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that was more cemetery that had been lost the other. And I thought I heard somebody say out Sonoma County. A diverse county of over one million acres, It's famed for its agriculture, industry and recreation, boasting a booming economy and unique lifestyle

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for its citizens. Described by the same Luther Burbank as the chosen spot of all the Earth, Sonoma County is the place to live, work and play as we move into the 21st century. Led by the forward looking philosophy of its governing bodies, Cinema Counties, 340,000 residents

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are, Ah, harmonious, successful blend of ethnic and economic backgrounds. We invite you to take a closer look at Sonoma County in the nineties with your host rich McGlinchy. How you doing, Everybody Welcome to this edition of Sonoma County in the nineties on our new set here

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in the Post move with cable studios, we're gonna be talking to our sheriff Mark Heidi, on this program. We got a lot of questions to ask, Mark, we're gonna find out what's happening in law enforcement, But before we don't want to call briefly your attention to

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the artwork on the walls Now, these particular paintings happen to be my by my lovely wife, Ellie. But we want to also mention the fact that in the future, if you would like to see your artwork displayed on the set, the re announcement at the end

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of the program. So I just checked that. And be sure that you see the name Theresa McManus. Get in touch with her, and maybe we'll have your artwork on next time. Now, as I said, we're gonna be talking to our friend Mark Heidi. High marks in

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quite a while. It has been. You are. So I guess just about how long have you been in office? Now, that's about three years. Almost three years. Been a good three years to Yes, it has way. Haven't had any horrible furor way ever while, um, three

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years Mark. I mean, you have another year before you go out on the trail again. Is that right? Actually, the end of this year starts it in the campaign. Yeah, right. But you implemented a community oriented policing program in Roseland. I think it was in 1991.

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Now, what is a community oriented policing program? Essentially rich. It's a non traditional approach to, AH, law enforcement, and it says the name implies it's community oriented and gets the officers mawr involved in the community and the community more involved in the law enforcement or community

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wellness effort. Um, how is this community oriented policing program different from conventional policing strategies that you've used elsewhere? I think you really need to look at historically what law enforcement has done over the years if you go back. I started in the business 23 years ago,

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but even before that, law enforcement was really more part of a community, especially in rural areas where there were not a lot of population. And and the officers in the area knew who the the people were and the people knew who their police officers were. Over

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the years as increasing demands for law enforcement services, our response has been that we want the officer to come in to solve the problem and to get back and be available for the next call. So we have looked at you know how fast we can get

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officers from one call to the next, and we've mobilized officers put them in into cars, and I kind of joked at times that during the wintertime they ride around with the windows up in the heater on and during the summer time with the windows up in

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the air conditioner on. But but they've been somewhat separate and apart from the community. So we what we're doing now is trying to get the officers back involved in the community and actually enlisting the aid of the community and a variety of other governmental community based

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services to address the whole issue of community wellness. And what we found is a lot of the problems which we in law enforcement and I think the community have always looked at as law enforcement problems are really not there. More societal problems and law enforcement on

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Lee plays a role in solving those problems. Well, community policing are oriented. Policing is used. Seems to me from what you've just said thus far is kind of a throwback to the to policing many years ago, Uh, the cop on the beat type of thing. Is

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it? Well, essentially it is. It is getting officers back into the community as they were and reassigning The other thing that we have done is to we have kind of rotated officers through assignments. What we try to do in a community oriented process is to have

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officers consistently assigned to one geographic area so they get to know who the people are and the people get to know who the officers are. But we're also using new technology. Were not. It's not totally a throwback to the law enforcement 40 years ago. Way advanced

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that what led you to believe that, uh, you've talked about a little bit of that right here? But what really led you to believe ultimately the community or in the policing is a better way to deliver law enforcement services. Well, basically, we weren't being successful in

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what we were doing in our traditional approach, and in the past, when we had a problem and officer would go would deal with the immediate problem. And then as soon as the immediate problem was dealt with, he leave. And what we found is that we would

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come back to the same problem time after time after time. So we were dealing with with the superficial part, but not really the root cause of the problem, um, band. And it was taking mawr and more time and in doing some research and looking at other

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pilot projects, we found that when the officers actually spent some time and tried to to address the root cause of the problem, that in the long run it was actually mawr efficient to do that. And the other thing is, we just don't have the resource is

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so we need really need toe work with the community and empower the community to solve some of their own problems. Yeah, it just seemed to in this project have targeted the Rosalynn area. Now, why did you select the Rose, um area to implement the department? The

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initial experience? I guess I should say, with the community oriented policing, U R P stands for GOP and actually in the Roseland I just picked up in the Roseland area. We have actually nicknamed that program our cop for Roseland community oriented policing. But it actually encompasses

