Increasing the Effectiveness and Efficiency of Rural Police Departments

• NCJ Number: 167170
• Date Published: 1997
• Length: 23 pages
• Grant Number(s): 95-IJ-CX-0080
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored
• Publication Type: Program/Project Evaluation

Annotation

This project determined the feasibility of increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of law enforcement agencies in rural areas of New York State and the benefits of collaboration between rural police departments and other community organizations on community policing initiatives.

Abstract

The project focused on the villages of Alfred and Wellsville, both located in Allegany County. Project goals were to obtain information from organizations on community policing activities and to assess the willingness of such organizations to work as partners on projects. These organizations included village, county, and State governments, as well as law enforcement agencies and citizens. Data were obtained on the availability of county and local organizations that would provide resources to implement programs, patterns in police crime reports and calls for service, attitudes of law enforcement officers, and community attitudes. Several projects were initiated to test the feasibility of collaborative efforts. Findings revealed a strong interest in community policing projects and the feasibility of implementing community policing projects in an efficient manner. Obstacles to collaboration concerned diverse agency missions, political legitimacy, geographic dispersion, assessment procedures, and case processing information. An appendix provides information on two community forums used to obtain information from organizations and citizens.