POLICE WATCH : Getting Personal

Some years ago, then-Sen. Edmund S. Muskie told his staff economist that he had figured out why they had trouble communicating. A politician’s habit, Muskie explained, is to try to simplify complex issues. Economists, he said, work just the other way around.

Economists are not alone at this. The same pattern appears to dog the concept of “community policing,” which often seems in danger of being defined and explained to the point of losing meaning. Now a colleague reports discovering the key to the essence of community policing.

Community policing has been described as a less aggressive approach to crime control in which officers are less poised to pounce than available to lend a hand. They would get more points from their superiors for being helpful than hard-nosed.

Our colleague says all one needs to know about the idea is covered by a recent event in Sierra Madre, a community in the San Gabriel foothills with one of the lowest crime rates in California.

His wife’s car keys vanished as she ran an errand in Sierra Madre. Summoned by telephone, he drove to Sierra Madre and delivered a spare key. Hours later, their telephone rang. A Sierra Madre officer had spotted the keys lying on the pavement under a car, picked them up, noted the license number and resumed his patrol.

Back at the station, he ran the license number through the state communications network, got a name and address, looked up the phone number and called to report finding the lost keys.

End of report.