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the Roseland, Bellevue and right areas of Sonoma County, and we selected that for a couple of reasons. One is that the community oriented policing concept is much easier to implement in an area where there are high concentrations of residents and the Roseland area was one of

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about two areas of the sheriff's department is responsible for that had that high concentration of people. There basically is a small town, and they were actually 1% of the geographic area that we had responsibility for providing law enforcement. Two. There were 12% of our population but

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accounted for about 40% of our calls for service. So it indicated to us that there was a significant problem there that we were really not solving by throwing more cops at the problem. So we decided that that would be an excellent place to start this pilot

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program. You just made a Fraser throwing more cops of the program at Problem Rather. And, uh, that has never really been the answer. Has it mark? Well, there's a base level of law enforcement. Did you have to provide but my own feeling and having the years

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of experience? I do. Just adding more cops does not solve the community or a crime problem. Two regions, perhaps, for that mark. From a layman's standpoint, the population increases. The number of wrongdoers seems to increase with the number of people, so to speak. And if you're

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going to add two more officers here, another team here, another team here. You're gonna be adding teams to try to keep up with population and that's going to be very difficult to do. What is Richard? Also we have we have and we're good at arresting people.

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We are. My jail is full. In fact, we're having to add more space because we're good at arresting people. But it's it and what we clog up the criminal justice system. The courts are full that there's not enough prosecutors. There's not enough public defenders. But we're

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really not solving the crime problem by addressing it that way. And and what this community oriented or neighborhood oriented policing concept does is try to get to some of the root causes of those problems and it doesn't solve them all. I'm not saying that that Seop

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is the be all Indo, but it it addresses a certain part of the community problem and there are still people that are gonna have to be arrested and and you know, we still go out in our aggressive in our enforcement efforts, but we also look at

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at the root causes of those problems and how we can actually address those. How has the community or oriented policing been accepted by the citizens in Roseland? Very, very well. It has far exceeded any expectation that I had for the program, and that's one of the

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things that's been very, very gratifying to me. I constantly get letters complimenting the officers and the community. One of the things that I found interesting. I go out in the community a lot community meetings, and I had different community. People talk about this program and really

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how good it was, because when the officers drove through the neighborhoods, the officers were waving to people that were out working in their yards. And then the interesting part was the officers were saying, You know, this is really a great program because when I drive through

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neighborhoods, people wave to me. So there really was that sense of of a community law enforcement partnership. That's great. That's great to hear that so far would have been some of the community activities that have been developed as an outgrowth of your implementation of the Roseman

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community oriented policing program. I think first of all, I need to to say that you know, we were. We only provided, I think, a catalyst for the community to get program started. But some of the most notable, I think, and I can't take responsibility for all

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of those. But we have been a part of him, and that is the way we have established a youth program where they went to the business. People got funding for after school programs. We were able to, um, get the schools to donate their facilities and some

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volunteer staff time. So for two summers now, we have provided summer recreational activities for the youth in the area. Also, two great Michael used to minute here that the more we can occupy these young minds, young people let up. So if left to their own devices,

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many cases, we'll find ways to get into a Greek. I think all of us did when we were young, and that certainly amplified today. So I commend you very much on that right there. Well, thank you. A couple of the things that I think are really

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notable. One is the two of my employees determined that there was really no youth sports activity, especially for the Hispanic youth. So they went and personally contacted Hispanic youth in in the school system and we're able to put together soccer teams. Last count. I believe they

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had 75 youth involved in in soccer activities of the community has established a parade and festival every year in the Roseland area and I've got to participate in that. And it's really kind of a fun local event. And the other thing we had one area down

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there that was particularly notable, especially in law enforcement communities, for being a very undesirable area. And over the both 2.5 3 years now that that program has been in place, these people have really taken back their neighborhood and recently got together a group of the community.

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People have gone beyond the traditional neighborhood watch program, but there are planting trees, they're doing landscaping and they've really become a very tight knit community. And I believe a lot of that has to do with just a sense of empowerment that now they've been able to

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take back their area. I absolutely agree with you and I think that the the answer to a lot of the problems as I see it once again from the standpoint of a layman is that we re establish pride in the neighborhood on the part of the

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people. That intent, in turn, leaves them to do a lot of things. They start disciplining their own, so speak and they start really taking pride in it. And they won't have any more of this defacement and what have you? And it's really amazing and wonderful to

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see people do that. So Rose and I think it is a great example of what you've done right there. Have you observed up? Well, this is where we're just talking about. Have you observed an increased pride in Roseland since the cop program started there? Very much

