History:
In 2008, the Logan County Sheriff’s
Office developed a Community Resource Team (C.R.T.) to address the
need for community policing and outreach in Logan County.
The C.R.T. is comprised of Sheriff’s Office employees that
expressed an interest in community involvement and have displayed
pro-community policing attitudes.
Purpose:
C.R.T. was created to provide
solutions to the following department goals:
- Combine multiple strategies for a
comprehensive community policing approach.
- Partnership with a variety of
organizations to ensure that department efforts reflect the
needs of the community.
- Identify sources of conflict between law
enforcement and the community and encourage efforts to resolve
them.
- Evaluate the success of programs offered.
Members:
C.R.T. is comprised of the
following Logan County Sheriff’s Office employees:
Deputy Jason Littlefield, Sergeant Anthony East, Investigator Joe McBride, and Undersheriff Allan Pierce.
To join C.R.T., individuals were asked to complete a
memorandum indicating why they wished to join and outlining one (or
more) idea for future community policing programs.
Implementation:
The C.R.T. met at least monthly to determine
ways to implement community related programs.
To simplify the programs, it was decided that a ‘School and
Community Program’ would be developed to centralize information or
programs available from the Logan County Sheriff’s Office.
A vast number of programs were made available from teasing in
school, to teenage alcohol abuse, suicide prevention, sexual assault
intervention, drug awareness, etc.
After months of preparation, in December of 2008 the final
copies of the programs were completed.
After the initial year of conception and planning, the
program will be launched in January of 2009.
Programs and Projects
Created
Programs
In addition to the Human Relations
Media pre-made programs, members of C.R.T. created the following
programs that will be offered by the Sheriff’s Office:
Women’s Self-Defense, Drug Awareness, and
Avoiding Identity Theft.
These programs were developed at no cost and will be offered
in 2009.
Child
Identification Kits
Through our own unique design,
specialized Logan County Sheriff’s Office Child Identification Kits
were developed. These
kits will be made available through the Program catalog and at
arranged events. The
kits are a valuable resource for parents in the event their child
goes missing.
Information is included in the kits to provide DNA, fingerprints,
personal information, medical, and visual identification.
Included on the kits are printed tips on preventing child
abductions.
2009
School and Community Programs
Fifty “Program Catalogs” were
created for the 2009 year.
These catalogs display all pre-made programs offered by the
Sheriff’s Office. These
programs were created to offer a ‘one-stop’ place for schools and
community members to view all the programs offered by the Sheriff’s
Office. In addition,
partnerships were developed with the 13th Judicial
District Attorney’s Office, High Plains Sexual Assault Center,
Centennial Mental Health Center, Sterling Youth Services, and Rural
Solutions. Through
these partnerships, numerous additional programs were made available
in the 2009 catalog.
This has allowed the potential for broadening the range of grants
that the Sheriff’s Office will be eligible for.
Due to the low overall costs of
printing these catalogs, over the next year there remains a strong
possibility of producing the catalog semi-annually.
Without the catalog being officially released until January
of 2009, several organizations have expressed interest in the next
print, offering the potential of even more programs being available
and strengthening the teamwork between organizations in the
community and the Sheriff’s Office.
Trick-or-Treat
Safely
During
the month of October, a program will be offered by the Sheriff’s
Office to community schools.
This program, “Trick-or-Treat Safely”, emphasizes safe
behavior and preventive methods to keep children safe from harm
during the holiday.
2008 Activity Reports
During 2008, the following
were events that involved members of the Logan County Sheriff’s
Office:
On 9/28/2008, Sgt. East and Deputy
Littlefield provided a “Stranger danger/Bike Safety” class to
approximately 85 students at Iliff Head Start.
One hour was spent on the presentation that used bags,
pencils, and stickers as give-away items.
On 10/27/2008, Sgt. East and Deputy
Jandegian provided a “Halloween Safety” class to approximately 86
students at Iliff Head Start.
Forty minutes were spent on the class that used pencils,
bags, and stickers as give-away items.
On 10/28/2008, Investigator McBride
and CBI Agent Kirsten Gregg provided an “Identity Theft” class to
approximately 25 adults at the Heritage Center.
One hour and thirty minutes were spent on the course.
On 12/16/08, Sgt. Japp, Deputy
Forsythe, and Deputy Wiley provided a “Child ID Kit” class to
approximately 13 children at Merino Pre-School.
Fifty-five minutes were spent on the class that used Child ID
Kits, coloring books, stickers, and pencils as give-away items.
2009 Program Launch
2009
Focus Group
One of the major goals of
the C.R.T. is to be able to identify issues in the community and
address those issues.
To accomplish this task, beginning in 2009 a C.R.T. Focus Group will
be developed to identify issues, determine ways to address the
issues, and determine ways to evaluate program success.
Member(s) of the Logan County Sheriff’s Office, Centennial
Mental Health Center, Rural Solutions, High Plains Sexual Assault
Center, 13th Judicial District Attorney’s Office, and
Sterling Youth Services will gather to discuss the issues once a
month.
C.R.T. Catalog
In
January of 2009, the C.R.T. Catalog will be made available to all
schools and members of the community.
Plans have been made to mail the catalogs and to deliver them
personally by members of the C.R.T.
2009
Grants
With the C.R.T. program off the
ground, two grants look especially promising for the 2009 year:
Centennial Mental Health Center offers a $500.00 “mini-grant”
and Wal-Mart offers a community involved grant up to approximately
$2000.00. Full efforts
will be made to apply to both grants to assist in 2009 program
costs.
2009
Budget Increase
A projected budget of $2000.00 will
be made available in 2009.
This increase in funds will aid in the creation/purchase of
more programs, give-away items, and advertisement costs.
2009
Fundraising
While details are still being
worked out, there are intentions by the C.R.T. to establish yearly
fundraising efforts.
Ideas have been general community outreach and a golf tournament.
The money raised by these events would assist in obtaining
more costly items for the Sheriff’s Office (i.e. McGruff program,
robots, fund a fishing derby, Blue Santa and larger scale programs.)
2008 Donations
In 2008, one donation was
received from the Family Dollar Store in Sterling.
This donation was in the form of numerous trick-or-treat
bags. The bags were
used in a “Trick-or Treat Safely” program in October.
Project Success
While much time was spent
developing the C.R.T. and included programs, it is difficult to
measure the success at this time.
With the foundation being built, 2009 looks promising, as the
project will be officially launched, fundraising planned, and the
focus group being formed.
One of the major goals in 2009 will be to establish a cost
effective way to conduct an annual survey of citizen attitudes and
opinions with respect to:
Overall department performance
Overall competence of department employees
Officer attitude and behavior towards citizens
Concern over safety and security in the community
Recommendations and suggestions for improvements