Sir Robert Peale (1788-1850), a noted criminologist of the 19th Century, left us with this philosophy, which is as true today as when he spoke it,
"The police are the public, the public are the police. The police are only members of the public, who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent on EVERY citizen, in the interest of community welfare and existence."
Many times we call on the police to solve the community's problems, however, the Police are only a part of keeping our community safe. Sure the Police can improve their investigation techniques, arrest more criminals, and practice good crime prevention. But we can't do much to control the climate of crime.
The "climate of crime" means the level of comfort a criminal feels when committing the crime. Do they confident they won't get caught? Do they think witnesses won't care enough to call police? Do they think others will protect them from arrest? Or do they believe that the neighbor willcall to report their wrongdoing? Do they understand that witnesses willconfront them or at least report them? Do they sense that this community has very little tolerance for crime and disorder?
The climate of crime is primarily controlled by you. Your response to crime, your intolerance of crime, your demand for prosecution of those who threaten our quality of life assures our community will remain safe.
It is therefore our responsibility not just to patrol better, or investigate better, we need to understand how to help you control the climate of crime. We committed to partnering with you in order to employer you, moblize resources for you and learn from you in order to prevent criminals from becoming comfortable in our community.
Please take the time to visit each subsection of our Community Awareness page. Each subsection provides valuable information to help you help us keep our community safe.
