County sheriff’s office initiates relationships

He was born and raised here and graduated from Chapman High School. As a citizen, he wants his home to be safe; and as the sheriff he wants his deputies to be safe.

“We are trying to work as a team with the community,” he said. “Without the community, we are nobody.”

A person doesn’t have to look too long and hard to see the rift between law enforcement and civilian communities across the country. It’s a rift that Hoffman doesn’t feel exists here, but is cognizant of the work it takes to avoid it.

“That’s why we do these initiatives, to keep those relationships strong and healthy – so we don’t end up in that place because it is horrible, not only for law enforcement, but for the community,” he said. “To be at war like that, I can’t imagine how that turns a community upside down. At the end of the day it boils down to building good relationships.”

Hoffman started his law enforcement in 1993 and was elected sheriff in 2008.

 

Community policing

“Community policing can be a whole myriad of things,” Hoffman said.

From being active during the fair, to attending community events, or playing a quick pick-up ballgame with children, community policing is about building positive relationships with the community.

Hoffman said an example of community policing was when, during the summer, a couple of deputies were driving through Enterprise and there were some kids out playing basketball. They got out and shot hoops with them.

“It goes back to the 1800’s. Sir Robert Peel created the ‘Nine Principals of Policing,’” he said.

“Its amazing that if you go back and read that in the 1800’s, it almost mirrors what we are trying to do today. It is intriguing to me that somebody that long ago figured it out and we are still trying to use it. But, it is also intriguing to me that the theories are that old and we still haven’t figured it out.”

He operates with the philosophy that “the community is the police and the police are the community,” he said.

Often, it is just the little things like giving people an extra 10 minutes of their time, visiting with merchants, or simply waving to someone which can improve relationships and chip away at societal barriers that exist between law enforcement and the community.

“There is a natural barrier, and it’s not anyone’s fault,” he said.

 

DARE

The Drug Resistance Education Program has come under fire across the country because of a lack of measureable positive outcomes. Hoffman, however, sees the intrinsic benefits of the program and is not ready to give it up.

“We still think there is value in the program. I think what’s being overlooked is just the value of having that uniformed officer in the school in that type of environment where he has contact and can establish positive relationships with youth in their environment,” he said.

Dickinson County has one DARE officer who is also a patrol deputy. He visits schools across the county and presents the program to fifth-grade students.

 

Shop with a Cop

Throughout the year deputies try to maintain positive relationships with all of the community, including the children.

At Christmastime, they bring several children shopping in a program funded by donations.

The deputies choose the children from those whom they came into contact with during the year.

“We deal with a lot of families over the course of the year,” he said.

Some of the children are in a lower economic demographic, but it is not a prerequisite for inclusion in the program. Some of the children are those who the deputies may have simply identified as children who could use a positive role model or event in their lives. And it gives the children a personal contact, someone they can reach out to later if they need.

The program is only possible through the generosity of local residents.

“Businesses and citizens have been extremely generous and extremely helpful,” he said.

All of the funds raised go directly to the program. If there is any money left at the end of the shopping, it is rolled over to the following year’s Shop with a Cop.

 

Target Oriented Policing initiative

Beyond the community policing initiatives, there is the crime prevention aspect of law enforcement.

There will never be a way to definitely track crime that does not happen because of preventative measures, but there are ways to decrease incidents in an area by focusing attention and police presence.

Hoffman said they use Target Oriented Policing to track areas of the county where certain crimes are being committed.

“We monitor potential crime trends then make it mandatory for our staff to spend a certain amount of hours in a particular zone,” he said.

For example, if there has been a rash of burglaries or thefts, he can have a map printed out that will pinpoint their locations. From there, they can establish a trend or zone to target.

K-9

The Dickinson County K-9 program took an unfortunate hit recently when the department’s K-9, Biz, escaped his enclosure and was struck and killed by a vehicle.

“It was a horrible situation. I feel sorry for whoever hit him. Nobody likes to do that,” he said. “We don’t know who it was. It certainly was not their fault. Animals get out. Animals get hit. It happens every day, unfortunately.”

The department has started the process in replacing Biz.

“We had great success with our last two K-9s and last two handlers,” Hoffman said. “They had won a couple awards and we had success in the field. He had some good tracks where he tracked and apprehended some fugitives and a lot of success in identifying drugs and narcotics.”

The new dog is anticipated to cost in the neighborhood of $8,000 to $12,000. However, the funds will not come from the taxpayers. As with Biz, drug seized funds will pay for the new K-9.

“It’s a great fit that we can take drug money and apply it back to tools to combat drugs,” Hoffman said. “It is a great opportunity for us to utilize that money in a positive manner.”