An exchange of letters---
To the editor:
Forty years ago, the residents of Durham relied on three police officers and an answering machine for the overnight shift, serving a population that was just two-thirds of our present census. So, any request for assistance had to wait until whoever had drawn the night shift and periodically checked the machine [and]could respond.
Now that the Durham Police Department has grown to 28 people, there are at least two officers available to patrol around the clock, while their supervisors man the station. In addition, the force is large enough to send six officers at a time off to Washington to get new equipment and training, presumably without any decrease in the services they provide.
However, while I don't question the accuracy of your report of the information provided by spokespersons of the Durham and University police departments, it strikes me as somewhat peculiar that while others are able to "recharge their batteries," detectives are still mulling a case that is long over and done with and the arrest in response to a BOLA is being touted as an extraordinary event.
In addition, while the information that patrols are being conducted on bicycle and on foot is surely welcome, neither has been observed in my part of town. And there are rumors that the patrol officers on the night shift prefer the comfort of watching videos in the station to going out on the road. Since the relocation of the station to the Dover Road has doubtlessly increased the response time considerably, service is often little better than it was 40 years ago when the chief still lived in the center of town.
Of course, during inclement weather, when there are few citizens out and about during nighttime hours, it makes sense for the officers to remain in the station reviewing the disposition of their cases, brushing up on the latest legal decisions and otherwise improving their mental and physical fitness with the help of tapes from C-SPAN, Court TV and exercise programs.
Unfortunately, since the town administrator has already determined that reviewing the disposition of cases is not a priority, my expectations may be unrealistic. So I wonder, what is it the officers actually do when they are not out on patrol?
Monica Smith
Durham
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Wednesday, August 17, 2005
What Durham police do when they're not on patrol
By SGT. BOBBYJOSLIN
President
Since 1829, the year Sir Robert Peel organized the London Metropolitan Police District into what is recognized as the first modern law enforcement agency, citizens around the world have been asking questions about the functions of their respective agencies.
Over the years, agencies have tried to answer those questions through programs such as local "ride alongs" or printing their activities in-end of-year summaries such as town reports. The Durham Police Department offers both to help the citizens they serve better understand the function of their agency.
The Durham Police Department goes beyond the norm and hosts a strategic planning session each year. The department invites residents, community leaders from the town of Durham, the University of New Hampshire and local business leaders, and shares with them the functions of the police department. The officers who take part in this effort every year are volunteers from each level within our organization.
They are taking time away from their families to try to answer questions such as the one posed by a citizen of Durham in the July 21 Foster's Daily Democrat.
In her recent letter to the editor, Monica Smith, who identifies herself as a citizen of the town of Durham, asks the question, "What do the Durham Police do when not patrolling?"
In addition to your comments Ms. Smith, and using your own words, it strikes us as somewhat peculiar that you did not take the time to get your facts correct about the makeup of the department that serves your community. Still, that apparently did not stop you from making numerous baseless remarks. Since you are so concerned about this question, it is important for you to have the correct facts.
Ms. Smith, your police department is not made up of 28 people, but, in fact, only employs 23 people, not including one part-time officer.
Three of these are administrative assistants, three are administrative officers and three are assigned to detectives. One more is assigned as the middle school and high school resource officer. Thirteen officers make up the patrol function of your police department. This does not include the parking enforcement officer.
You allege that the supervisors "man the station" while the patrol is out on the road. On television that may be fine, or in a larger agency with enough people that may be required; but, we would not hesitate to point out to you that the sergeants within your agency make as many arrests and investigate as many cases as any patrol officer.
Were you there when one of your sergeants was struck by a drunk driver on Route 4 and sent to the hospital? Were you there when a sergeant had to be tested after having blood spit on him, or when he was injured responding to another fight call?
Did you accompany the sergeant as he checked a burning building to make sure no one was left inside? You make the comment as fact, but we find it peculiar that we did not see you there on any of those occasions.
We did not see you in the detective's office working on cases, day and night, although you comment on what underlying factors go in to working a specific case. How do you know what information has developed on a case, recent or not?
We know our detectives are highly trained, so are we to assume that you are from a law enforcement background because you speak so knowingly about the proper methods they should use for each case?
Officers respond to BOLO's (be on the lookout) all of the time. It is not every day that a cop killer runs from one state to another in an attempt to hide out after violating his parole. But since you brought it up, you might want to talk to the families of those officers who live with the loss of their loved ones everyday.
We are sure that to them it was appreciated and in the law enforcement community it "is" considered an extraordinary event, even if you do not consider it one.
We are not going to hit every point that you noted because, frankly, most of them do not deserve a response. We will, however, answer your question.
When the officers of the Durham Police Department are not patrolling, they are doing the following things:
Every time an officer comes in from the road, he or she logs that time with the supervisor. We can account for every minute of a shift and would have no problem doing so for you or anyone else.
Officers write reports, fulfill administrative requirements, and do classroom training if needed. In addition, they volunteer their time as Explorer Scout Leaders within your community.
They participate in school functions and volunteer in youth hockey games with the school staff and hockey teams. They host cookouts for the elderly in your community. They honor Lt. Robert Hollis who died on duty as a Durham police officer, by escorting his wife to the law enforcement memorial each year.
They attend your community events by marching in your parades and directing traffic, often at the expense of not seeing their own children in parades and other events in the communities that they live in.
They host softball tournaments to help raise thousands of dollars for different charities every year.
And, they participate in strategic planning sessions, with the desire to avoid having to respond to rumors and false statements like the one in your letter to the editor.
Our question to Monica Smith is, "Why didn't you just ask us?" We would have been happy to share our experiences with you.
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Needless to say, I'm not interested in sharing their experiences. I'd just like an answer to my question.
To the editor:
Since my original letter (written on June 28 and published on July 21) about the Durham and UNH Police Departments was in response to a report in Foster's and included information from the Globe North section of the Boston Globe, the Town Administrator's Friday updates, a written communication from the Chief of Police and the Town of Durham annual report for 2004 (where I miscounted the number of people pictured to be 28 instead of 24), I'm a bit puzzled by the personal tone of the response by the Durham Police Officers Union's spokesperson. The point I wanted to make, that while our population has increased by 50%, the police department's personnel has increased by more than 500%, still seems valid.
Questions about my whereabouts during several incidents requiring police attention, on the other hand, are downright strange. Surely the police do not expect citizens to be looking over their shoulders while the officers are on duty.
While I know nothing about strategic planning sessions designed to "avoid having to respond to rumors and false statements," I do know that our section of town has been asking for, and not getting, consistent enforcement of the speed limits. The explanation provided to one of my neighbors, that there is no need for enforcement because "there have been no accidents," (which must mean that nobody's been run over, since there have been multiple car crashes), is not reassuring.
Many of my neighbors are elderly and the inability to stroll or walk along the road without risking being hit by careening cars is a severe restriction on their freedom. My assertion in my letter that "patrols...conducted on bicycle and on foot...(have not) been observed in my part of town" was obviously one of those which "do not deserve a response."
Nor, for that matter, was the litany of community activities in which police personnel participate during their leisure time responsive to the question of what they do when they are on duty but not out on patrol, especially during the night shift.
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The saga continues--August 25, 2005
Thursday, August 25, 2005
Lack of respect seen for Durham police
By AMY JOSLIN
Rochester
I recently had the opportunity to review a letter to the editor from Monica Smith from Durham. The beginning of the letter references police work as it was 40 years ago in the town of Durham.
To compare police work from 40 years ago to modern-day criminal justice responsibilities is absurd. Ms. Smith is referencing a period of time when she correctly pointed out the population is two-thirds of what it is now, a time when adult residents, students and children actually had respect for the law and the position a law enforcement officer plays in our communities.
Imagine if Durham continued to rely on an answering machine that was ?periodically checked? by personnel that had ?drawn the night shift.? Jack the Snipper would still have been snipping away in Durham last night. Since the students are gone for the summer, it may have been one of your daughters, sisters, or wives he would have to rely on to victimize.
