CRASHing the Gates of the Strongholdby Sheriff Ray Nash and Sgt. Brian Anderson
As law enforcement enters the 21st century, Coactive Policing has emerged as the new standard. Similar in concept to Community Oriented Policing, Coactive Policing is a principled approach to law enforcement that esteems the department's relationship with the community as the essential element in restoring law, order and peace to its neighborhoods. The term Coactive is used to illustrate the significance placed on a cooperative effort with the community. It distinguishes it from Reactive and Proactive styles that fail to address some of the root problems that produce criminal behavior. Coactive Policing advances new organizational and management strategies aimed at rebuilding the trust-based relationship so vital to our success. Coactive Policing is not about community relations. It is about community relationships.
The Dorchester County Sheriff's Office recently met the challenge of implementing a Coactive Policing initiative within our county. Under this new philosophy, we have come to realize many important, previously ignored factors. First, crime is not solely a police problem. It is a community problem -- and, as such, demands the involvement of the entire community in finding its solution. Second, law enforcement must shift its focus from one of reactively responding to and documenting crime to one of coactively solving the problems that manifest as crime.
A deeper grasp of the true nature of police work may be helpful in understanding the role of the police in a Coactive Policing effort. The American Heritage Dictionary defines policing as: the regulating and control of the affairs of a community, especially with respect to maintenance of such things as law, order, health, safety and morals.
From this definition it is clear that the police mandate includes much more than merely enforcing the law.
Sir Robert Peel, the founder of the London Metropolitan Police in the early 1800's said,
The police are the public and the public are the police. The police are simply members of the public who are paid to give full time attention to the duties that are incumbent on every citizen in the interest of community welfare and existence.
Robert Peel understood the essence of Coactive Policing: a community-based effort to fight crime and restore peace -- an effort in which the police are only one element. He understood that the police have full-time responsibility to maintain the peace and character of a community, but the citizens have a part-time responsibility. And the police cannot meet their full-time obligation effectively if the community is not willing or able to fulfill its part-time responsibility.
In Dorchester County, we began our efforts by organizing a team of stakeholders that represented the true concept of a community, a word that means "with oneness." The team consisted of law enforcement and public safety agencies, codes and zoning officials, public works, other service organizations, churches, businesses, community groups and concerned citizens. We "Prepared the Army" by investing four months in training and strategic planning sessions, not to mention more than a few prayers.
A top priority of the plan was the reclamation of communities controlled by criminals. The key to fighting crime is eliminating its source of strength -- criminal strongholds. Strongholds develop when there is a breakdown in the value system and family stability of a given neighborhood creating an environment that is conducive to crime. In these strongholds criminals operate with impunity, ruling the streets through fear and intimidation. As the social structure and moral integrity continue to decay, a general sense of helplessness and despair sets in, making the area even more attractive to the criminal element. Open air drug markets and other criminal enterprises often force law-abiding citizens to move out or seek seclusion within their homes.
As criminals become more entrenched in the stronghold, they often venture out into other neighborhoods to commit their evil deeds, then retreat back into the security of the stronghold. Thus strongholds become a major contributor to the crime and delinquency problem throughout the jurisdiction. Crime will continue to be a problem as long as the stronghold continues to exist, producing one generation of criminals after another. Conventional law enforcement methods are largely ineffective against criminal strongholds.
Strongholds can exist only in neighborhoods where community fear, apathy and tolerance for crime are high. If a community tolerates crime, it will have crime. Most likely, it will have as much crime as it is willing to tolerate. Crime rises to fill the vacuum of tolerance. Coactive Policing drives the tolerance for crime down by building working partnerships between the community and the police. It establishes a vital relationship that is intolerant of crime and seeks to solve the underlying social problems that result in crime, delinquency and neighborhood decay.
One obstacle regularly encountered is trust, or the lack thereof. Many of our communities have lost faith in law enforcement. And law enforcement has lost faith in many of our communities. Citizens often feel they are over-policed and under-protected. Law officers feel, for the most part, that we have no public support and are always quick to be criticized regardless of the situation. Nowhere is this mutual distrust more apparent than in a stronghold. Sometimes the community even trusts the criminal element more than the police -- and we end up in a serious moral crisis.
To effectively serve and protect our communities, we must reestablish this vital trust between law enforcement and the community. We must redefine this essential partnership. The community must see itself as playing an integral and necessary role in the fight to reclaim ground surrendered to the criminal element. Police must be willing to meet a new mandate, to fulfill new roles designed to solve problems and build community partnerships. The power for effective change rests in this relationship. And strong relationships are built on the foundations of trust, integrity and good character.
