Township Rolls Out Community Police Initiative

Policy will help neighborhoods report issues and recover faster from severe issues, such as snow storms.

Chatham Township Police Chief John Paton introduced a new community policing scheme to the township committee Thursday during their regular meeting. Under the new initiative, police officers will be assigned a specific neighborhood to patrol regularly. The officer will be responsible for responding to the particular concerns of each neighborhood. "The concept of community-oriented policing is to return to the days of the beat cop, where the officer knew everybody on his beat and everybody knew him," Paton said. "That builds rapport between the citizens and the officers and allows us to focus on the concerns of those neighborhoods." Where possible, beaurocratic "red tape" has been minimized to empower officers to respond directly to the …

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