Operation Patrol On Foot Research Paper

During the 2016-2017 school year there have been a variety of criminal incidents that have occurred both on and off campus. Many times, it has been difficult for the police to be in the spot where many of the incidents occur, especially those that occur in areas on campus. The recent on campus incidents include but are not limited to indecent exposures, burglaries, and armed robberies. With respect to these crimes that have occurred on the University of Maryland campus, I propose the implementation of Operation Patrol-On-Foot. This proposal suggests that more campus police officers would be patrolling the campus by foot rather than by motorized vehicle. Operation Patrol-On-Foot would help make the campus a safer place for students, faculty, and visitors by enhancing the practice of preventative patrol and building stronger trust in relations between the police officers and the community.

By patrolling more on foot and less by motorized vehicle, the campus police officers would encounter the public more directly and be able to respond to on campus incidents quicker and more effectively.

Much of the campus is not easily accessible by motorized vehicle and is often left unsupervised by members of the campus police force, including the buildings located on Mckeldin Mall and the area around the Memorial Chapel. The implementation of this operation would allow campus police to better practice preventative patrol which would “[make] themselves more visible and their presence known in an effort to deter crime and to make officers available to respond quickly to calls,” (pg. 158). A huge effort made by police personnel is designed to prevent crime before it occurs and this operation would make these efforts more effective and keep the campus community

safer.
In addition to helping officers to better practice preventative policing, implementing on-foot patrol would help build closer connections and trust between the officers and the campus community. According to the Criminal Justice in America textbook, “one of the most frequent citizen requests is for officers to be put back on the beat,” (pg. 164). The primary way that police officers get around today is through use of motorized vehicles. While this is useful in police officers being able to get around most quickly and efficiently, this inhibits officers’ involvement in the neighborhood and with residents of the community. In an area, such as a college campus, it would be extremely beneficial for many officers to be patrolling on foot due to their ability to “detect criminal activity and apprehend lawbreakers more easily” than do police in car patrols, (pg. 164). Additionally, campus police would have an easier time in reducing the criminal activity that takes place in specific hot spots on campus if they were patrolling on foot rather than by motor vehicle.
This proposal would not eliminate patrol by motorized vehicle from being used on the campus, but would decrease that and establish a program of on-foot patrol officers to be implemented by the police force. Overall, the University of Maryland community would benefit greatly from the implementation of the on-foot patrol of police officers as proposed in Operation Patrol-On-Foot.