Police
Department Launches New Beat Plan |
By Jorge Casuso
October 30 -- For the first time in four decades, local
police will be walking a different beat after Santa Monica’s
long-established patrol areas were restructured under a plan to
bring traditional community policing to the beachside city.
The newly drawn beats -- which correspond more closely to neighborhood
boundaries and take into better account the city’s geography
-- will be patrolled 24-hours a day by officers assigned an areas
for at least six months at a time.
“Every square inch of the city will be connected with a name
and a face,” said Lt. Pasquale "P.J." Guido. “Everyone
will know who works in that area of the city.
“We want officers in the field,” Guido said. “We
want them patrolling their areas. At least one officer will be assigned
to one beat per shift. This allows the community to get to know
their officers.”
The new beat areas eliminate artificial boundaries that made it
difficult to patrol the old beats, Guido said. For instance, some
of the beat areas were divided by the 10 Freeway and the beach,
despite the bluffs, were part of beats high above the shoreline.
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| New baet area map. For map of old beat areas click
here. (Maps courtesy of Santa Monica Police Department) |
Under the new plan, the Pico area beat will mirror the neighborhood
boundaries and stretch east to the city’s border, and the
area North of Montana will comprise a separate beat, instead of
being divided into two beats that stretched south to Santa Monica
Boulevard.
The freeway will no longer split beats making it difficult to cross
at many of the streets, and the beach area will run the length of
the city along the shore, police officials said.
“The beach is such a unique landscape, it’s now one
beat area,” Guido said.
Launched less than one year after Police Chief Timothy Jackman
took over the City’s top law enforcement post, the plan replaces
the “Neighborhood Centered Policing” instituted by former
Chief James T. Butts, Jr.
Butts’ model came under criticism from some residents and
community activists who felt it was more talk than walk and complained
they didn’t know the officers assigned to the beats.
The model instituted by Jackman, who frequently strolls Santa Monica’s
streets, will make the officers “more accountable,”
Guido said.
“We acknowledge the shortcomings of community-based policing”
as previously practiced in the city,” Guido said. “It
needed to be from the bottom up, instead of the top down. For community
based policing to work, you need to be flexible.”
Under the previous program, lieutenants and neighborhood service
area coordinators worked directly with the community.
The new plan is more of a throwback to the days when a neighborhood
had its own officer who took a special interest in the lives of
the residents, said Sgt. Steve Heineman, who has been in charge
of the pier detail.
“When I was growing up, the beat cop came upstairs for a
smoke and a cup of coffee,” said Heineman, who grew up in
New York City. “He would pick up the stickball bat and play
with the kids."
The new patrol plan guarantees that an officer will be on every
beat at all times, instead of being shifted to a busy area as needed,
police officials said.
“Before, patrol officers were not dedicated” to an
area, Heineman said. “Now 24/7 there will be an officer assigned.”
“We’ll put more officers in busy areas during peak
hours, (which) allows for patrolling all other areas,” Guido
said.
Under the new plan officers will be assigned to a beat for at least
six months, instead of being able to petition for a transfer at
any time, police officials said.
“We want to be more collaborative and personal with he public,”
Heineman said. “We want to make a lot more of a relationship,
as opposed to a contact.”
Although police officials say the plan is not etched in stone and
will likely change and evolve with experience, they are confident
it is a major step forward.
“It’s a comprehensive map, it’s a solid plan,
and I think it will be around for a long time,” Guido said.
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