Do you believe community policing is worthwhile?

Worthwhile if it's proactive, not reactive

Community policing is certainly a worthwhile endeavor for Madison. However, if the 30 dedicated community officers are to be truly effective, Madison must be willing to accept a proactive mindset.
For the most part, community policing has been used as a public relations tool and a means to identify "hot spots" of crime activity so police can direct reactive resources to address them.
The only way to overcome the reactive nature of police enforcement is to implement a system by which the information gleaned from the community can be analyzed and turned into actionable intelligence products. Buzz words such as "intelligence-led policing" can foster skepticism and fear of a police state.
First Amendment rights violations of the 1960s and 1970s paralyzed American law enforcement from gathering valuable intelligence. This has forced enforcement into a strictly reactionary mode against the drug, gang and organized crime insurgencies in our communities.
If implemented under the restrictions of the U.S. Constitution, Madison could take the next critical step to form its own proactive, "intelligence-led" effort that would truly leverage existing resources.

-- Tony Fleres, Stoughton

Team approach has best chance of success

Community policing is worthwhile. It takes a concerted partnership effort from both the police department and sectors of our community to help lower the crime rate.
Remember that the crimes committed over the years begin in the hearts and minds of the perpetrators. And to help reduce crime, it will be necessary to change their wrong attitudes. It will take the efforts of social workers, church laity and pastors, rabbis and priests, police officers and the general public to work as a team to help reduce crime.
People can alter their lives by altering their attitudes, which can come with a genuine spiritual transformation of their hearts and minds. If all sectors of society pull together as a united team to help solve crime problems, we will see significant improvement.

-- Wayne Alden, McFarland