THE UNIT LEADS THE WAY IN PROACTIVE COMMUNITY POLICING.
PCPD established the CRA Unit two-and-a-half years ago. It is comprised of four officers and is funded by a federal Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) grant awarded to Plant City. The function of the unit is to be the main liaison between the community and the police department. In their focus on community policing, the CRA officers try to find out concerns of Plant City residents. When the officers hear about, or observe an issue, they act to correct it before it becomes a problem. “We work in tandem with business owners and residents of the community if they have things that we can focus on that would help them,” Sergeant S. Carmack, who leads the unit, said. “It might not necessarily be a crime at that particular time, but it may be something that we can get ahead of to prevent crime. “If people are in distress and need help, our goal is to help them,” Carmack said. “If we know something is going on, we are going to try to address it for that business owner, that resident, that property owner. We want to make sure the city understands we are here for them, and we are here in Plant City to make their lives a little bit better.”
The federal CRA grant also funded two new pickup trucks. The trucks give the officers the ability to carry larger items, found items, and bulk materials to help out residents. Also, the officers often have to go off-road. The trucks are four-wheel drive, so they will get them to places two-wheel drive vehicles won’t.
“Our work is bridging that gap between the public and police,” Officer P. Theodore said. “A lot of people out there will look at police officers and say, ‘I don’t want to talk to that person. I don’t want to do this. I don’t want to do that.’ And they are scared to talk, unless they see a female officer in uniform, or they see a young officer like me in uniform. We are a little bit more approachable to those people.”
The CRA officers handle business complaints, traffic complaints, and the homeless community. They work with community leaders and business owners to pilot events, work with children in the community, do school threat assessments and lockdown drills, facilitate bi-monthly community meetings, and show up at school bashes, Christmas events, and meal giveaways.
“Our purpose is for us to bridge that gap to the community,” Officer P. Clark said. “To be more approachable to the citizens. As a female, I take a lot of pride and joy when I see a little girl come up and see that we are police officers—and they are in awe. It is really cute. They know that they can come to us, and we have a little more time to interact with them.”
PCPD patrol officers are assigned to designated zones. The CRA Unit has the CRA area they work in, but the unit has more freedom to work city-wide. If an investigation takes them to other zones or areas outside the city, they have more leeway to work outside the CRA to further the investigation. Also different than patrol officers, the CRA officers are not so consistently constrained by responding to one call after another, so they have the chance to spend time to engage more deeply with business owners to gather additional information, and further investigations by running down leads before handing details off to detectives.
“Some of our goals are to educate,” Officer D. Gregory said. “That is a big thing. We go to our assisted living facilities. We go to our schools. We give them tips on how to be safe. When we do our traffic control, we also help motorists. It’s not always about writing a ticket. Sometimes it is just a simple warning about new stop signs or speed limits.” The unit also helps homeless people by making sure they have vouchers for things such as getting free IDs they can get a job to get them headed in the right direction. The officers also give homeless people brochures on different resources like shelters, drug rehabilitation, and mental health. Whatever it may be, the CRA officers try to give them resources to help them get out of being unhoused.
“We chose this position,” Officer O. West commented. “You have to have a heart when it comes to community policing. Because it is a different type of policing than taking patrol calls as in theft, burglaries, armed calls, etc. We still do take those calls—they happen within our CRA zone. For those of us who are in this position, it is a passion for us.”
