CPD reports on second Team Policing project

Crime and the fear of crime is down in an eastern Carthage neighborhood, according to the Carthage Police Department, thanks to a program that puts police officers in contact with residents of specific neighborhoods in the city.

Carthage Police Capt. Randee Kaiser reported to the Carthage City Council on Tuesday on the department’s second Team Policing project which is winding down this week.

Kaiser said the project may be coming to an end in the neighborhood between Clinton and River streets on the west and east and Central and Chestnut avenues on the north and south, but CPD Officers Michael Whitehead and Max Roark will continue to pay special attention to the area in their daily routine.

“We don’t just walk away from this area now that we’re done with it, we still continue with the maintenance program,” Kaiser said. “Some of the things that it involves is if there are calls for service from this area after we’re done, one of the Team Policing officers will go back and follow up with that call. If we have a call of a domestic dispute or a peace disturbance, or some sort of assault, an officer will go back and follow up and see if there is more that can be done to help that out.”

Kaiser said call logs show the number of calls for service in the area is down 47 percent from July to December.

He said a survey taken by officers in July and in December shows that the actual fear of crime among neighborhood residents is down significantly as well.

“It’s one thing to affect a decrease of actual crime, but it’s something far different to affect the decrease of the fear of crime,” Kaiser said. “As you guys know, if crime is really not that bad and things are in good shape statistically, but people fear that there is crime because of things they see in the neighborhood, that’s really what’s important. We dramatically changed that in the course of this project. You can see some of the accomplishments.”

Kaiser said Officers Whitehead and Roark knocked on all 208 doors in the neighborhood and got to know as many of the residents as possible.

The officers tried to find out what they needed to make their lives better, not just what was needed to reduce crime.

“Usually in a law enforcement capacity, when we come to someone’s house, we’re dealing with a specific criminal matter and in fact, if it’s not a criminal matter, a lot of times we’ll tell people, hey this is a civil matter, you really need to address it in a different forum than this,” Kaiser said. “With the team policing concept, we’re handling issues that aren’t necessarily law enforcement related.”

During a community work day held in the neighborhood on Oct. 8, more than 100 volunteers came into the neighborhood and cleaned up yards and streets and helped specific residents with minor home improvement projects.

“Before that day we went to the houses as part of our survey and we said what kind of needs, like physical needs do you have,” Kaiser said. “One person said they had a new front door for her house but she didn’t have the knowledge or the ability to put it in. I’ve got it here and my old front door is falling down. We made a note of it and on this workday all of these issues, we got 100-plus volunteers who had the knowledge and the ability and the skills to work on those kinds of things and so they actually came in and did a lot of this work.”

Kaiser said the owner of the home where the door was replaced, Wendy Chavez, expressed her appreciation to the department.
“I hold back the tears every time I walk to my front door. I never thought we could have people like this that would care as much as they did to help my family.” Wendy Chavez told the officers.