National COPS Evaluation of St. Paul: 2000
Structuring the Organization for Community Policing
In 1997, SPPD had two divisions: Operations (including patrol, investigations, and some special units) and Support Services (which brings together a Services Section and another section that includes records, communications, and personnel). In addition, two smaller sections—administration, and proactive services, report directly to the Chief. In greater detail, these divisions and the Office of the Chief include:
SPPD ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE - 1997
Office of the Chief
| Police/Civilian Internal Affairs Review Commission |
Administrative Section | Proactive Services Section headed by Executive Officer |
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Operations Division
headed by a Deputy Chief
| Patrol Districts (Each district headed by a commander) |
Traffic and Accident | Canine/ Mounted Police |
Youth Services | Investigations CAPERS (Persons) |
Investigations CAPROP (Property) |
ACOP Asian Youth Task Force |
CIRT (Critical Incident Response Team) |
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Support Services Division
headed by a Deputy Chief
| Services Section (Headed by an Executive officer) |
Section | |
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Community Policing in Action: Operations
Patrol
In 1994, the Department reorganized from four teams to three districts (West—with two offices, north and south; Central; and Eastern Districts), according to SPPD's annual report "more representational of call loads among the areas, and providing a better balance of personnel and resources." District offices have become centers not only for police activities, but for community involvement as well. For example, Eastern District's new office, in the former Hamm's Brewery Garage, opens its large community room on a regular basis to the local District Council, Boy Scouts, Merrick Community Center, block clubs, the Red Cross, and church groups.
Each district operates as if it were a small Department, with commanders exercising substantial autonomy in assigning personnel and directing activities toward particular problems. As Deputy Chief (of Operations) Al Singer explains:
Central, East and West [commanders] all have their own different leadership styles. Don Winger is Mr. Nice Guy…very mellow. He gets his stuff done subtly by suggestion as opposed to order or anything. And one thing about Don, he knows everything that's going on in this community, and it's not because he heard about it, but because he was probably there…. Now John Sturner delegates a lot…but Central is probably the most efficient team. They never fail to get in all of their work on time. I don't care what the detail is, it's done properly and very well. And as far as production per officer, Central probably has the highest of any District, as far as arrests and citations, and their community work is way up there…. Dick Gardell is different. Dick is an assertive guy, and he's kind of like a hard charger running through, but Dick gets his stuff done, too. He certainly improved his officers in [their] taking the initiative and doing their job.
Deputy Chief Singer goes on to discuss how accountability operates at the District level:
you're in charge, and this is your District.... I try not to make personnel decisions and so on without their input. I try not to go into a program without their input. And so you develop that ownership—'this is mine.' The Commander feels proud of the District. We give responsibility to our patrol officers for specific areas throughout neighborhood service areas—again, this is mine, it's the ownership thing.
Within districts, the trend has been toward decentralization, achieved with the creation of satellite offices, and Neighborhood Service Areas, through which policing services are delivered. Since 1993, when the first two police substations in over twenty years were opened (one on the East Side at Payne and Arcade; a second on Selby Avenue), SPPD has been continually expanding the number of satellite offices in the form of substations and storefronts. By 1997, twelve storefronts were operating: Central District had three ACOP offices and one storefront in the Mutual Building downtown; Eastern District had five; and Western District, three. In addition, there were four substations: the West Side; Downtown Beat (to which both SPPD officers and Park Rangers report);34 ACOP at McDonough; and the Canine Unit.
Storefront offices (as well as the West Side substation) have been developed in collaboration with residents and businesses: when residents request a storefront for their communities, they also donate office space and furniture, and remain responsible for staffing the stations with volunteers. Some storefronts are staffed by volunteers and remain open for extended hours each day; others remain locations for officers to "drop in" and write reports. The storefront officers are supposed to respond to the needs of the surrounding population, building the block club network, and working on problems before they become bigger problems as well as anticipating problems. Storefront officers do foot patrol in the area, getting to know people, and listening to their concerns. In the words of a supervising officer, "We try to give them as much freedom as we can from being tied to 911, but there are days when we just cannot do that. There are days when even the deputy chief is out answering calls…."
Not surprisingly, storefronts and substations have gained a lot of support from residents. One district commander explains:
One of the downsides of the storefronts is that everybody wants one, and we do not have the resources to do as many as we would like to, and sometimes the expectations are too high. There is real ownership, and at times we have had to adjust hours and people say no, you cannot change his hours, and we say yes, we can and we will, we need the coverage…. One officer who has thirty years on the job, transferred to another district for a couple of years, and recently came back [here]. One day, he said "you know, you don't hear the calls along Payne Avenue or Third and Marion like you used to." He noticed it…people wait for the store front officer to come around, they get hold of him by pager, and they know that he'll be around. Each of the five storefronts is different, but they all have one theme. As I go to community meetings, it is how wonderful that police officer is.
The West Side substation, to which a sergeant and fifteen officers are assigned, is situated in a community that is largely Mexican. The sergeant, who grew up in the neighborhood, describes the area and how the station started:
A lot of them are old families that live here. They still hold their traditions, and speak Spanish…. There were a lot of problems where officers didn't understand what some of the complainants were calling about, and vice versa, they didn't understand what the officers were looking for. So, one of the things we started was a program with them where a large group of citizens got together and we looked for officers in the police department that could help them, that they could call their own…. They asked if they could have a substation down here…and if they could have Spanish-speaking officers…. Thanks to the commander, he was able to talk to some of the deputies and chief, and try to get some officers who spoke Spanish. The community just loved it—all of a sudden they weren't afraid to talk to them.
