Hollenbeck welcomes Dr. Jones

The Hollenbeck Division Area Commander and C-PAB Co-chair, Captain Paul Pesqueria, invited Dr. Arthur Jones to attend the regular C-PAB meeting last week, and to give a talk about community based policing.

Dr. Jones is a well known author and expert in community policing efforts world wide, and a frequent contributor to this website (see "The Think Tank"). His knowledge is sought by police departments around the globe, and is the result of years of comparative studies and critical analysis conducted by Dr. Jones and his partner, Dr. Robin Wiseman.

After attending the entire meeting, Dr. Jones gave an enlightening and informative presentation to the group, and then answered questions in a short, but spirited, question and answer period.

There were many many topics adroitly covered in his talk, during which Dr. Jones used numerous examples of how other police departments had developed community based policing programs in recent years. Using statistical comparative analysis, and factoring in things like population and law enforcement strength, significant crime reduction can be shown to have occurred in those cities which had fully embraced a robust pro-active program of community policing.

These law enforcement partnerships with the community and other government agencies spring from the need to "work smarter" about crime suppression efforts, especially important in a city like Los Angeles where the LAPD, even at full strength, has a relatively low per capita presence, and a huge geographic area to cover.

But Dr. Jones, who has recently made community policing presentations to the Police Commission, the Mayor, and the Board of County Supervisors, remains optimistic. He believes Los Angeles is on the cusp of an era which may well usher in new thinking and new opportunities to borrow from existing programs, but tailor them to the special needs of our area.

One such idea being used in other places is that of partnering together proactive community policing teams consisting of representatives from a variety of groups ... law enforcement, probation and / or parole, social services, mental health workers and community members ... and assigning them to regularly work in teams in specific, relatively small geographic areas. This approach works especially well when directed at gang suppression and homeless / mental health problems.

Dr. Jones was encouraged by what he'd experience by attending the Hollenbeck C-PAB meeting, where he saw how easily the community and Captains Paul Pesqueria and Anita Ortega interacted, and he congratulated them for fostering such a meaningful relationship with the C-PAB members.

He encourages more of this, city-wide.

Dr. Jones thanked Captain Pesqueria for the invitation to address the Hollenbeck C-PAB and offered to make himself available to other groups who wish to have him give short presentations about the benefits of community based policing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

--- Arthur A. Jones and Robin Wiseman are international human rights lawyers with legal educations in the United States and Europe. They are consultants and authors on international policing, social policy and human rights.

Please visit "The Think Tank" on this LA Community Policing website, where you will find several offerings by Dr. Jones and Dr. Wiseman, Doctors of Law with International Human Rights Law and Policy, both residents of Los Angeles.

For additional information or a complete list of references, contact: