[Grovenet] Policing in the Grove
Elisabeth Genly
ebgenly at yahoo.com
Tue Mar 11 23:42:24 PDT 2008
Richard, I agree with you that the drug mess is multifactorial. I'd appreciate it, though, if you could you be a little more specific on what you think police could do that would be "holistic," regarding meth? Also, you are right that loss of positive nurturing is pretty disastrous. Loss of brain cells is even worse. Meth babies (as with fetal alcohol syndrome babies) are permanently and severely damaged.
Beth
----- Original Message ----
From: R Goerling <rgoerling at comcast.net>
To: Forest Grove local interests list <grovenet at rdrop.com>
Sent: Monday, March 10, 2008 11:21:30 PM
Subject: Re: [Grovenet] Policing in the Grove
Katie,
Thank you. The sharing of your insights and concerns are quite valuable,
and I suspect are echoed by much of the community. Here's a few of my
thoughts:
Meth
The methamphetamine epidemic has delivered devastating consequences to
families and our communities throughout Oregon. All of us, it seems, know
someone directly impacted by this powerfully addictive illegal substance.
And, all of us are indirectly impacted through indirect financial and social
costs. Economist can, and have, quantified the financial costs associated
with meth. I think the less quantifiable and perhaps most significant cost
is the long-term social costs to our communities; primarily the degradation
of positive nurturing of our children so they have the tools to grow into
productive adults with values that teach them to participate in their
community. Sadly, we will see these social costs carry long into our future
and children's future. The positive here is this: human beings,
particularly children, are resilient and capable of overcoming incredible
adversity in their lives. So, our police agencies must find a way to
actively participate in the holistic problem solving in this very
complicated dilemma of drug addiction. Yes we need enforcement, but we
perhaps even more so need creative, adaptive community building efforts that
partner with community stakeholders to address the multi-faceted issues that
drive criminal behaviors.
Traffic Safety
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) publishes annual
data on traffic safety. The most current information is from 2006 and is
published on their web site at www.nhtsa.gov. If you¹ve never browsed this
site, I¹d encourage you to check it out. Here¹s a few key findings from
NHTSA:
-the economic cost to the United States for speed-related traffic crashes
exceeds $40 billion annually;
-Traffic crashes are the leading cause of death for people aged 2-34;
-the economic cost to the United States for ALL traffic crashes exceeds $200
billion annually;
-seat belts increase survivability of traffic crashes; 82 percent of drivers
use safety belts.
Even if we temper the statistics, as a reasonable person should, we can
acknowledge that traffic safety ought to be a priority in our communities.
How this fleshes out in education and enforcement is the clear issue being
discussed in these threads on GroveNet. We should enforce our traffic laws.
How we do this, and how we treat drivers when we have contact, and sometimes
conflict, with them is critical.
Our population, and hence our traffic density, will only increase in the
years to come. With this growth comes additional traffic safety risks that
must be mitigated, in part, through enforcement. Police departments also
need to participate with transportation and planning entities in government
as well as community groups to develop strategies to enhance traffic safety
through planning, design, education and enforcement. The negative
perceptions that seem to come from traffic enforcement stem from, I believe,
communication failures at the individual and organization level. Frankly,
we can and should treat people with courtesy and respect, even with issuing
citations. Clearly, law enforcement across the nation fails at this
challenge all too often, leaving lots of anecdotal testimony to fuel
television shows like RENO 911 and movies such as SuperTroopers. [These
shows are funny, but we often laugh at what annoys us the most; healthy, but
a symptom that tells us perhaps we have room for improvement.] Through
collaborative partnerships with our community, we can strive to reach out to
our citizens and keep them informed of our traffic safety strategies and
results. This kind of transparency of government is critical to avoid
allegations and/or perceptions that traffic enforcement is merely a revenue
generating tool to fund vacations to the Bahamas.
Communication TO the Police Department
Those of us in law enforcement do a lot of communicating to our citizens.
We present on key crime prevention topics, we issue traffic citations, we
answer questions, we seem to always be talking! What we can do better is
LISTEN. As strange as it may sound, this is a skill that we constantly need
to train toward to ensure that we capture and process what citizens are
trying to convey to us. This starts with training effective interpersonal
communication skills into our police officers and staff and carries on into
an organizational culture that understands and values its community
stakeholders and their role in partnership for community livability.
