North Carolina Department of Correction news release

MAY 29, 1998

Probation Officers join Raleigh Police Department community policing efforts

State probation officers have begun riding with Raleigh police, sharing space in community policing substations and taking part in police vehicle checkpoints.

State Probation Director Robert Guy and Raleigh Police Chief M.W. Brown talk with reporters.

"This relationship has proven very successful," said M.W. Brown, Raleigh Police chief. It enhances the ideas and concepts of community policing and takes community policing to another level." Probation officers in the North Carolina Division of Adult Probation and Parole's 10th Judicial District will work side-by-side with Raleigh police. Their efforts will enhance enforcement of mandatory curfews, provide locations for random drug screens for probationers, provide team monitoring and place high priority emphasis on sex offenders, drug offenders and high school-age probationers.

."We want to free officers from the desk and get them back on the streets to become partners with police," said Robert Guy, director of the Division of Adult Probation and Parole. "We need to meet the people in these communities. They need to know who we are. They can help us make their communities safer places to live."

Working together, the probation and police officers will learn more about each other and will share information that will increase their effectiveness. They will be able to share information with neighborhoods about the offenders that live in their communities, helping the officers and citizens build a partnership that provides increased public safety.

"During the past six months, the Raleigh Police Department has made approximately 145 arrests in which the primary charges involved some probation violations," Chief Brown said. "The communication link between the Raleigh Police Department and probation officers enabled our officers to have the necessary information to make these arrests." Brown said the police made another 174 secondary charges which also involved probation violations.

Raleigh police officer Sam Quinn and Probation Judicial District Manager Doug Pardue at Halifax Court COMPASS.

Police have established COMPASS or community policing substations at Chavis Heights, Halifax Court, Heritage Park and Walnut Terrace. A mobile unit provides a fifth COMPASS station that visits other high crime areas in the city. Probation officers who supervise offenders living in these communities will be assigned to the COMPASS offices. They will hold meetings with probationers there and will use Department of Correction offender records technology to share information with police. The police and probation officers will also be able to alert neighbors in the community about offenders living there. Additionally, probation officers will ride along with police officers on their patrols. It will increase law enforcement presence in the community and let the public know police and probation officers work together.

Probation officers will also take part in Raleigh Police Department's Mobile Operation Vice Enforcement, where the police block off a street in a high crime neighborhood and check motorists' identification. Probation officers will be able to assist police by providing information about probationers the police would not have.

The Raleigh Police Department and Division of Adult Probation and Parole will also provide information about each agency in their basic training for new officers. From their first weeks on the job, new officers will understand the benefits of cooperation between the two agencies.

-bp-