Community police: a different face of law enforcement

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Christopher Reel
  • 325th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. --  At school stops, the Tyndall Youth Center and on the streets in base housing, residents are likely to find a friendly hello from their Tyndall Community Police officer.

The eight-member team, who recently retired their white polo shirts for blue ones as part of the transition to ACC, are the liaison between the base residence community and law enforcement.

"The Community Police program was initiated in 2008 with the intended philosophy of officers having a more in-depth and personal interaction with the community," Tech. Sgt. Clint Wright, NCO in charge of Community Police. "Our operations facility is in the heart of the community. By having the same individuals out in the community, we are going to get more face-to-face interactions with the families in base housing."

The community police patrols are dedicated to base housing, the wooded areas surrounding it and Tyndall's waterways.

"We have kids come up to and say 'hi Mr. Diaz' or 'hi Officer Wright' and that is a great thing," said Corporal Juan Diaz, Community Police NCOIC assistant. "Having that kind of relationship with the members of our community is extremely important. Our dedication to be involved within the community lets families be less intimidated by our officers and to know that we're here to help."

They implement surveillance programs such as house watch, where base residents can inform community police they are going out of town and the Community Police team will take shifts to keep an eye on the individuals' homes.

"During the first year of the Community Police program, petty crimes such as graffiti and curfew breaches dropped 60 percent," said Cpl. Diaz. "Because of our active interaction with the community, many residents feel comfortable enough to come to us to report issues. Even the little kids are great at giving out information to help us do our job. And when we have an idea of possible juvenile concerns, we do our best to mentor them."

Mentorship is a key component in the Community Police's method of crime deterrence.

"Our members often go to the Tyndall Youth Center to help out and talk to the kids there," Sergeant Wright said. "Our members talk to the families when they're out doing foot patrols or when we host one of our many community events."

Community police educate and interact through a number of facets. Fear Adrenalized Stress Training defense courses are held once a month, rotating for adult women one month and children the following month.

The course is designed to teach all ages how to avoid dangerous situations and, if already in one, how to react and handle it.

In addition to the FAST classes, they team up with Balfour Beatty to host bike rodeos, which are interactive events to teach Team Tyndall dependents the importance of riding bikes safely.

Another large partnered event is National Night Out. The 2012 event hosted more than 400 guests. The annual event is celebrated across the nation to heighten crime and drug prevention awareness as well as fuse a stronger bound to communities and those that protect them.

Other events include Goblin Patrol during Halloween trick-or-treating and Kid-ID.

"The Kid-ID program is a great program parents should take advantage of," said Sergeant Wright. "Parents can make an appointment or can stop by our office to have their child's statistics, thumb print, picture and address uploaded into a database. We then take that information and put it all on a card that we laminate and then home deliver."

If a child should go missing on base, in the local community, or even on a family vacation, the parents can present that card to the reporting officer, and they'll immediately have the information needed to put out an alert, explained Cpl. Diaz.

"Parents are already overwhelmed at this point," Cpl. Diaz added. "This way parents can hand over the card and not have to be overwhelmed with the persistent questioning. And while doing so it reduces the time of the report process and increases the response time of finding the child."

Other responsibilities of Community Police are patrolling the streets of base housing by foot, bike, boat and car, patrolling the wooded areas and shorelines by all-terrain-vehicles, as well as the bases surrounding waterways.

"When we are in the boats patrolling the waterways, we are doing a few main things," Sergeant Wright said. "We act as a visual deterrent, provide a presence which ensures people are staying safe out on the water, and we are trained emergency responders so if someone need's medical attention we can assist. If we come across individuals who seem suspicious or are doing something illegal, we monitor them until Coast Guard officials or Bay County's boat police arrive.

"Though patrols are necessary to keep our installation and our residents safe, we would rather be spending our time within our community educating and interacting," Sergeant Wright added. "One thing many don't know about the Community Police program is that our unit members are hand selected for the job. Our commander allows us to select just a sampling of our great Airmen from other areas in security forces to come out and work within the housing community. Those units then have to pick up the workload of those Airmen's work area. This program is just as important to us as any other aspect of our duties as it benefits our community, while keeping our base safe."