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Focus: Small Agencies

NCJ Number
112152
Journal
Law and Order Volume: 36 Issue: 6 Dated: (June 1988) Pages: 20-32,34-39
Author(s)
J Auten; M Williams; J Cameron; D S Penven; D R Mason; R A Shaw; B Cameron
Date Published
1988
Length
19 pages
Annotation
Six articles describe innovative programs in small police agencies.
Abstract
Planning and implementation of a modernization program in the Lewistown Police Department (Montana) are discussed. The program included planned budgeting and purchasing of new equipment, firearms training, and emergency planning and training. Operation Pressure Point, in Fernandina Beach, Fla., uses special drug law enforcement teams to target buyers and sellers of crack. Team activities include stops, drivers' license checkpoints, and photographing suspects. In Wake County, N.C., the sheriff's department has purchased cellular telephones to decrease travel times, increase efficiency, and improve communications security. A 10-person Belding Police Reserve Unit (Michigan) supplements police services by helping in emergencies and special events, riding as observers in patrol cars, conducting foot patrols, providing school safety talks, and operating Community Child Watch and Operation Kid Print Programs. The Condor 3 programmable, relational data-base management package, used by the Summerville Police Department (South Carolina), provides an easy-to-use capability for tracking arrest and crime data, expenditures, and resource allocations. Finally, a police chief reminisces about policing in small towns and the changes wrought by technology, court decisions, and increasing professionalization. For individual articles, see NCJ 112154-112158.