1998-Annual Town Report - Laserfiche WebLink

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Report of the and TRIAD enjoyed another productive year of oper- ation. Chief of Police Our very popular"Citizens Police Academy"grad- uated its seventh class of participants who will assist To the Honorable Board of Selectmen and us in refining community partnerships. We hope to the Citizens of the Town of Mashpee: continue to receive grant funds to allow us to offer this informational program to more Town residents during I am very pleased to submit to the Board of the coming year.Despite decreasing funds available to Selectmen and the citizens, my fifth annual report as us through grants, we continued one of our most suc- your Chief of Police. cessful programs, the Drug Abuse Resistance Program,or"DARE",in Mashpee's schools. We hope MISSION: The mission of the Mashpee Police to continue to deliver strong messages to our youth to Department is to provide the Town of Mashpee with resist both drugs and violence through this nationally j the highest quality of professional police services to known program. The program is now in its seventh j effectively address the incidence of criminal activity year and nearly 2,000 of our children have graduated and service needs of the total community; to encour- from the 17-week basic DARE course. Considering age interaction between the citizens of Mashpee and other activities in the schools, DARE Officers interact the personnel of the Mashpee Police Department, with over 1,000 Mashpee youngsters each school year. 41 thereby promoting a cohesive environment designed In 1998, we launched two new community policing to counteract the negative social influences that con- programs, School at the Station and Operation Night tribute to an apathetic setting where criminal and other Watch. School at the Station is a partnership whereby antisocial behavior is propagated. Mashpee High School students from Teacher Brian Hyde's Government Studies spend a day at the depart- COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES: The department and ment learning more about law enforcement and our r the citizens of Mashpee accepted the implementation role in providing services to our community. E of a "Community Policing" philosophy as a goal in Operation Night Watch is a new program that allows 1992 and 1993. That philosophy, defined as bringing our night shift personnel to provide Community police and citizens closer together in partnerships Policing services to merchants in the community which lead to more effective working relationships through checks of their businesses. Both of these new with neighborhood groups, schools, and businesses in programs have contributed to building more effective Mashpee. The Police Department continued develop- partnerships between the Police department and those ment toward that goal in 1998 with continued refine- we serve. ment of key programs to strengthen our commitment to a partnership with the community. "Park and Walk" Finally, we expanded our services to the Town in brings officers into closer contact with citizens when two key areas through the creation of new"special ser- officers park their cruisers and walk through targeted vice" units, a Traffic Enforcement Unit and a Marine high-density population areas, interacting with the cit- Law Enforcement Unit. Regular officers are assigned izens. These opportunities to interact lead to a positive to these units, as extra duty, to attack specific areas of exchange of information and views between citizens difficulty by aggressive enforcement action. The and the police, resulting in the improved service by Traffic Enforcement Unit is used to address specific police to the community. complaints of Speeding and Driving Under the Influence throughout the Town. During the past year, f Our "Liaison Officer Program" assigns officers to this unit was responsible for the apprehension of hun- each of our neighborhood associations and communi- dreds of offenders that officers assigned to regular I y organizations with a goal of having officers work patrol duties would not have been able to dedicate the with residents on solving non-emergency problems of necessary time to locate. The Marine Law mutual concern that pose a threat to public peace and Enforcement received significant additional training i safety. To many of us, this program is reminiscent of and worked on a limited basis through its first summer j having your neighborhood "cop on the beat" many in cooperation with the Harbormaster's staff. This years ago that proved successful in building both the coming summer, we expect this unit to have a major familiarity and mutual confidence between citizens impact in helping to control Boating Under the jr<- and police which helped to solve issues of mutual con- Influence and Reckless Watercraft Operation violators cern in the community. We are continuing to explore on our increasingly busy waterways. better ways of providing this liaison service to the community in the coming year. Other successful com- Our ability to continue to add new community munity policing programs such as the Bike Patrol Unit policing programs has been enhanced through the police department being awarded over $1 million in i ` 117