|
Bloomington Police Department
Statement of Purposes and Objectives
The American criminal justice system exists to serve the community as the formal
social control device available to enforce standards of conduct necessary to
protect individuals and the community tranquility. As a component of this
system, the police must be supportive of the entire process of the
administration of justice.
Fundamental to this purpose is the recognition that the authority and power to
fulfill the Department’s multifaceted function is dependent upon community
approval of its existence, goals and actions, and upon its ability to secure and
maintain public support and cooperation. The responsibility of this Department
to seek and preserve public favor is best met by impartial and just service to
the law and by a continuing commitment to the awareness of the sensitive balance
between individual rights and collective security.
In furtherance of this realization, the following objectives of the Department
are identified as the primary operational goals sought to be attained.
Objective:
An objective is a desired end for which effort is expended, and which, if
attained, fulfills the purpose of the Department. Within each objective, there
may be a number of ancillary objectives, each of which, if attained, contributes
to the accomplishment of the police mission.
Primary Objective:
A society free from crime and disorder remains an unachieved ideal;
nevertheless, consistent with the values of a free society, it is the primary
objective of the Bloomington Police Department to as closely as possible
approach that ideal. In so doing, the Department’s role is to enforce the law in
a fair and impartial manner, recognizing both the statutory and judicial
limitations of police authority and the constitutional rights of all persons. It
is not the role of the Department to legislate, to render legal judgments, or to
punish.
Functional Objectives:
1. Prevention of Crime
Peace in a free society depends on voluntary compliance with the law. The
primary responsibility for upholding the law therefore lies not with the police,
but with the people. Since crime is a social phenomenon, crime prevention is the
concern of every person living in society. Society employs full-time
professional police to prevent crime, to deter it, and when that fails, to
apprehend those who violate the law.
Crime is a symptom of ills within society, which are not the responsibility of
the Department to cure. The Department is responsible, however, for interacting
with the community to generate mutual understanding so that there may be public
support for crime prevention. Community involvement is essential to facilitate a
free flow of information between the public and the Department to assist in the
identification of problem areas and to inform the public of crime statistics and
trends. Additionally, knowledge of the community is necessary so that each
Department employee may be instilled with a sense of concern for the crime
problems and law enforcement needs in assigned areas of responsibility.
The prevention of crime remains as a basic obligation to society. When it
becomes necessary to rely on police action to secure compliance with the law,
society has failed in this responsibility.
2. Deterrence of Crime
While there are certain crimes that cannot be deterred, crimes committed against
property and against innocent victims in public places are reduced by police
patrol. Street crime is curbed by the potential criminal’s fear of immediate
apprehension or by the increased likelihood of detection. The deterrence of
crime requires the investigation of behavior, which reasonably appears to be
criminally directed.
In deploying patrol forces to deter crime and to inspire public confidence in
its ability to ensure a peaceful environment, the Department must strike a
balance between the desirable deterrent effect of visible patrol and any
undesirable appearance of oppression. In the long run, however it must be the
people, not the Department, who determine the limitations on their freedom.
3. Apprehension of Offenders
The administration of criminal justice consists of the identification, arrest,
prosecution, punishment, and rehabilitation of a law violator, and it has as its
objective the voluntary compliance with the law as an alternative to punishment.
Once a crime has been committed, it is the duty of the Department to initiate
the criminal justice process by identifying and arresting the perpetrator, to
obtain necessary evidence, and to cooperate in the prosecution of the case.
As the certainty of swift and sure punishment serves as an effective deterrent
to crime, the Department must diligently strive to solve all crimes and to bring
the perpetrators to justice.
4. Recovery and Return of Property
The actual costs of crime are difficult to measure; there cannot be a dollar
value assigned to the broken bodies, ruined lives, and human misery, which are
its products. However, it is possible to observe the steadily mounting cost of
lost and stolen property. This loss as well as other costs of crime must
ultimately be borne by its victims. To minimize the losses due to crime, the
Department makes every effort to recover lost or stolen property, to identify
its owners, and to ensure its prompt return.
5. Public Service
Often, because there are no other public or private agencies available, the
public relies upon the Department for assistance and advice in the many routine
and emergency situations which develop in the community. For this reason and
because there is frequently a potential for crime, the Department regularly
responds to incidents where it is not contemplated that an arrest will be made.
Saving lives and aiding the injured, locating lost persons, keeping the peace,
and providing for many other miscellaneous needs are basic services provided by
the Department. To satisfy these requests, the Department responds to calls for
service and renders such aid or advice as is necessitated or indicated by the
situation.
6. Movement of Traffic
To facilitate the safe and expeditious movement of vehicular and pedestrian
traffic, the Department must enforce traffic laws, investigate traffic
accidents, and direct traffic. To enforce compliance with traffic laws and to
develop driver awareness of the causes of traffic accidents, the Department
appropriately warns, cites, or arrests traffic law violators. Traffic accidents
are investigated to protect the rights of the involved parties, to care for the
injured, to determine the cause of accidents so that methods of prevention may
be developed and, when a traffic law violation is discovered, to gather
necessary evidence to prosecute the violator. The Department maintains
intersectional control where necessary to direct vehicular and pedestrian
traffic and to provide information to the public in assisting them to safety and
expeditiously arrive at their destination.
This code is used by:
|
|
