Reaching Out to Residents Is the Ticket for Anaheim

A decade ago, Anaheim police officers tended to see their community through the windshields of their cruisers, rarely getting out to chat with residents.

But officials realized this lack of casual contact with the public they serve was making it difficult to solve crimes, especially in troubled neighborhoods where residents distrusted police.

“We had a community out there who didn’t know who we were,” said Capt. Frank Fleming, patrol division commander.

Today, officers regularly meet with residents as part of a community-oriented policing program that officials said has revolutionized the department. Officials believe the changes are responsible, in large part, for the department’s high rate of solving, or clearing, crimes.

From 1993 to 1997, Anaheim’s crime clearance rate was 28%, compared to the statewide average of 20.4%. Clearing a crime is defined by authorities as making an arrest and turning over a suspect to courts for prosecution.

Anaheim’s clearance rate represented an improvement over the previous five-year period, 1988-92, when the city solved 21% of crimes, according to a Times analysis of state crime records. Though it is the county’s second-largest city, Anaheim’s latest clearance rate ranks third, behind much smaller neighbors Costa Mesa and Laguna Hills.

“Now we have guys who are really involved in neighborhoods, and they get emotionally involved,” Fleming said.

Under the community policing program, officers are assigned to specific neighborhoods. By gaining the trust of residents, police are getting more tips that in turn help them solve more cases.

“We’re doing better and better on the gang-related homicides because the [police] gang teams and community policing teams are getting more cooperation from the public,” said Roger Baker, commander of the department’s detective division. “It gets us back into the community to build those bonds of trust.”

Police concede that despite better community relations, some cases will never be solved, while others benefit from just plain luck.

“Clearance rates on homicides, like in robberies, are driven by such an incredible number of variables that it’s hard to pinpoint,” Baker said. “Sometimes you get low on the laws of probability, and sometimes you get up high.”

The push for improved community links began in 1989, when City Manager James D. Ruth called city leaders into his office for a dramatic meeting on how to fight Anaheim’s then-growing drug and gang problems.

As a result, the Police Department now works hand-in-hand with the Community Services Department, code enforcement officers and other agencies on solving neighborhood problems.

“There’s been a marked change over what may have occurred in the past, the more traditional way of merely worrying about your own individual job or division,” Baker said.

“Now, you might find vice investigators or narcotics investigators working on weekends or at night with detectives trying to solve a murder,” he added. “The leadership direction is to share. That’s just had such an incredible impact on the clearance rate it is unimaginable.”

Anaheim’s crime rate has dropped along with the rest of the county, while its clearance rate has increased.

Anaheim officials said that the city’s overall decline in crime has also given detectives more time to work on unsolved cases and new types of crimes, which also helps boost the clearance rates.

“Five years ago, we didn’t even think about Internet crime,” Baker said. “We are today and try to be proactive about it.”