Community Policing Program Annual Report

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 Maryland Police Training and Standards Commission
Community Policing Program
Annual Report

 Section I   Appendix C
 Agency: Greenbelt City Police Department   Date Report Submitted: 04/30/2019
 Region #: 2  

 Submitted By: Name: George Mathews

Title: Community Liaison 

Email: gmathews@greenbelt.gov
 Number of sworn members: 53   Non‐sworn members: 14

Jurisdictional Demographics: Population: 23797
Square miles serviced by the agency: 6.23
White: 22.2% Black: 49% Hispanic: 16.5% Asian: 8.7%
Native American: .08% Hawaiian or Pacific Islander: .05% More than one race: 2.8%

Section II

Instructions: Provide a detailed description of your agency’s Community Policing Initiative by
responding to the following key points. These key points address the Guiding Principles of
Community Policing, as well as the Six Pillars identified in the Task Force on 21st Century Policing
Report (see Guidelines for Reporting for explanation). Examples of specific programs, initiatives,
and partnerships with community groups should be discussed along with any statistics or other
relevant information. See Appendix D: Examples of Best Practices in Community Policing for you
convenience and consideration.

Key Points:
 How community policing is integrated throughout your agency and how your agency
incorporates community policing into its daily operation.
 How top management emphasizes or supports community policing within the agency.
 Training your agency has received in community policing and future plans to provide additional
or specialized training to agency members to improve interaction with community members or
problem solving efforts.
 How crime problems or community issues are identified and the method of communicating any
trends with communities the agency services.
 How your agency partners with all segments of the community to prevent crime and address
identified community problems. Segments of the community should include residential and
business communities, schools, youth, minority groups, hospitals, senior population, faith
based organizations, etc.
 How your agency measures the effectiveness of its community policing program.

ANNUAL REPORT
1) How is community policing integrated throughout your agency and how does your agency
incorporate community policing into its daily operations?

Response: Officers are encouraged to get out of their vehicles and interact with residents
whenever possible, balancing community outreach with statistical enforcement. Beat officers
will go to community meetings in order to help make connections with the community. Some
officers even carry bike repair kits and air pumps in their cruisers. Something as simple as
stopping to help a kid fix his or her bike can pay big dividends when it comes to breaking down
barriers between youth and law enforcement. One of our officers is an assistant coach with our
Eleanor Roosevelt Senior High School Lacrosse teams. Both the boys' and girls' teams made it to
the State finals this past season for the first time ever. Our School Resource Officer has also
taught a Criminal Justice Class in our high school as well. Having the DARE Program in both our
public elementary schools ensures that there is an ongoing positive police presence connecting
with our youth.

2) How does top management emphasize or support community policing within your agency?
Response: Management encourages officers to incorporate community policing into their everyday
enforcement duties during Departmental Patrol Meetings held periodically. Officers are
expected to positively interact with the public whenever they can. Our Command Staff also lead
by example, with our Administrative Commander putting on Active Shooter Training for
businesses, our Special Operations Commander attending all Public Safety Advisory Meetings
and our Patrol Commander attending Merchant Meetings whenever possible.

3) Describe training your agency has received in community policing and future plans to provide
additional or specialized training to agency members to improve interaction with community
members or problem solving efforts.

Response: The Greenbelt Police Department includes specific blocks of instruction during their inservice
training to assist officers in dealing with all segments of our community. This training has included Dealing with the Deaf Community, Dealing with Individuals with Intellectual, Developmental and Emotional Disabilities, Autism and Bias training.

4) Describe how crime problems or community issues are identified and addressed, and the
method of communicating any trends with communities the agency services.

Response: Crime problems are identified in several ways. Often, intelligence is gathered by officers
during their day‐to‐day interactions with citizens. Neighborhood Watch groups also compile activity logs, which can provide not only crime‐related information but resident quality‐of‐life issues as well. One community in particular had concerns with possible retaliation for calling officers for drug‐related incidents they would periodically came across. This was addressed by encouraging residents in that community to contact the Crime Prevention Liaison, who would then forward this information to both the Patrol Commander and the Narcotics Officer. This way, future patrolling could be directed to a specific area, with the complainants remaining more anonymous. Virtual pin maps are also generated within department by our Administrative Lieutenant and are shared with officers to provide information as to where to best concentrate patrol and enforcement efforts. All written reports are reviewed by our Crime Prevention Liaison, with noteworthy and newsworthy incidents published as a Weekly Crime Report. A
Tally Sheet listing all crimes is also compiled, which enables the Department to recognize both crime trends and geographic areas of concern. We put out Crime Advisories along with our Weekly Crime Reports to address crime trends. These advisories are also published in our local weekly newspaper, the Greenbelt News Review. This information is also pushed out on our social media platforms, which include Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. These concerns are also forwarded to our Command Staff, who in turn can pass this information to Patrol Officers, Narcotics Officers or other City agencies, depending upon who needs to most appropriately address a particular issue.

5) Identify how your agency partners with all segments of the community to prevent crime and
address identified community problems. Segments of the community should include
residential and business communities, schools, youth, minority groups, hospitals, senior
population, faith based organizations, etc.

Response: The Greenbelt Police Department has held multiple public forums throughout the City. These forums provides citizens an opportunity to express concerns regarding police services and crime issues. Many of these forums have been moderated by a Professor from the University of Maryland. We also held a public forum where a movie titled 'Driving While Black' was shown, which is centered around Police/Community relations in the African‐American community. Officers also attend merchants meetings to get feedback from the business community. Our Crime Prevention Liaison visited and met with representatives from all places of worship in Greenbelt for feedback as to any crime concerns they may have. This was also an opportunity to determine whether they had concerns regarding the threat of an active shooter event, in light of the Synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh, PA. Officers have also attended youth forums at our local high school. We have also held several crime prevention presentations for
senior citizens to address the ongoing problem of scams and con games involving our senior
population.

6) How does your agency measure the effectiveness of its community policing program?
Response: Our Accreditation Manager sends out forty (40) random Citizen Surveys each month;
twenty to citizens who have had some type of contact with a Greenbelt officer and twenty to
citizens who have been in contact with a Greenbelt officer during a traffic stop. Once these
surveys are returned with feedback they are flagged for follow up as needed. A detailed
analysis is then compiled of these surveys, with the results posted on the City website. The
results are also posted for the public in the lobby of the police department.