Pinal Today

A new Casa Grande Police Department (CGPD) program, called Team Policing, is now operational after it was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The initiative aims to connect police officers who work on the same beat through use of the Microsoft Teams platform, according to Casa Grande Dispatch. It also gives officers the opportunity to share and consult with each other on incidents or situations regardless of shift times.

"The idea behind it was [that] we have a few people in the department who were carrying all of the weight for community policing," CGPD Lt. Chris Palmer said. "A lot of police departments make this mistake of saying, 'We're a community policing department' and that 'We're driven by community policing,' and it's a buzzword but they really aren't because the majority of the officers go out and they do their work, they go do their calls for service and they do what they're doing ... What Team Policing does is that it brings everybody in the department in line with the community policing philosophy, meaning that they have to directly engage."

CGPD has five beats, Casa Grande Dispatch reported: Adam (including downtown), Baker (south of Florence Boulevard, Mission Royale), Charlie (north of Florence Boulevard), David (including North Peart, East Rodeo, and East Kortsen Road), and Edward (midtown, North Pinal Avenue, North Casa Grande Avenue).

"All of the officers are assigned to, say, Adam or Charlie or Edward district, and because of the shifts they don't always see each other," Palmer said. "We are now having our officers meet and communicate regularly on the Microsoft Teams platform. They all are assigned teams and they can email updates. I can email citizen complaints – things like that. Every officer assigned to that district gets it and can be engaged in what we need to solve."

Palmer said officers now meet amongst themselves on a bimonthly basis. Many also facilitate bimonthly meetings with community members from each beat.

"Generally, our officers are more engaged with the process because they are dealing with it better," he said.

Palmer said the department is also trying to be more flexible and setting up booths in high-traffic areas to allow officers to answer questions directly from the public.

"Instead of just scheduling a meeting in a certain location and waiting for people to show up, we've actually gone to high-traffic areas and beats and set up, like, a couple of booths," he said. "The officers are there and we have information to share with people that pass by who didn't even know we were going to be there, so we can catch that traffic and we can answer any questions they have about their community in that area."

Thomas Anderson, public information officer for CGPD, said the format provides officers with the chance to solve minor policing and community concerns. For example, a specific community issue was resolved after a discussion between the public and district officers.

"A district officer told me people were jumping a wall and coming through the private property, and we don't know if they’re looking to burglarize, if they're using it as [a] shortcut, or what's going on," Anderson said. "The officer asked if he could speak with the community who were [sic] affected one-on-one that same day, and they got to the root of the problem. There were [sic] a row of tents and people living out on the north side of the wall – the perimeter of that entire neighborhood. They had been jumping the wall so they could get to the local QuikTrip gas station.

"One of the best options that a police officer has in their toolkit is the ability to use discretion. There are plenty of instances where we do not allow for discretion. However, via our officer training, we come up with a person who is able to demonstrate and utilize discretion appropriately and effectively."