Gastonia:
Model of Community Policing
Officer Susan Psomadakis and Angela Williamson,
Director of the As One Ministries Homeless Day Center. |
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When Sgt. Dee Dee Rhinehart looked out her bus window at the
hundreds of homeless people on the streets of Los Angeles,
she couldn't believe her eyes. She was not used to the
numbers, but she certainly understands the problem of homelessness
and why police have to pay attention to it.
"We have to get to the root of the problem," she
told In-Sites. "You realize how close anybody
can come [to homelessness]. There are so many stories."
Sergeant Rhinehart was in Los Angeles to receive the International
Association of Chiefs of Police's (IACP's) community
policing award for the work she and her fellow officers of
the Gastonia, NC, police department have done to prevent crime
and help homeless people. Gastonia won the IACP/ITT Industries
award in the category for cities of 50,001–100,000 residents.
The city's community policing efforts are only 3 years
old, and yet the impact they've had on community relations
is tangible. More people are forming community watch groups
than ever before, and crime in the downtown area has decreased
by 46 percent.
The success that Sergeant Rhinehart's unit of seven
officers has had will soon be felt all over as Chief Terry
Sult begins applying a problem-solving approach to the whole
department.
The community policing unit has worked closely with faith-based
organizations to help address the problem of homelessness.
Though on a small scale—only about 30 people in the downtown
area are chronically homeless and 3 people successfully went
through detox and halfway house programs—the project
demonstrates how to share information and build partnerships.
Sergeant Rhinehart discovered that one issue facing nonprofit
groups was being able to help homeless people while working
within cost barriers. The police knew that underlying substance
abuse issues had to be dealt with and more outreach had to
be aimed at this population. Officers helped homeless people
get the services they needed and later even mentored them.
The "networking" that officers performed was a
way of realizing resources that were already available, Sergeant
Rhinehart explained.
"The key for any city trying to do what we're
doing is to know your resources," Sergeant Rhinehart
stressed. "You have to recognize the need and the need
to work together."
The unit also worked with neighborhood enhancement teams to
determine what city services were available and how to inform
residents of where they could go for help and more information.
The approach allowed police officers to know the neighborhoods
better and empower residents.
Community policing has brought changes to Gastonia, and Sergeant
Rhinehart thinks such changes are important not just for the
community but for officers as well. "Policemen need to
look at how to help people change their lives," Rhinehart
said. Helping somebody means a lot. It means a whole lot more
than how many tickets I can write or how many arrests I can
make. It's doing something that makes you feel good.
Even if you can change just one person's life."
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