Dean Esserman, chief of the Providence, RI police force, reflected this morning at the BIF3 Collaborative Innovation Conference about the six years that have past since 9/11. Six years since Bin Laden promised to take down 100,000 American children. “He’s a man of his word,” said Esserman. “But we’ve done it for him. Over the past six years 100,000 young Americans have been murdered. We’re a land that buries its young. That’s the face of violence in America.”
Esserman explained that for a generation we’ve thought that 911 was going to solve our police issues. You have a problem, call 911, the police come. It’s a one way relationship. People talk, police receive.
The problem, says Esserman, is that crime is personal. Most people don’t call the police to report a crime. And when people do call the police they don’t tell them much because the police have become anonymous strangers.
The way to reduce crime? Essmerman believes that it’s creating community policing, where people in neighborhoods know their local cop and have a relationship with him or her, much as they did years ago.
In Providence, there’s a quiet revolution happening where the police are moving back into neighborhoods, establishing relationships where people are starting to trust their local cop. “People don’t have to know and love the uniform,” said Esserman, “just the person in it. That’s where we’re going. We want people to know their neighborhood cop.”
The results of this innovative new model? Providence crime is down for five years in a row, one of the very few cities in the country that can report a decline.
What does it take to create this type of new policing model?
Esserman said it’s because Providence has an honest mayor, who has given the police force back to the people — instead of the police force being the King’s Army, as is the case in most cities.
Another reason is clearly that Esserman is a leader who knows how to get people to buy into a new vision, and restore pride and honor in being a police officer.
Bravo for Esserman’s ideas. I’ve felt for a long time that we have allowed a rift to develop between law enforcement and "common" people; I’m excited to hear of this new model’s success in Providence and hope other cities will jump on board!