| <No.556> |
| Community Policing Aims to Create Safer Neighborhoods |
Through the years, the city of Long Beach has struggled with gang violence, poverty, and racial tensions among residents and with police.
Community activist Darick Simpson has been working to improve relations by coordinating meetings between young people and officers.
Simpson says in a city where more than 30% of youth under 17 are poor, poverty plus racial differences become the causes of conflict.
"With any differences come some misunderstanding, because people bring their culture, they bring that history into the workplace, into schools."
While racial differences can cause conflict, Simpson says he has seen improvement over the years.
Last year, the city saw its lowest violent crime rate in more than 40 years.
So far this year, the numbers are even lower.
Don Rodriguez works with the young people in the city, and says officers are more involved with the community than ever before.
"Now we’re seeing more community people involved in the policing, working with the police, police getting a better feel of the community."
Long Beach Police Chief Jim McDonnell says in past years, officers would tell the community what the problems were and try to fix them.
But that philosophy has changed into one of "community policing" - partnering with citizens and community leaders to solve deep-rooted problems in the neighborhoods.
"We build a team.
And when you have a team, when a crisis comes up, you’re not dealing with it by yourself.
And too often when we see things get volatile across America, whether it’s a racial issue or another similar type of issue - it’s often because there aren’t those pre-existing relationships in place."
But he says even successful partnerships are not a guarantee that conflicts won’t happen.
"We will always have issues that arise.
We will always have that potential for conflict.
It’s not if it happens, it’s when, and more importantly, how we deal with it when it does happen."
McDonnell says officers need to continue to reach out to young people, and form relationships in order to change negative perceptions about the police.
Elizabeth Lee for VOA News, Long Beach |
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