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RETHINKING FOOT PATROL

 By John Fuller

 Fact: An aggressive, street smart police officer, working an active post, can develop as many (or more) quality cases and arrests working foot patrol as he (or she) can working motorized patrol.

 For those police commanders who can remember when foot patrol was the predominant mode of police patrol, the above statement should generate a serious impulse to impart that message to your current rank and file. Without dating ourselves, we can all probably remember past colleagues who could consistently come up with quality arrests while working solely on foot.

Nowadays

Today, that image seems old hat. Too many young officers (and not a few older ones) are content to drive around their posts in those typically oversized gas-guzzlers with the windows up and the AC or heater blasting away. They literally resemble an armed occupation force, buttoned-up and totally removed from the neighborhoods they are ostensibly patrolling. How they can sense the pulse and tempo of the posts that they work is an ongoing mystery.

If your agency claims to be focused on community policing (and who isn’t these days?), getting your people out on foot to meet and greet people who live and work on their posts can be a huge plus. There is no better way to empower citizens and enhance community participation than to have your officers personally interact with the institutions and people they are sworn to preserve and protect.

How to Reconnect with Your Community

Probably, the most difficult aspect of instituting a foot patrol initiative is to get your people off their rears and out of their cars, which is easier said than done. For starters, you have to insist that patrol officers will walk foot patrol between handling calls for service and that they will log the times and locations of their foot patrol on their activity reports or run sheets.

So, where shall they walk? Preferably in a commercial-type neighborhood, rather than a strictly residential area and an obvious priority would be a high crime area. This naturally begs the question:  Do your officers know where the crime is located in the communities they work? 

Well, do they? Only if you post crime maps and crime stats where they can read them. It doesn’t really matter if you have the latest computer-aided, crime mapping technology or if you still use colored pins on acetate overlays; if your patrol officers don’t have easy access to this data, it is absolutely of no value – not to yourself or to your agency.

Crime stats should be posted on bulletin boards – by type of Part I offense, by location, and by shift – and commanders should insist that their people check this data before they begin their shift – every day with no exceptions. 

Good Management Practice

 Every once in a while, go to a roll call, tell your troops to write their names on a piece of paper, and then tell them to write the incidence of Part I crimes for the past week for the post they will work that day. That should suitably elevate their collective consciousness.

Look, if your officers are riding around in their cars all day just responding to calls for service, what are they actually accomplishing? Pull their activity sheets for the past week and find out.  

Closely review what they’re doing on a typical shift. Are they visiting banks or other potential robbery targets on day shift?  Are they physically checking commercial premises during evening tours? Are they conducting neighborhood canvasses following residential burglaries? Realistically, they can only do stuff like this if they get out of their cars on their own volition and initiative – and, Commander, isn’t this the cop stuff they’re supposed to be doing anyway?

Get Your People Out of Their Cars

Mandate that they walk foot patrol between calls and actually do something productive while they are on the street. Another fact: Aggressive, curious cops poking their noses into dens of iniquity on their posts can have dramatic and debilitating effects on the incidence of crime and general bad behavior in your command.

In keeping with this initiative, mandate that your supervisors periodically inspect activity sheets to ensure that foot patrol is being effective. Let’s face it: If it’s a hot summer weekend night, things are hopping and your cops are “chasing 911” and not much foot patrol is going to be accomplished – that’s understandable. Conversely, if your officers are working a normal shift and just putting mileage on their cars, without any enforcement activity between calls, they are simply not doing productive police work. Again, get them out of those cars and on the street where the crime is!

Foot Patrol Pointers

The following are a few useful and time-tested foot patrol tips to pass on to your officers; some of them learned the hard way:

• No one walks foot patrol, or even gets out of their patrol vehicle, unless they have a portable radio – no exceptions! Their radio transceiver is their veritable lifeline; they should never leave it in their vehicle.

• Officers should park their marked patrol vehicles in front of a bank or other potential holdup target, not in some back alley or isolated parking lot. There is an old cop cliché: You never know what you prevent.

