EPD in the Community

It is the policy of the Easton Police Department to promote positive relationships between department members and the community by treating community members with dignity and respect and engaging them in public safety strategy development and relationship-building activities, and by making relevant policy and operations information available to the community in a transparent manner.

The Ten Guiding Principles of the Community Policing as identified by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing, include:

1. Crime Prevention is the responsibility of the total community.
2. The police and community share ownership, responsibility, and accountability for the prevention of crime.
3. Police effectiveness is a function of crime control, crime prevention, problem solving, community satisfaction, quality of life, and community engagement.
4. Mutual trust between the police and the community is essential for effective policing.
5. Crime prevention must be a flexible, long-term strategy in which the police and community collectively commit to resolving the complex and chronic causes of crime.
6. Community policing requires the knowledge, access, and mobilization of community resources.
7. Community Policing can only succeed when top management, police and government officials enthusiastically support its principles and tenets.
8. Community policing depends on decentralized, community-based participation in decision making.
9. Community policing allocates resources and services based on analysis, identification, and projection of patterns and trends, rather than incidents.
10. Community policing requires an investment in training with special attention to problem analysis and problem solving, facilitation, community organization, communication, mediation, and conflict resolution, resource identification and use, networking and linkages, and cross-cultural competency.