Community Team Policing

Definition of Community Policing

Community Policing is a philosophy, management style, and organizational strategy that promotes pro-active problem solving and police-community partnerships to address the causes of crime and fear as well as other community concerns.

Mission Statement

We, the members of the Beaufort Police Department, are committed in the delivery of quality services. Recognizing our responsibility to maintain order, while affording dignity and respect to every individual, our objective is to improve the quality of life through a community partnership which promotes safe, secure neighborhoods.

Vision Statement

That the citizens of Beaufort will feel safe in all areas of the community, work together to solve community and neighborhood problems, and have a high level of respect, trust, and confidence in the Police Department.

Statement of Organizational Values

We, the employees of the Beaufort Police Department, believe that providing superior service to the citizens of Beaufort is our primary responsibility and that all of our work should be structured with that goal in mind. We further believe that in meeting this goal, we should be responsible to decisions made by the City Council, City Manager, the Police Chief, and the citizens of Beaufort. In order to achieve and maintain superior standards in our work performance, we are committed to the following values:

  1. Concentrated planning and decisions making involving employees participation to the greatest extent possible.
  2. Excellence in the delivery of service to the citizens of Beaufort.
  3. Consideration for the importance of the employee and recognition of individual contributions and initiative.
  4. Energetic in the pursuit of proficiency and responsibility in the performance of our work.
  5. Integrity and honesty in all aspects of service.
  6. Discussion and information shared in a constructive open and supportive manner.
  7. Impartial treatment and opportunity for all employees.

Principles

The principals of the Beaufort Police Department as adopted by City Council in the form of a Resolution on September 12, 1995.

  • WHEREAS, Community policing is based on a strategy to build a closer relationship between the citizenry and the police department which service it; and
  • WHEREAS, the community must accept and share responsibility with the police for social order, and the community and the police must work together to identify problems and develop pro-active community solutions; and
  • WHEREAS, the community, neighborhoods, families, individuals, schools, churches, local government and business must become empowered to accept the challenges and assume ownership of their community; and
  • WHEREAS, the community policing philosophy establishes priorities for police efforts which focus on customer services and satisfaction; and
  • WHEREAS, to achieve mutual trust between the police and community the police will develop and implement the concept of assigning officers to one beat for an extended period of time, promoting daily direct and positive contact between the police and community residences which will enhance friendship and understanding, and creating the opportunity for the police to get to know the public they serve; and
  • WHEREAS, community policing strongly advocates and invites community partnerships, challenging community members to take charge of their own destiny; and
  • WHEREAS, under the concept of community policing, alternatives are reviewed on how to handle situations and incidents in other ways, rather that always having to respond an officer to an incident; and
  • WHEREAS, community policing encourages all citizens to participate in community needs assessments that are sensitive to all cultural and ethnic populations within the community; and
  • WHEREAS, community oriented policing and problems solving requires a leadership style that makes more effective use of the human resources within the Beaufort Police Department and the community by developing a concept of management based on the principals of quality leadership which maintains vision and managing through values rather that rules, focus on teamwork, seeking input before decision are made, asking the people who work about ways to improve the process, customer oriented, focus on improving the systems and processes before blaming individuals, encourage creativity and risk taking that tolerates honest mistakes, creates an open climate that encourages providing and accepting feedback, developing goals and strategic plans to achieve the principals of quality leadership, and avoid top down decision making; and
  • WHEREAS, community policing is based on decentralization, with community services driven from the bottom up, which makes full use of knowledge, skill, and expertise throughout the organization; and
  • WHEREAS, under the concept of community policing there is a shifting of being incident driven to problem driven; and
  • WHEREAS, to expand the police function into a community policing concept, training will be comprehensive and open to bring about the transition in skills, attitudes, and values of the department employees.