A new era of partnership and trust has been launched by the RCIPS and I applaud it.

Twenty-six dedicated police officers spread over twelve beat areas have been assigned to “get to know us”, speak to us about our fears and concerns, especially to address crime in our communities.

The concept of it is not new. As a child I loved seeing a policeman walking his beat. They were known as ‘coppers’ because of the phrase ‘constable on patrol’. It’s slang and an acronym.

The copper would chat to us and we would love to walk beside him and pretend we were coppers, too.

That memory lasts forever.

So different now, when for most of us the only time we make contact is for a motoring offence, that is often trivial and, even when I first came here, would be a warning not a ‘ticket’.

If a police officer knows you live in a ‘bad’ area does he perceive all residents of that neighborhood as fiendish criminals? If he doesn’t work the beat and get to know the people there, of course he does.

If the police (and even the public) have a pervasive attitude the entire neighborhood is a problem, then we increase the complexities in solving the issue and mitigate the chances of successful resolution. The law abiding community there will lose trust in the police and will not help them. This goes side to side with the ridiculous notion of a ‘zero tolerance’ approach to policing. You might just as well send robots out on the streets.

The common practice of running license plates routinely in these problem areas and discover fictitious or warrant-attached plates that actually belong to residents of low socioeconomic status. They have nowhere else to live. That’s the start of becoming a hard nosed criminal that soon has a gun.

A police officer who is executing community policing can stop this in the bud and offer help where it is needed. Establishing a relationship is one of the goals of community policing.

There are also forms of harassment from the criminals in these area against the other community residents to instill fear in them that there would be retaliatory consequences if they speak out. The community police officer must get to know who the bad and the good are and not turn the good against him.

Therefore this form of policing must be ethical. It has to be a collaborative relationship in order to work successfully.

Therefore, proper training must be given to these twenty-six police working in these twelve areas. It is not going to be an overnight success. Trust has to be earned.

How these officers view their jobs and ultimately how they act to prevent or reduce crime. Arrests are inevitable, but they are merely a reaction to a problem.

I look forward to seeing and meeting our friendly copper as he walks his beat. My mother would invite them in for a ‘cuppa’. That’s probably asking too much now.