Walking the Beat

Police methodology has come a long way from the neighborhood foot patrolman. Today, reported criminal incidents in big cities are fed into computers, with whereabouts and crime patterns flashed on video screens and mobile tactical patrols dispatched by a communications network. But law-enforcement sophistication may have come full circle. A federally funded pilot program in St. Louis seems to be demonstrating that there is still no crime deterrent like the cop on the beat.

St. Louis abandoned foot patrolmen in all but downtown business areas some 15 years ago. Even so, explains Police Chief Eugene Camp, "every time I went to a community meeting, or spoke with businessmen, or talked with citizen groups, I always heard the same thing. Everyone asked for the policeman to return to his beat on foot." Finally, armed with funds from the new federal crime-fighting "Impact" grant, he decided to put the idea to the test. In a program he called Overtime Foot Patrol Camp began last June to field 24 foot patrolmen during the week and 50 on weekends from a long list of volunteers anxious to work in their spare time; he deployed them in pairs in the city's high-crime areas, most of which are within a few miles of Gaslight Square. Each pair was given about three blocks to cover, with instructions to avoid predictable patterns and to keep as high a profile as possible. The program's main concession to modern technology: each officer was issued a $1,000 transistorized walkie-talkie radio to keep in touch with his partner and with the district station. "We do not expect our patrolmen to look for drugs or find murderers or prevent assaults in high-rise apartment buildings," explains Camp. "Rather we aim at heightened visibility of the police to reassure a scared public."

The foot patrolmen seem to be succeeding on both counts. Not only have they given the neighborhoods a tremendous boost in confidence, but they have also effectively deterred criminals and in several instances stopped crimes in progress. In the five months the program has been in effect, the crime rate has dropped 17% in the pilot areas. Foot patrolmen so far have interrupted a rape, prevented an enraged young man from shooting his girl friend, recovered a stolen automobile, stumbled upon the victim of a fatal shooting and apprehended numerous suspects for armed robbery and possession of drugs. In one typical week in November, they stopped 37 people for questioning, gave 21 parking tickets, checked 179 cars and 765 buildings and stopped to chat with 464 local businessmen.

Reaction both inside and outside the department has been overwhelmingly enthusiastic. Camp plans to triple the scope of the program in mid-January, and already has 800 volunteers waiting to participate. Says one man who is already involved, Sergeant William Conreux: "At first there was some apprehension that the public, especially in the black neighborhoods, would be hostile, but none of that has emerged. It's just the opposite. Some parents even yank their kids onto the street to introduce them to a real, live policeman." St. Louis police received fan letters from citizens lauding the program, and the restaurants and stores in the areas report increased business. One woman was so enthusiastic she telephoned the captain in charge of the program to say that she and her husband now take walks at night for the first time in years.

Obviously, patrolmen on foot cannot meet all the needs of modern law enforcement, but if nothing else, they may be able to recement the bond that once existed between citizen and policeman, thereby making crime prevention a neighborhood responsibility. Reflects Chief Camp, "We won't really be able to evaluate the program for two or three more years, but we may just find that a mix of men in the car and on the beat is the best way to fight crime."

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