DARE / Community Policing
Two full time deputies currently run the Broome County Sheriff’s Community Policing office. One Deputy is assigned to teach the DARE Curriculum to local school students and one Deputy is assigned as a School Resource Officer.
During the school year the deputies teach DARE in seven school districts throughout Broome County and into Delaware and Tioga Counties to approximately 1400 students. The DARE officer also spends time interacting with the children during lunch, recess or as needed on a one to one basis. The officer also makes visitations to the K-4 grades as part of the DARE program to speak to the students about strangers, police work, decision making and treating others with respect and kindness. The DARE Officer takes students to Senator’s hockey games for the Giving Kids an Edge Program to which there is no cost to the child and they get to interact with the deputy in a non-formal environment.
The Sheriff’s School Resource Officer is currently assigned to the Maine Endwell and Chenango Valley School Districts. The School Resource Officer works with School Districts and Families to ensure that Children in the districts are afforded a safe and productive environment conducive to a positive education experience. The School Resource Officer is committed to promote a TRIAD approach to school based law enforcement. The TRIAD is a law enforcement, teacher and parent approach to education. It allows the officer to act as teacher, councilor and law enforcement officer. School Resource Officers work with these partners on a daily basis. Educational lessons are developed at the request of each school district. These lessons are such but not limited to drug abuse, adolescence, delinquent behavior, violence, laws and policies and law enforcement careers. The officer is also part of the emergency planning for the districts. Officers assist the districts with all emergency plans and training exercises for the plans. When needed the officer takes on a more traditional role. The officer is responsible for investigations of criminal and non criminal incidents in and around the school.
We participate in parades with the DARE cars and the community-policing vehicle. We attend many events at which we fingerprint children. We attend job fairs at schools and lecture at some high schools on the police profession. We utilize the McGruff animated vehicle at different events through out the year including Police week at the Oakdale Mall.
The Sheriff’s community policing office currently has eleven active neighborhood watch communities throughout Broome County. The neighborhood watch program brings neighbors together to benefit themselves and the police by being extra eyes and ears able to gather information and to report it if necessary. Members become more aware of their surroundings and the people that should or should not be in their neighborhood. All members of the neighborhood watch are encouraged to take an active roll in making their area a safe place in which to live.
The community policing office is also active in the local TRIAD – an organization that is made up of Sheriff’s, Chiefs of Police and retired persons – for the purpose of implementing effective crime prevention and education programs for senior citizens. We speak to many senior citizen groups on safety issues, fraud and telemarketing fraud.
The newest equipment we have available in the Community Policing Office is for “Project Safe Child”. We are able to make cards with biographical information as well as a digital photo and digital fingerprints for the parents or legal guardians of a child. The information can be authorized to be stored in the Missing and Exploited Children’s Clearing House database if the parent or legal guardian chooses in case the child is missing the information can be quickly accessed by law enforcement and put out on the Amber Alert System.
