Category: Agency Serving a Population of 50,001 to 100,000 Residents
The Problem
The Marietta Police Department was once a 911- driven agency, which only reacted to reports of crime and disturbances. Police personnel were not encouraged, recognized or rewarded for efforts to solve community problems or build community ties. Seeing that a mechanism was needed to partner the police with the community, the department started a community-policing effort in 1997. This resulted in the implementation of a Community Outreach Unit. In addition to the allocation of resources to community policing, departmental personnel were trained in community policing. The department’s reward system also was restructured. Supervisors were instructed to reward those active in community policing, not only through evaluations, which were connected to merit raises, but also with formal and informal praise, recognition and commendations. Officers who took the extra effort to work with citizens to solve problems were recognized as the new leaders of the department. Even with these monumental organizational changes, the department knew more needed to be done.
The culmination of the department’s community partnership initiative came to fruition in 2000 with the kickoff of the Marietta Strategically Targeting Areas with Resources (M-STAR) program. This program, a result of years of intensive teamworkbased study and research, brought together police officers, citizens and members of other city departments as problem-solving teams. The city was divided into five zones, all administrated by a police commander. Each commander, with a diverse zone management team of police officers, city employees from other departments and community members, was responsible for reducing crime and improving quality of life issues in his or her zones.
The Solution
When Chief Bobby Moody took over the department in 1996, he began its transition to a community-policing philosophy. The department took some initial steps toward changing the organizational culture of the agency, but it soon became apparent that the department needed a vehicle to address two specific issues: a lack of community empowerment and a lack of accountability for police resources that were dedicated to public service. While some departmental units were working successfully hand-in-hand with isolated communities in the city, many neighborhoods within the city and most of the department’s personnel were still trapped in a reactive 911-driven atmosphere. This problem was voiced by citizens and officers alike. The police command staff recognized the need and researched the possibilities.
The main objective of the initiative was to empower the various communities within the City of Marietta to address issues and concerns within their neighborhoods with assistance from police and other city officials. Citizens were to be encouraged to address problems involving quality of life issues as well as reporting crime. Police objectives included: providing a forum for the public to make their concerns known, addressing quality of life issues, addressing and reducing crime, and maintaining accountability of police resources toward those ends.
Once the problem was identified, the chief of police and senior police staff researched other community-policing initiatives around the country in search of a system that would provide empowerment to citizens to be involved in decision-making and problem-solving, while simultaneously putting accountability for resources on police officers. The NYPD Compstat process was studied, and the chief and senior command staff decided to adopt a similar process, but to enhance it by adding community involvement as the main ingredient in the process.
The city was divided into five zones, and a commander was assigned to each. Zone management teams then were created for each zone. The teams consisted of a commander, a lieutenant, two sergeants and six patrol officers. A patrol officer was selected from each shift, the community outreach unit, the traffic unit and investigative services. In addition to the police officials, members from the other city departments were selected. Each management team had representatives from the fire department, code enforcement and various city departments. Once these members were selected, the teams added residents and business owners from the community. The end result was a core group of city officials and citizens that was dedicated to each zone.
The zone commanders were held accountable for their assigned zones. Crime statistics were analyzed monthly to identify crime spikes and problem areas. Town hall meetings were held quarterly in each zone, and all residents and business owners were invited to attend and actively participate. These meetings were designed to distribute information, but also gave community members the opportunity to voice any needs, issues or concerns they had, as well as offer input on developing solutions. The commanders then met with their zone management teams to discuss and develop plans to address identified problems. Once a month, the commanders met with the chief and deputy chiefs to review crime statistics and the progress made on previously identified problems.
The program had the added benefit of tracking progress through the use of zone action forms. When a citizen or officer had a need, issue or concern, an action form was generated. The commander assigned a tracking number to the form and forwarded it to the appropriate team member with suggestions on how to address the problem. Some issues required long-term solutions and could not be handled quickly. However, most concerns could be resolved quickly.
An important feature of the M-STAR program is the fact that while it was created by the department as a community-policing mechanism, City Manager Bill Bruton saw immediately that the program had even more potential. He quickly adopted the program on a city-wide basis giving the community access to city services by simply making their concerns known to the city’s most visible front line employees, police officers. Police officers then had the city’s entire resources available. The old line “that’s not a police problem” quickly became ancient history in the vocabulary of a Marietta police officer. Whether the issue was related to law enforcement, fire services, zoning, code enforcement, sanitation or the electrical department, officers on the street now had the entire resources of the city available in their arsenal to assist citizens in problem-solving efforts.
Evaluation
There are numerous performance indicators built into the program. These indicators are in the form of statistical analysis, peer review, citizen feedback and performance evaluations. As a result of the M-STAR program, crime and quality of life issues were addressed on a regular basis by zone management teams. In the first two full years of the program, Part I crime was reduced by 13.3 percent in year one and 4.1 percent in year two. A vehicle for police and community partnership had proven more than successful, resulting in a model for others to follow.
During monthly internal M-STAR meetings, zone commanders appear before the deputy chiefs and chiefs to respond to crime trends and quality of life issues. This entire meeting consists mostly of an onthe- job performance measurement indicator. Crime statistics are presented for each of the five zones, and the commanders are put on the spot with regard to what their zone management team is doing to curtail problems. Particular attention is given to creativity in problem-solving and to the proper use of resources. Exemplary performance or lack of performance is recognized. Overall performance as a zone commander also is cited on the commander’s annual performance evaluation, which is tied to merit raises.
Commanders hold quarterly town hall meetings in their zones where they discuss crime statistics and quality of life issues with citizens. Citizens and police executives review the performance of the department and other city departments at the quarterly M-STAR town hall meetings through comments and followup questions.
In addition to built-in performance indicators, the department regularly conducts surveys of citizen satisfaction and employee satisfaction. Some recent surveys included:
- Officer job satisfaction has increased from 3.5 on a scale of 1-5 in 1996 (pre-community policing) to 3.8 on the same survey in 2002 (postcommunity policing).
- Eighty percent of respondents felt the department “met or exceeded their expectations.”
- A majority of officers felt that the program increased citizen satisfaction.
All of these performance indicators are monitored closely to ensure that M-STAR is meeting its objectives of community empowerment and police resource accountability. As a result of the M-STAR program, many members of the various communities within the City of Marietta were able to bring forth issues and concerns to be addressed and assisted in resolving them in a hands-on manner. Thanks to this empowerment of citizens, numerous quality of life issues in the city were improved. Just a few of those issues include:
- Painting over graffiti.
- Brighter streetlights to replace dim lights in high crime areas.
- Successfully addressing zoning issues through Cobb County for run-down properties that bordered City of Marietta properties.
- Reducing false alarms at businesses through positive exchanges with management.
- Repairing broken fire hydrants.
- Condemning numerous dilapidated homes.
- Closing businesses that were operating illegally out of homes.
- Arresting drug dealers and prostitutes on street corners.
- Developing a temporary police task force to intensify enforcement efforts in a high crime area.
These are just a small list of accomplishments achieved due to a new partnership between the police department, community and city government. This list grows each day as members of the community take advantage of a city dedicated to community problem-solving. The department did expect quality of life to improve in the community, but underestimated the great effect it would have.
