Opening the lines of communication

Norristown Police Department kicks off regular feature with a column from Chief Mark E. Talbot Sr.

This seems like perfect timing. I’m nearly at the five-year mark in my tenure as the police chief here in Norristown. It’s time to do something different. The Times Herald has offered us a platform to communicate with our public in a way that we haven’t been able to do before. Frankly, we don’t really know what it is that we will say, but that doesn’t matter. What matters is that we are going to communicate regularly with an audience that we may not have reached in the past. That’s exciting. We are calling this ‘Inside NPD.’

It will help to know what you are interested in hearing about. We have a few ideas, but we are hoping that readers send questions and give us feedback so that we have a sense of what’s interesting to you. We want to know what you consider to be important. So, tell us.

One thought that crossed my mind was to share some of the talking points that I use when speaking to my leadership team. I believe that there is usually a

problem if what you say internally can’t be shared externally. In other words, if I’m speaking to police officers and I say things that would offend those who are not the police, then I’m probably doing something wrong. There should not be a gaping divide that separates the internal rhetoric that drives the operations of any public agency and what is said to the public that it serves.

I’ll start with some thoughts about reducing crime and increasing quality of life from our most recent COMPSTAT (compare statistics) meeting. (If there are terms that aren’t familiar to you we would be happy to clarify later, but for now-what you see is what was said.) The complexity of crime reduction can’t be overstated. It ain’t easy. But it is fairly simple. To start with, we have to look at each block in our community and then answer several important questions:

— Who runs this street?

— Who takes care of problems?

— Who are the predators here?

— Who are the guardians?

— What is the impact of the businesses on the block?

— How does the movement of people and vehicles impact the block?

— Who are the victims?

— Who are the repeat victims?

— Who are the offenders?

— Who are the impact players? Trigger pullers?

— Where on this block are people victimized?

— What here is generating crime?

— What here is attracting crime?

— What here is facilitating crime?

— We have to identify the streets where violence can flourish and then find out the reasons why

— When it’s dark, who is in charge of this space?

These questions speak to the reality of crime. Crime will flourish where the environment permits it to flourish. It is up to us to take the lead, but everyone has a role to play. We all have a responsibility to ourselves and to our neighbors. If you generate answers to the questions as they relate to your block, you may notice that there are things that you can do to make things better. There is an adage that says that “the police are the only people who get paid to do what is everyone’s responsibility.” Said another way, policing is everyone’s job.

For general questions and comments, contact Captain Richard C. Clowser at rclowser@norristown.org or 610.270.0496. If you need to report a suspected crime or criminal activity contact the anonymous crime tip line at 610-278TIPS (8477) or NPDTips@norristown.org

DIGITAL FIRST MEDIA FILE PHOTO Norristown Police Chief Mark Talbot speaks at the start of the department’s quarterly COMPSTAT meeting with area residents in 2015.