So, in early April 1997, the Community Response Against Strong Holds (C.R.A.S.H.) team was born in Dorchester County. C.R.A.S.H. is a comprehensive team concept designed to demolish criminal strongholds. The program is best described as a multifaceted effort to reclaim troubled neighborhoods physically, mentally and spiritually.
A plan was formulated to CRASH our first stronghold -- Stratton Capers, the county's worst stronghold. This neighborhood had been a haven for drug-dealers and other criminals for over twenty years. It was a typical stronghold. Abandoned homes, overgrown lots, debris and abandoned vehicles littered the neighborhood. Residents were scared and intimidated. A spirit of helplessness, despair and depression was almost palpable. The Sheriff's Office was not trusted, nor particularly welcomed by residents. No one but the criminals dared venture out after dark.
We knew Stratton Capers would be a challenge when we discovered that all of its streets are named after criminals -- names such as Dalton, Dillinger and Younger. Even the name "Capers" means crime. If we could reclaim Stratton Capers by taking it away from the criminals and returning ownership to the good people that still lived there, we felt we could reclaim any stronghold.
On May 1 the plan went into effect. A new organizational structure based on patrol districts was implemented. The goal was to bring the deputies into a closer relationship with citizens and make them more responsive to the real needs of the communities. Each district was to function as a largely autonomous "police department" with the district lieutenant functioning as its "police chief." This was by far the greatest organizational change to take place at the Sheriff's Office, but the deputies soon embraced the philosophy and rose to meet the new challenges placed before them.
The agency began the process of shifting from an organizational philosophy that was almost exclusively achievement-based to one based on the principles of good character. Character First TM and Police Dynamics training were implemented on a department-wide basis and continue to this day.
Then the C.R.A.S.H. Team began its work. The first order of business was to "Breach the Wall" by establishing a point of contact, a toehold in the stronghold. In the case of Stratton Capers, it was a Christian community center called the Lighthouse Mission. The Lighthouse became our base of operations and it was from here that we began our initial entry into the heart of Stratton Capers.
The "kick-off" day, set for May 10, included a block party as well as a special Law Enforcement Parade designed especially for Stratton Capers. Deputies, their spouses, reserve deputies, cadets, EMS personnel, firefighters and children from the neighborhood went door-to-door handing out flyers and talking to residents at every household. The response was overwhelmingly positive. We knew then that the block party, the parade and the insertion of the C.R.A.S.H. Team would be a success.
May 10 was a beautiful morning. The block party began at 10:00 a.m. and, before the day ended, over 300 people were enjoying the live music, clowns, puppet shows, food and fellowship. We "Organized the Resistance" when the Sheriff conducted a meeting to explain the dynamic of strongholds and empower the residents to take back their own streets.
We literally "Paraded the Troops" that evening with about thirty vehicles and units from local law enforcement, fire service, EMS and other county agencies. A special treat was given to the neighborhood children by allowing them to ride in the parade. One group riding in the Sheriff's vehicle sang "Bad boys, bad boys, whatcha gonna do!" at the top of their lungs for the entire route. A resident enjoying the parade commented that the drug business was awfully slow that night with all the blue lights in the neighborhood.
On May 29, we "Purified the 'Hood" with a community clean-up day. The C.R.A.S.H. Team along with churches, AmeriCorps, crime watch organizations, boy scout troops, county inmates, community members and a host of other participants removed over 60 tons of trash and debris from the neighborhood. The spirit of the day was catching as many residents began to clean up their property that had been neglected for years.
Since that day Stratton Capers has established a civic association that remains active in the neighborhood reclamation project. We "Established a Permanent Presence" when an old home that was renovated by county inmates became our new Sheriff's sub-station. Property next to the sub-station was donated for a playground and a volunteer organization called A.L.E.R.T. built the playground equipment with materials donated from local businesses.
The C.R.A.S.H. Team has moved on to focus on other strongholds, but our presence can still be seen and felt. We made a positive impact on the community. We greatly exceeded our goals. Certainly our work is not yet done in this neighborhood, but an amazing transformation has occurred. Stratton Capers is truly a different place and, through continued support, it will
remain a productive community.
A wise physician knows that he is incapable of healing anyone. All he can do is stabilize the body until it can heal itself. That's what we did in Stratton Capers -- stabilized the community until it could heal itself.
Our success in Stratton Capers can best be expressed in the words of a resident who moved into one of the formerly abandoned homes that once riddled the neighborhood. When asked by the Sheriff how she liked living there, she said, "I love this neighborhood. It's so quiet!"
Ray Nash is the Sheriff in Dorchester County, S.C. and President of the Police Dynamics Institute.
Brian Anderson is a Sergeant with the Sheriff's Office serving as Special Projects Coordinator.