Greetings from the North Police District!
The Madison Police Department is highly committed to working in partnership with community stakeholders to sustain and improve quality of life, and this commitment necessitates that we continually examine our service delivery model and be willing to change how we do business.
A center focus of our community policing model is the manner in which we deliver more direct, localized policing services, and our Neighborhood Police Officers (NPOs) are the backbone of those efforts. These NPOs are assigned to specific, high-needs neighborhoods and work very closely with community stakeholders as their primary job function. They are free from routine dispatched calls and are highly proactive in their efforts to build community in their neighborhoods. At times, District commanders are authorized to create temporary neighborhood positions to help neighborhoods in crisis.
We recognize that, in order to develop trusting relationships, regular interpersonal interaction is required, and our neighborhood officer positions are our best opportunities for such engagement. Our Community Policing Team members also assist with such efforts, but have much larger areas of responsibility and more collateral duties like traffic enforcement, drug enforcement and assisting with major citywide events, all of which keep them from having as much time for engagement as neighborhood officers.
The North District presently has a full-time neighborhood officer for Northport /Packers and a temporary neighborhood officer for Vera Court, but we recognize our needs for neighborhood officer style engagement exists beyond these two areas. Given the level of poverty and concentration of high-density, low income housing in this area, we believe the Northport area features challenges and opportunities for improving our service delivery. NPO Adler has been working with the Brentwood Neighborhood Resource Team and City officials, hoping to develop a more effective way to deliver community services to the Northport corridor. Our goal is to work more directly with community service providers to streamline service delivery and to prevent at-risk individuals from falling through the cracks. This effort is still in the formative stages, but represents my strong belief that we must continually examine how we do business, and be willing to make adjustments when the need to change is indicated.
This is where you come in. We need your feedback about how we are doing, and how you feel about the safety of your neighborhood. Please take a moment to fill out survey at the attached link or by accessing it at the North Police District webpage: http://www.surveymonkey.com/ s/2012MPDNorth
Thanks in advance for taking the time to help us understand the issues in your neighborhood from your perspective!
Take Care and Be Safe!