Effective and Personal Policing. To reduce administrative overhead and operating costs, it’s common for businesses, schools, healthcare providers, law enforcement, and other organizations to centralize services and standardize practices. However, a cookie cutter approach to providing services in a one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t treat people as individuals. This is where personalized services prove to be more effective. A recent trend in law enforcement is to provide community-based personalized policing that builds relationships. Iowa City is at the forefront in this regard. In the video below, City Manager Tom Markus goes out to the Iowa City Police Substation to talk with Crime Prevention Officer Jorey Bailey.
Selected Quote From the Video. In the quote below, Crime Prevention Officer Jorey Bailey describes the importance of building relationships with youth in a community.
“One of the major missions that I set forth is building our relationships; relationships with the community and relationships with the youth. That perception of police can be based on a very small or short timed interaction; five seconds or five minutes, and maybe that person is not even directly involved in that interaction, but they can take away from it a certain perception of the police. So one thing I strive to do is build on relationships. Put a smiling face with the uniform. Law enforcement officers are seen as a group based on what we wear, really, our uniform. So, if I can put a smiling face and create a positive interaction with the uniform then I’m really helping to build upon those relationships and create good interactions in the future for those patrol officers who are out there on the streets.” ~ Crime Prevention Officer Jorey Bailey
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Sources. The above video and materials were compiled from the following sources.
- Iowa City Police Department Web Page – Above story featured as of 5 June 2013.
- City Channel 4 – Iowa City in Focus Spotlight Video