NCJ Number
188060
Journal
Police Chief Volume: 68 Issue: 3 Dated: March 2001 Pages: 74-77
Editor(s)
Charles E. Higginbotham
Date Published
March 2001
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This article discusses the community policing effort of the High Point, North Carolina Deputy Cook Project addressing the concerns and needs of the increased elderly population and their potential victimization.
Abstract
With the increase in the number of elderly people living in the United States, new problems and issues have risen for the criminal justice system. The elderly population has become easy and lucrative targets for criminals involving them in fraudulent schemes and scams. In addition, police officers are finding themselves rendering elderly citizens services beyond victim assistance. In response to the demands placed on police officers to respond to elderly assistance calls, the Deputy Cook Project was initiated under the High Point, North Carolina Police Department. Through working with various community and faith-based programs officers identified a pool of elderly individuals who would benefit from a regular visit from a police officer. The Project database lists participants’ names, birthdays, emergency contacts or family members, as well as medical conditions, physicians’ names and numbers. The database is linked to the High Point computer-aided dispatch (CAD) system. When an officer is dispatched to check the elderly participant’s welfare, the officer can access the database and retrieve contact information, hopefully reducing the number of forced entries. Training is being provided to officers on how to communicate with elderly citizens. Each officer is paired with a elderly participant in the program who lives in the officer’s beat. In addition to physical aid, the officers help the elderly participants feel safer. The underlying program goal is safety. The article addresses several positive results since initiation of the Project. Elderly participants began meeting their neighbors and establishing relationships; officers became better able to recognize possible scams, preventing the homebound from becoming victims; and the Project sometimes improved an estranged family relationship. The only concern discussed by police officers about the program was those of time constraints due to shift rotation and elderly participants wanting to continue talking to the officer. The High Point Project shows community policing at its finest.