Oakland Housing Authority Police Department’s
Nationally-Recognized Crime Prevention Program
The success of the Oakland Housing
Authority Police Department’s (OHAPD) Community Policing Approach is
simple. We empower the public housing community by changing our residents
from the inside out. Our success in partnership represents a philosophy of
equality, mutual respect and trust.
Although
some community policing strategies, such as foot patrol, resemble policing of
years past, the Community Policing approach is not new. Community Policing
is not just another “tack on” program that requires new resources. It is a
philosophy, a management style, and an organizational design that promotes
police-community partnerships and proactive problem-solving strategies. It is a
different way of looking at policing.
In 1992, in response to a high rate
of homicides and other crimes in an area of Oakland that included two of our
largest housing developments, OHAPD introduced a method of community policing
designed to encourage residents and officers to work together to reduce crime.
The results were dramatic; almost as soon as the program was introduced
homicides in the area stopped. In fact, from 1992 until 2000 there were no reported
homicides in the area, and since that time the number has remained relatively
low. The Community Policing program was recognized on national television and then-Attorney
General Janet Reno visited the area twice to see the transformation for
herself.
OHAPD's Unique Approach to Community Policing
- Our program redefines the roles of
the community and police and the relationships between them. Both share
responsibility for social order and work cooperatively to identify problems and
develop practical, community-wide solutions throughout the public housing
population.
- Our program acknowledges that we
cannot do the job of public safety alone and recognizes that we have valuable
resources available in our community.
- OHAPD’s program uses a model called
“Health
Realization,” which recognizes that communities are naturally resilient
and that their members have the ability to identify and solve their own
problems.
- Community empowerment occurs when we
enlist our residents in identifying their problems, determining their own
solutions to them, and then working together with law enforcement to make
positive changes. Only then do they truly have control of their own
destinies.