The office of Community Policing was established in January of 2002 and is currently staffed by one officer and one civilian. There are a number of officers who assist us in various activities.

Although the office is involved in public relations, this is not the primary purpose. The goal is to establish, maintain and foster a cooperative relationship between the department and various neighborhoods, organizations and individuals in the city. Encouraging officers and civilian employees of the department to become involved in problem solving and community building help to accomplish this goal. Closely associated with the department effort, is an effort to involve citizens and organizations outside city government to collaborate with us to address problems and issues relating to crime and quality of life concerns. The problem solving methods may or may not involve department personnel employing traditional police services and permitting civilians to participate in non-hazardous and non-confidential police operations.

Establishment of the Citizens Complaint Review Committee, the Citizens Police Academy, the Volunteers in Policing Unit and the Police Explorers are examples of citizen involvement inside the Richmond Police Department.

Officer involvement in social functions in the various neighborhoods is an example of officers becoming involved in the community in a non-traditional law enforcement role. In the future, we hope to establish a Neighborhood Officer program where officers will act as liaisons between the department and several neighborhoods in the city. These officers will, in effect, guide various city resources towards identified problems and inform involved citizens of the functions of various city departments. In this manner the citizens themselves can contact those respective departments to express their concerns and subsequently the proper resources may be employed to deal with those problems/issues that merit attention.

Although it is not our position that city government can alone solve all problems faced by our community, it is our position that city government in collaboration with citizens and other organizations can have a significant impact on reducing crime and improving the quality of life of our community.