By Cait Purinton, Topeka Capital Journal (Kansas)
The Topeka Police Department is restructuring its patrol territories and how officers respond to reported crimes to better use police resources and take a more proactive approach to law enforcement.
“We want to make community policing a philosophy and not a program,” Maj. John Sidwell said during a Topeka City Council work session Tuesday.
To increase the number of officers on the streets, the police department’s plan would absorb the flex shift, anti-crime team, DUI squad, a sergeant from scientific investigations and a corporal from the narcotics unit into the regular shifts.
Sidwell said the changes would make better use of manpower, create flexibility to address crime trends and create an atmosphere to promote officer ownership. The change also would reduce the number of officers reporting to each supervisor.
The first step is redrawing the boundaries for the police department’s patrol territories.
Sidwell said the territories don’t reflect population growth and crime trends, stretching some officers too thin.
“When you distribute personnel by territory, you end up with some who are buried in calls and others who have time to do proactive work,” Sidwell said. “This is designed so everyone in town has opportunities for proactive work.”
The city is divided into 14 patrol territories that are grouped into four zones, and the zones are organized under two command areas.
The command areas - east/north and west - are divided along S.W. Topeka Boulevard. Under the police department’s proposal, the command areas would be split by 17th Street, creating a north command and south command.
About 39 percent of the city’s crime is reported in the east/north command and 61 percent is reported in the west command, Sidwell said.
Based on 2003 crime statistics, he said changing the command areas will even out the call load.
The plan also would increase the number of zones to six and decrease the patrol territories to 12.
Sidwell said statistics from the existing 14 territories show the workload ranges from 3 percent to 12 percent of Topeka’s overall crime.
Redrawing the boundaries and going to 12 territories would even the workload, he said.
The plan is to take effect Jan. 1.