St._Petersburg_Case_Study

St. Petersburg Case Study “While prostitution has been around for a long time, police responses to it have remained the same for several decades. Police and community groups have recently tried new approaches based on a better understanding of prostitution markets, looking at the markets' economics and health risks, and the environmental conditions that allow them to flourish. More recent strategies include altering street traffic and parking patterns, pushing local judges to reassess their sentencing practices, using civil laws, offering social services, educating "johns," shaming johns, discouraging those facilitating prostitution, and engaging outraged communities.”(1) St. Petersburg, Florida has come up with a very successful plan to tackle the problem with prostitution, the Community Policing Approach. Police Chief Darrel Stephens has been promoting the philosophy of community policing and is one of the first cities in the nation to go “city-wide” with community policing. The St. Petersburg Police Department involved the community in their fight against prostitution by assigning community police officers to the area’s most susceptible to prostitution and also giving these CPO’s backup from three to four beat officers. The St. Petersburg Police Department has taken a problem-solving approach by empowering citizens and working with residents, not against them. The following elements of strategic-orientated policing were used by the St. Petersburg Police Department; 1) Philosophical Dimension (citizen input, broad function), 2) Strategic Dimension (re-orientated operations, preventive emphasis, geographic focus), 3) Tactical Dimension (positive interaction, partnerships, problem solving), and 4) Organizational Dimension (structure, management, and information).(2) The way that the police alleviated the problem of prostitution in St. Petersburg was by “spreading the word”. As a deterrent, the police sent out “Dear John” letters to every person convicted of soliciting prostitution. Every offender received a confidential stamped letter from Chief Stephens reminding the offender and/or the offenders family member that the act of patronizing a prostitute is a criminal offense and that there are dangers involved (becoming victims of a crime, STD’s and AIDS). Another effective way for deterring prostitution in St. Petersburg is the revocation of a convicted person’s driver’s license. My understanding of Strategic-Orientated Policing is to Re-Orientate Operations (Police need to look beyond the traditional strategies of motorized patrol, rapid response, and detective investigations) Prevention Emphasis (police should emphasize preventing crime and other problems before they happen, rather than simply reacting after the fact) and Focus (Policing should be organized and deployed to maximize the extent of identification between specific officers and specific neighborhoods). (2) Works Cited (1) Sampson, Rana and Michael S. Scott. Tackling Crime and Other Public-Safety Problems: Case Studies in Problem-Solving. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, 1999. (2) http://dcj.state.co.us/crcpi/KeyElements.html