For non-emergency matters that are urgent, their does exist a
³non-emergency² phone number for police/fire/medical dispatch. What I
³hear² in your email Katie is that we perhaps ought to have a line of
communication open to discuss, well, stuff that matters but doesn¹t require
emergency (or urgent) response. This is outstanding feedback and I¹ll
ensure that it gets heard by your police department regardless of the
outcome of my own pursuit of a leadership role in Forest Grove policing.
Thanks again for taking the time to respond with such thoughtfulness.
Best regards,
Richard
> From: Katie Allnutt <allnutt at verizon.net>
> Reply-To: Forest Grove local interests list <grovenet at rdrop.com>
> Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2008 14:30:58 -0700
> To: Forest Grove local interests list <grovenet at rdrop.com>
> Subject: Re: [Grovenet] Policing in the Grove
>
> Richard,
> I'm not sure that my comments will be helpful in the sense that
> you are asking. Policing is one of those things where people really
> don't think much about their officers until something goes wrong.
> Then they want and need full services that may or may not have been
> put in place because up until then they have been ignoring you.
> I have been fortunate in that my family has not been touched by
> the meth epidemic but I know there are many houses and neighbors here
> in FG that have been. Obviously the new law that takes the active
> ingredients off the store shelves has helped but it still seems to
> lead to many property crimes and the heartbreaking abandonment of
> small children (or not so small children) by parents who are
> addicted. This is probably an area that will require constant
> attention.
> For me personally, I am beginning to pay a lot of attention to
> the safety issues surrounding teen age drivers, since my teens are in
> that age bracket. Traffic enforcement is a good thing. If my kid is
> in a car not wearing a seat belt whether they are a driver or a
> passenger I would be happy for the car to be pulled over and
> ticketed. The same for speeding, running red lights, driving the
> wrong way on our one way streets. (My wisdom as a parent was
> reinforced when my teen ager was getting driving hours here in FG and
> sure enough when she was driving, somebody turned onto Pacific going
> the wrong way headed right for us. Fortunately, it was a few blocks
> ahead and they recognized their mistake soon enough to turn into a
> nearby parking lot, but it did reinforce in her mind that these
> things, while rare, do happen and your job is to watch out for the
> unexpected. Parents are right sometimes.)
> If I had one suggestion that I think would improve police services
> here in FG would be for there to be an easily identified non
> emergency phone number for people to call 24 hrs for things that are
> suspicious but not emergencies. The office # is only answered during
> working hours and some circumstances do not require a 911 call. I
> think you could get some valuable information about problems before
> they grow into problems if there was a way for people to report
> things that they would like to tell you without having to use 911. I
> know that is expensive but it would be another avenue for keeping a
> pulse on the community.
> I don't have any major gripes or problems with the police. In all
> my interactions here in FG they have always been helpful and
> professional.
>
> Katie
>
>
>
> On Mar 8, 2008, at 3:59 PM, R Goerling wrote:
>
>> Hello all- I¹ve been following discussion threads for the last few
>> weeks
>> and thought I¹d introduce myself and, hopefully, initiate a
>> discussion to
>> gain some insight to what members of Grove-Net consider important
>> issues for
>> their police agencies.
>>
>> I have recently applied for consideration for the Chief of Police
>> position
>> with the Forest Grove Police Department. Please feel free to visit my
>> website at www.rgoerling.com for more information about me, my
>> background,
>> the value I believe I bring to our community public safety efforts
>> and my
>> policing philosophies.
>>
>> As I further explore what our community stakeholders think about
>> police
>> services, I would love to know what each of you think with regard
>> to the
>> questions below.
>>
>> 1. What are some critical issues facing public safety in Washington
>> County,
>> specifically (or not) Forest Grove?
>> 2. What is your police department doing well?
>> 3. What can your police department do better?
>>
>> Thank you for reading my post. I appreciate your time and look
>> forward to
>> learning from this group.
>>
>> Best Regards,
>>
>> Richard Goerling
>>
>>
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>
>
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