I certainly would hope that the information provided by the spokespersons of the Durham and university police departments would not be questioned for accuracy. Thank goodness, the respective police departments now have people on staff to be able to obtain and keep track of such statistics for the sake of the presentation to the town and to be able to continually access whether the police force is adequate to protect and serve the residents. Forty years ago, the presentation may have consisted of ?we've been reasonably busy.?
Patrols being conducted on bicycle and foot are a welcome addition to any community. You may not see them in every neighborhood. Especially given the expanse of common and back roads in Durham, it would be unreasonable to expect a bicycle or foot patrol in every neighborhood unless we outfitted the bike patrol with expensive mountain bikes and our foot patrol with hiking boots. My children have been in our ?downtown community? a number of times and have encountered these individuals.
Both children have been and continue to be taught that law enforcement personnel should be treated with the same respect as any member of the military fighting for our country overseas. When you think about it, who is responsible for fighting crimes of terror against us as citizens? The responsibility is solely that of your local and state police departments.
The reference to the police department being rumored to prefer the comfort of watching videos is another example of the disrespect we have grown to accept. When did we start giving validation to such rumors? The next thing you know, we'll make headlines with conversations we hear around the water cooler at work.
During any weather we would expect the officers to remain in the station for a period of time. What do the Durham police do when not patrolling? They are doing what any other officer in any other community is doing. They are reviewing dispositions of cases, placing telephone calls to make inquiries on cases they may be responsible for, returning telephone calls to residents, victims or family members and documenting the content of these conversations or simply typing the necessary reports that allow them to be prepared in cases needing to go to trial.
I truly hope the police officers don't need to rely on tapes from C-Span or Court TV to ?improve their mental and physical fitness.? I would hope the communities we live in would provide enough funding to allow some officers to attend educational seminars at the Police Academy in Concord which give them the opportunity to learn new skills, refresh on skills they may already possess and allow them to better themselves for the sake of their communities and police departments. Many employers offer their staff educational opportunities. Why should municipalities be any different?
My parents brought me up to have respect and appreciation for law enforcement officials and the role they must play in our community. The letter to the editor from Ms. Smith demonstrates the lack of value some have come to find acceptable.
Luckily, not everyone feels that the citizens of the communities have the right to micromanage our municipalities by asking them to account for every moment of their time, especially considering so few of us actually possess the knowledge and understanding of the intricacies involved in operating such an organization.
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Thursday, August 25, 2005
Letters to the editor - 8/25/05
Durham could be a bit friendlier
To the editor:
Certainly the people assembled in 1,600 locations this past Wednesday, in all 50 states, to honor the memory of the young people killed in Iraq, were an inspiration to the nation, even if one community in New Jersey saw fit to arrest some of the participants for failing to get a permit to exercise the right of the people to peaceably assemble as guaranteed by the First Amendment to the Constitution.
Perhaps, since it's Congress that's prohibited from passing laws restricting such peaceable behavior, states and local communities work from a different script. This may account for the somewhat combative communication from the Durham town administrator when he wrote in his Friday update that ?UNH students are due to arrive back in Durham on Friday, August 26th. As usual, the Durham police will be out in force in order to ensure appropriate behavior downtown during the late night hours and throughout our neighborhoods and residential areas.?
At the least, it does not project a welcoming attitude. Nor are his subsequent assertions reassuring.
?Anytime there is an injection of 12,000 additional residents or guests, we expect some challenges. In preparation for these events, the goal of the police department is to institute a 'high visibility patrol concept' between the weekend of August 26th and Homecoming weekend of October 15th. The department has developed a number of activities and strategies with which to address whatever challenges it may face during the opening of the University's 2005 academic year. The University is also working closely with us to mitigate the impact of school opening on the community.?
Using words such as injection, mitigate and impact to describe the return of the community's life blood -- the young people who are the guarantee of our future [EM] strikes this resident of Durham and property owner for over 40 years, as rather unfriendly. You'd think they were anticipating the arrival of a horde of barbarians.
It's my experience that when people are treated courteously, they tend to respond in kind. So, I do hope that one of the activities, developed by the Durham police, involves lessons in responding with courtesy and respect to all our visitors and residents.
Monica Smith
Durham