all schools had adequate security measures in place before the start of the 2018-2019 school year.
The placement of enough law enforcement or security officers at each school in the county was met with widespread relief from parents and community leaders. Community leaders also sought another approach to addressing the issue of violence in our schools. Residents from around Lake County gathered for a series of meetings to discuss how they can better assist law enforcement in preventing and solving crimes in our communities and schools. A local SpeakOut hotline, where students and community members may report criminal behavior anonymously, was reinstated as part of this town’s defined community policing strategy. After a shooting at a nearby school in 1995, the hotline was established, but it has since fallen into disuse.
Local authorities, including the police and the school board, collaborated to spread the word about the SpeakOut movement. All Lake County schools displayed promotional materials for the SpeakOut hotline, including posters, leaflets, backpacks, magnets, lanyards, etc., and the Lake County Sheriff’s Office sponsored a few patrol cars with full wraps promoting the hotline and the “See something, say something” motto. The automobiles had a bright greenish-yellow color, and the information on the SpeakOut hotline was boldly displayed on all sides of the vehicles. They were also shown at community events around the county and utilized in routine service, so students can expect to see them daily, says SpeakOut – Campus Programs (2016).
The SpeakOut hotline was established to allow kids, parents, and law enforcement a common platform to report and discuss school violence and crime issues. The hotline is staffed around the clock, every day of the week. All SpeakOut tips, like those received by the crime line, are treated with the utmost confidentiality, discretion, and seriousness. The SpeakOut hotline does not use caller ID or audio recording. An operator on the hotline will not inquire who you are or where you go to school. Also, the operator will not allow anybody to find out it was you calling.
Lake County Schools have made great strides in providing a secure learning environment for all students with the help of the local community. After launching the SpeakOut hotline at the start of the 2018-2019 school year, the Lake County Sheriff’s Office and other local government agencies saw a significant drop in crime rates at our schools. As a result of the hotline, law enforcement may be more proactive in discouraging and halting criminal conduct on school campuses by examining reports that come to their notice.
Community members have also proposed social media accounts in which the whole community may report illegal activities, not only on school premises. The Sheriff’s Office and other local government agencies have implemented many social media channels via which public members may report illegal activities. Since everyone can stay in contact with one another and keep an eye out for one another, social media accounts have become a valuable resource for the community. There has been a modest decline in the crime rate in Lake County as a whole, thanks to the efforts of law enforcement agencies and social media groups during the previous year.
In conclusion, some of the issues raised in the community were resolved, and law enforcement has been able to take a more proactive role in our schools and deal with any problems that arise before they become criminal. Not just officers of law enforcement but also people from the community are contributing to this effort. Techniques to address issues involving crime may be highly beneficial in determining the results of a scenario, provided that there is some public collaboration and communication with the methods.
References
Brezenski, T. F. (2018). Inside the 23 rd Congressional District (FL) Gun Violence Task Force: Real-Time Crisis Policymaking in the Wake of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas School Shootings. Journal of Multidisciplinary Research (1947-2900), 10.
Crowl, J. N. (2017). The effect of community policing on fear and crime reduction, police legitimacy and job satisfaction: an empirical review of the evidence. Police Practice and Research, 18(5), 449-462.
Idris, M., Iqbal, K., & Baig, G. N. (2018). School Crimes: A Border Crossing and Responsibility of the Learning Academies. Pakistan Journal of Criminology, 10(3).
Speakout – campus programs. Crimeline. (2016, July 14). Retrieved from https://crimeline.org/estimates/