Horsham ChATs: Different Style Of Policing Aims To Connect Community

The Horsham Chiefs Advisory team shared the following story on their Facebook page Tuesday morning.

The post explores the meaning of community policing and what Horsham’s community policing project is trying to accomplish.

We would like to start this morning’s briefing with a discussion about what Community Policing really means here in our Town. Many of us grew up being taught that Police Officers were our friends. They were there to help us and were someone we could always turn to in times of trouble. Over the decades that narrative has sadly changed in far too many of our communities.

Here in Horsham we started our Community Policing program back in the year 2000 with the belief that building bridges into the Community was the right thing to do. We began with a Citizen’s Police Academy to help educate the Community on what it’s like being a Municipal Police Officer. The belief being that the more the public understood about policing the better the relationship with community would be. This program continues to this day.

In 2001 we began our Chief’s Advisory Team (ChATs) program and our Horsham Watch. These programs had members of the community working side by side with Officers helping to make Horsham a better and safer place to live, work and visit. This program was a continuation of our Citizen’s Police Academy. Both of these programs continue to this date.

The cornerstone to the success of any Community Police Program is its adoption by both Police leadership and the rank and file patrol officer. Both groups have to see the upside and believe in the concept in order for it to be effective. Here in Horsham we’re here to tell you we have both.

Community Policing is not just a concept but it’s a mindset; both for the Officers and for the public. While large program goals and objectives are easy to discuss and present, it’s the small daily interactions with the community that is the hidden gem of this style of policing. Today pictured below we have just such a gem.

As part of their normal shift, our Officers routinely perform School walk-thrus. They are done on a random but consistent basis. Walking the hallways of our schools gives our Officers the chance to learn all the nooks and crannies of each building in case they ever need to respond to an incident. Since the pattern is random, a bad person will never know if an Officer is walking the hallways. This is a very common practice in many jurisdictions.

Below in this picture you will see Officer Brandon Bryne during a recent walk thru at Simmons. This photo was sent to us by an anonymous source. This Friends is type of interaction that is at heart of a successful community based policing program. Working with our kids and restoring their faith that the Police Officer is someone who is their friend, someone who they can trust to help them if they need it. Changing the narrative one person at a time.

If you feel the same and support this type of effort from our Officers, please consider posting a comment of support below and sharing this post on your page for your friends to see. While our Officers don’t post comments here, rumor has it they do read our page so they will see your thoughts. On behalf of all of us in Community Police Services, we’d like to thank Officer Bryne and all the men and women of the Horsham Police Department who take that extra moment to build bridges into the Community. You are making a difference and we thank each and every one of you.

Image courtesy Horsham ChATs.