Campus Police

• About MCPD
• Mission Statement
• COP: Community
  Oriented Policing
• Parking Regulations
• Crime Statistics
• Right to Know Info.:
  The Clery Act
• Police Officers
• Community Service Assistants (CSA)
• Lost and Found
• Rights and Responsibilities of Students

COP: Community Oriented Policing

Community Oriented Policing involves the following ten principles:

1. Community policing is both a philosophy and an organizational strategy.
2. Community policing's organizational strategy first demands that everyone in the department, including both civilian and sworn personnel must investigate new ways to translate the philosophy into practice.
3. To implement true community policing, police departments must also create and develop a new breed of line officer, the Community Policing Officer (CPO).
4. The Community Policing Officer's broad role demands continuous, sustained contact with law-abiding people in the community.
5. Community policing implies a new contract between the police and the citizens it serves, one that offers the hope of overcoming widespread apathy, at the same time it restrains any impulse to vigilantism.
6. Community policing adds a vital proactive element to the traditional reactive role of the police, resulting in full spectrum police service.
7. Community policing stresses exploring new ways to protect and enhance the lives of those who are most vulnerable--juveniles, the elderly, minorities, the poor, the disabled, the homeless.
8. Community policing promotes the judicious use of technology.
9. Community policing must be a fully integrated approach that involves everyone in the department, with the CPOs as specialists in bridging the gap between the police and the people they serve.
10. Community policing provides decentralized, personalized police service to the community.

The philosophy of community oriented policing is a sharp departure from the traditional model of law enforcement. It is characterized as proactive, decentralized and creative. It hinges on the expanded role of individual police officers working with the community to establish a partnership that facilitates problem solving.

Successful C.O.P. programs will take officers out of their patrol vehicles more often and have them spend time in crime prevention and public relations efforts with students, staff, and visitors. The on-site presence of patrol officers and the opportunity for one-on-one contacts in and around the facilities develop special relationships for solving crime and security problems.

Factors contributing to the birth of community oriented policing are:

• The isolation of officers in police cars.
• The narrowing of the police mission to crime fighting.
• A scientific approach to management that stressed efficiency more and effectiveness.