10 Commandments for More Effective Street Patrol:
After having discussions with hundreds of officers who have attended my training sessions and observing officers on patrol in dozens of cities across the country, I realized the standard operating procedure that helped me thrive and survive while patrolling the streets of New York City is no longer the rule. Sadly enough, it seems that many officers, not all, apparently disregard the simple basics of patrolling the streets. I call these basic rules The 10 Commandments for More Effective Street Patrol.
- Drive with the car windows open. Whatever the weather, street cops need to hear what’s going on outside their police cruiser. Breaking glass, gunshots, screaming, calls for help, screeching tires, or any street sound that could lead to an arrest, an opportunity to help a citizen, or to increase officer safety is a sound you need to hear.
- Keep the AM/FM radio off. There are enough distractions normally while you are patrolling the streets. Adding to the distractions by playing a loud AM/FM radio in the cruiser is unsafe and inefficient. While your windows are open, you’ll need to hear what’s going on around you. Music, talk radio, or local news can only be another unsafe distraction.
- Keep personal cell phone use at a minimum. Back in the day, we didn’t have them so we couldn’t get calls in our cruisers. Undoubtedly, we lacked the convenience afforded by today’s cellular phones. Undoubtedly, cell phones are a good thing but too much of a good thing can be a bad thing. Patrolling the streets with the cell phone to your ear detracts from concentration, observation ability, and, as studies show, the ability to handle a car safely.
- Drive Slow. Patrolling the streets means exactly that! In order to hear things and see things, patrol driving must be slow enough to make observations easier. A slower driving speed will greatly increase what you see and what you hear.
- Be Observant. Observant patrol means the careful scanning of your surroundings that utilize a cop’s six senses while you patrol your assigned area with the intent on interdicting crime, providing aid to citizens, or enhancing officer safety.
- Avoid Unauthorized use of the Mobile Computer. How can any officer perform efficient, observant, and safe patrol while composing emails, playing solitare, or looking at God knows what kind of Internet sites!!! Limit the use of the Mobile Computer or Laptop to running license plates and warrants and keep the rest for your home computer or when you are parked in a safe place on your lunch break.
- Systematically Unsystematic. This is the term we used back in the day to describe the way you patrolled your sector. It means, in simple terms, to make sure you mix up the streets you patrol. Bad guys are aware of cop’s routines. Patrolling the streets should be anything but routine. Don’t keep driving the same route. Mix it up. Double back. Go to the far end of the sector and you’ll surprise the bad guys while you being vigilant.
- Carry a Street Cop Toolkit. On patrol, you can encounter anything. Unlike working in an investigative or tactical unit, whatever you have in your car is all you’ll be able to access if the dung hits the fan. My ‘street bag’, as I called it, contained flashlight, extra batteries, extra magazines, extra rounds, rubber gloves, leather gloves, a plain black windbreaker, screwdriver, hammer, visegrips, binoculars, notepad, extra pens, extra tickets, knife, and anything else I could carry outside the normal reports, flares, crime scene tape and other tools kept in the trunk of the cruiser. Oh, and my back-up gun was always on my person!!!!
- Be a Hunter. In the old days, the second we stepped out of the precinct, we were hunting for bad guys. Whether we were taking a past burglary complaint or driving from job to job, we were always hunting (observing) for a collar! Hunting bad guys, all day, every tour, is what makes the job fun and interesting. Hunting can definitely result in numerous top-quality, self-initiated, arrests for guns, drugs, robberies, and burglaries.
- Have a Plan. Patrol can throw any officer at any time a curve ball. Visualizing a plan in your mind and planning what to do with your fellow officers in case of a variety of situations (armed gunmen, in progress crimes, officer down, etc…) can save your life as well as make you a more efficient street cop.