Since the West Side substation opened, five have officers moved into the area (one married and subsequently moved away). Again, the sergeant explains:
…the officers have started to adapt to it. They feel that they've become part of the community. It's not easy to do, especially if you don't live in the area…the less you have to do with the people, if you just come here to work and head back out to the suburbs, the less you feel a part of the community. The more you interact, the more you understand community policing and the more you perform it unconsciously after while.
Within patrol, once a year officers bid for each of the three patrol districts, and shifts: they receive assignments on the basis of seniority. Officers work four-day weeks, with shifts of ten hours. The shifts have varied starting times: the day shift is 7 am to 5 pm; the afternoon shift has two starting times of 4 pm and 7 pm; the midnight shift starts at 10 pm. But supervising officers can vary these times as problems demand. The commander of each district assigns officers to specific Neighborhood Service Areas: it is not unusual for officers to remain in the same NSAs for years at a time.
Neighborhood Service Area (NSA) organization was begun as a prototype in Eastern District in 1994 under then Lieutenant Dick Gardell, and expanded throughout the City the next year. The NSA incorporates a well-defined neighborhood into a police service area. A complement of police officers and a supervising sergeant (who coordinates community-oriented policing activities) are assigned primary responsibility for each NSA. Each NSA sergeant has authority over all three shifts, and assigns officers to specific districts in the form of beats (which refer to foot patrol) or areas. Those NSAs that contain a storefront will have an officer assigned responsibility for its operation: the officer reports to the NSA sergeant. The goal in NSAs is for residents, businesses and police officers to get to know each other better, and to be able to work together on issues that affect the quality of life and public safety.
How have the NSAs affected policing? One officer describes a growing sense of identification with that turf, that geographical area, covered by the NSA:
Within the last four years, especially, it's becoming a more formalized situation in that we not only have a supervising sergeant, but you have someone who actually is focused on a neighborhood service area no matter what the shift is—days, midnight, or afternoons—we've formalized more on the team area as complaints for information come in and then that is dispersed down to the officers on the street…if a complaint comes in from a sergeant, that neighborhood service area sergeant will actually get ahold of us and say, "hey, my colleague is working this area, I've been hearing this, can you tell me about it?" Then I can give him names, addresses, phone numbers, information…. I can say "this is the complaint…." If something's really happening, it doesn't take long to get feedback.
Officers report that the system (begun two or three years ago) of tracking information and police reports generated within an NSA in the District station (by computer) has been immensely useful for NSA officers. This information pool gives them an overview of what is happening in the NSA beyond their own individual beat. Patrol officers within one NSA also provide back-up for each other: "We're all each other's information chain, and if one is tied up, I can expect that I'm going to be sent there, too."
All patrol officers are encouraged to do NSA "projects" that are essentially problem-solving efforts. To provide a permanent record, NSA projects are recorded on NSA worksheets, with documentation attached that chronicles the project's progress and resolution. One officer maintains that the "process has always been there…we're just probably documenting it a little more than we ever had to before." Officers doing a project work through their sergeant if they need assistance, and can also go outside the District for additional resources. For example, if an officer needs help from the FORCE unit, s/he will have talked it over with the sergeant, but can also communicate directly with FORCE officers. As Deputy Chief Singer (of Operations) explains, "If it can be handled at as low a level as possible, that's great."
During 1997, NSA projects addressed such problems as: people congregating around a Mission and victimizing or harassing passersby; repeat burglaries at particular businesses; disputes between neighbors; juveniles gathering (loitering, skateboarding, blocking sidewalks, intimidating clientele) in business districts and raising concerns of store owners; theft from auto incidents in the downtown commercial area; and excessive noise and music coming from a particular residence in a neighborhood and disturbing neighbors.
In spite of the problem solving efforts undertaken by patrol officers, over the past few years, calls for service have continued to increase. Citywide in 1995, Operations responded to 181,739 calls for service, a 2.3% increase over the previous year; in 1996 officers responded to 188,360 calls.
Bike Patrol, begun in June 1993 in the Northwest and East Teams, now operates out of every district. The original bike team (Lucia Wrobleski and Tim Bradley) is based in Eastern District, although they have trained bike officers around the City. Community responses have been overwhelmingly positive—in the first week of the program, officers received dinner invitations from residents in the neighborhood. They are a known, and welcome, presence for citizens. Bike officers have chased down stolen cars, responded to calls, and made arrests: "One drug dealer who was arrested complained that it wasn't fair for the police to use bikes because he couldn't hear or see them approaching."35 But they also spend considerable time on quality of life issues: with juveniles (educating them about bicycle safety, making certain that groups of young teenagers hanging around homes after school are not engaging in illegal activity, and teaching younger children Tim's "rap" song on the bike cops!), checking on "hot spots," tagging abandoned vehicles, warning individuals who blast music from cars or "boom boxes" to lower the volume. The officers who ride bike patrol claim that it is an essential part of maintaining their mental and physical health, and several say that it is a strong attraction for their remaining police officers.
34 In 1995, the Park Rangers, formerly under the St. Paul Parks Department, were transferred to SPPD jurisdiction and now operate out of this substation.
35 SPPD Annual Report, 1993, p. 10.