• If banks or other financial institutions are open during their shift, instruct your officers to visit them and list the visitation on their activity sheet. Ditto for any other recent crime targets on their posts.

• Caution: Officers should not walk aimlessly down streets and alleys. They need to stay totally focused and pay attention to what is going on around them. Veteran street cops can instinctively sense if something is amiss on their patrol posts. Admonish your people to listen to their instincts; if something doesn’t “feel” right, it probably isn’t.

• Before walking into a store or any public place, stop, pause and look inside first – always! “Stop, look and listen” is good professional advice. Repeat this like a mantra to your officers.

• Everyone will carry a flashlight on all shifts.  “Yes, officer, there are dark rat holes on day shift, too.”

• When officers exit and leave their patrol vehicle to walk foot patrol, warn them to  make sure to lock it and remove everything from inside and put it in the trunk. They don’t need a clipboard or briefcase while walking foot patrol. A pocket notebook and their citation book will suffice nicely (and don’t forget a portable radio).

• If officers absolutely have to park in an alley or back lot, particularly on night shift, they should not park their vehicle adjacent to a building wall. Other than having their police vehicle stolen, the next most embarrassing scenario is to have it used as a stepladder by a resourceful burglar.

• On night shift, officers should be required to physically check the doors and windows of the businesses on their post, not merely shine a flashlight or car spotlight on them. They should be constantly reminded that they are indeed responsible for the security of the commercial establishments on the post they are working. 

• Tell them to try to open doors carefully – don’t yank on them; they may set off an audible alarm which can be another one of life’s embarrassing moments. Also, if they are strolling and daydreaming their way down a dark and deserted street and they hear glass crunching under their feet, they’ve probably discovered a burglary.

• If a nighttime commercial burglary occurs on the post they are working, they should at least find it before the proprietor finds it when he (or she) opens the place in the morning. They don’t necessarily have to capture the burglars (which would be nice), but they should discover the break-in or the ransacking if it is visible.

• Encourage your people to develop informants. Next to interacting with the people who live and work on their posts, this can be the most valuable aspect of foot patrol. The very best way to solve crimes is to have some knowledgeable person tell you who did it. Just remind your people that they have to independently corroborate whatever their sources tell them.

• Cultivating reliable, street-smart informants can be the best career move your people can make. Caution them not to ignore the weirdos and crazies on their post. Street people hear (and see) lots of interesting stuff and they will tell your officers all about it if they treat them decently and exercise a little patience and empathy with them.

• Caveats for your cops: One, don’t pay informants; and two, don’t give them a “pass” on illegal behavior in return for information. The former will spoil the informant and the latter may ruin the cop!

• Now this should be basic, but tell them anyway: Never divulge an informant’s identity. Just don’t do it. Even if your officers have to forgo a quality case clearance, it’s far better to retain a reliable informant than to purge him (or her) as a source. If your agency requires formal informant registration, make sure your officers’ sources clearly understand, and willingly accept, that requirement. As a practical matter, most will not.

• Fire stations can be a station house away from home for the foot patrol officer. They are handy places to store report forms, raincoats, etc. and friendly firefighters can tell your officers lots of interesting stuff, such as how to stay alive in a burning building; how to detect incendiary fires; and the specific missions of engine and ladder companies at a fire scene. One more thing about fire stations: Firefighters sleep in them, not cops.

Summary

Unquestionably, foot patrol is really more art than police science and can only be mastered by practical experience and individual trial and error. The payoff, however, can be substantial, in that your officers can greatly enhance their people skills and refine their investigative techniques. 

Who knows, they might even progress to the point where they can actually effect quality arrests and subsequently (gasp!) lower the incidence of Part I crime in your command. Now, there’s a result that most wide-awake and ambitious police commanders can relate and aspire to, right?

About the Author:  John Fuller retired in 1992 after 33 years of service with the Baltimore, MD, Police Department as a detective/lieutenant. He has written articles for The Law Enforcement Trainer, Law and Order, Correctional Trainer, and Community Policing Exchange.