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so. And I think it's just a lot of people's perceptions that the community is a lot better place to live. And there has been a really increase in pride and people, especially in conversations I have with people we're in the past. They have said, you know,

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I'm kind of from Roseland and said it almost apologetically. There's just really a sense of I'm from Roseland, and these are the things that we're doing in our community. Yeah, that's really a difference, seemed to say I'm from there and taking pride. That's what I was

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thinking. What do you attribute this to again? I think a lot of it has to do with with the community wellness and there's okay. There's an old adage in law enforcement or it's a thing called Broken Windows. And the principle is that if if a window

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gets broken out of a house and it's not fixed, then additional windows will get broken. And if the window is fixed, then it says to the community, We don't tolerate that. And I think that that principle a lot had had applied in Roseland, where over the

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years things have just had become in a state of disrepair, not only physically but the mental attitude of the community. And I think that's turned around where the community in that area has said. We're not gonna tolerate that in our community anymore. We're proud of where

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we live, and I think you've seen an increase in the in the physical appearance down there as well. Pride in yourself in your home, your family and your neighborhood is one of the greatest and strongest solutions to do any problem. If you counter with defacement in

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that sort of thing. Nothing here. What are some of the unique programs that have been developed by your staff in this Rosalynn community oriented policing program? I mean, unique one. Well, we've We've done some neat things as far as our enforcement efforts by foot patrols, bicycle

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patrols put officers out in the community on bicycles. And that has been real successful both from an enforcement standpoint and just from a community standpoint, where the but the kids in the community and and even the adults feel that they can come up and talk to

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the officer because they don't have the barrier of the patrol car there. We have done things, as I indicated before with the youth Youth programs. We have a juvenile diversion program in the area. We have a a graffiti removal program, which actually is Countywide. And I

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know Post Newsweek cable has been very, very helpful and assisting us in that effort, Um, we have drug free zones, and that was the Roseland area was the first place where we established a drug free zone, and it's there's a law that allows us to provide

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an enhanced penalty for anyone who sells drugs within 1000 feet of a place where Children congregate. So we we got a resolution from the school district and a resolution from the Board of Supervisors and established a drug free zone in the rose and area that's since

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gone to other areas of the county. That's a that's a That's a real hallmark of the program right there. So it's just it's really become a partnership with the community. Yeah, all right now, one final question before we take a break here. How how well was

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the Seop community oriented policing concept accepted by your staff? You mentioned a little earlier that they kind of got the feeling, Hey, this is a good program. But what else? I think that the the onset, there was a little bit of apprehension. There were. There was

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some excitement, and what we did was ask for volunteers to participate in this program. And then we interviewed the volunteers and selected the the officers for the program. But everybody was there was there because that's what where they wanted to be. And one of the things

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that I did, which I think was particularly successful, was stay out of it. I actually gave them three parameters said. You have a constraint, that legal constraint, because I don't want you doing things that are illegal. You have a financial constraint because we can't just give

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you All of the resource is we have up and the last constraint is your imagination, and I want you to go down there and I want you to establish a program. And the officers and the supervisor at the time were the ones that really put that

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program together and working with the community. They found out what the community needed and the it's just been overwhelming. And now we have people on waiting list wanting to get transferred to the Roseland Assignment country. Uh, we're talking to Sonoma County Sheriff Mark I. D. We're

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talking about the community oriented policing program in the roast on area. I'm going to talk more about that because there's a lot more interesting information that he's going to impart with us. But first, let's pause for this important message. Graffiti removal project was something that was

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in response to what we saw is a growing need for a project to eliminate graffiti around the county. We were successful to date in receiving over 2000 gallons of paint to cover graffiti throughout Sonoma County Post Newsweek cable was very gracious and donating a pickup, which

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we use not only for transporting our personnel and equipment to the scene, but also becomes a very high visibility tool to show people in the community how important the graffiti removal effort is. Children are the largest group of Americans living below the poverty line. They have

00:19:49.920 - 00:20:06.610

to reach higher for what others take for granted healthcare, balanced meals, encouragement, but with help early, all Children in your community gain skills to get out from below the poverty line. It takes programs like Success by six and people like you help take the first step.

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Call to learn more, change the world of a child and change the world. Welcome back to this edition of Sonoma County in the nineties. We're talking with our Sonoma County sheriff, Mark Heidi, who has been our share for the past three years. Done a splendid job,

00:20:27.430 - 00:20:41.360

and I say that for the simple reason is I meant into Mark earlier in the program. You know you're doing a pretty good job when the public does not complain. Things keep going on and keep being done. And no one seems to find any. Take any

00:20:41.360 - 00:20:54.420

umbrage. Some people said that's lethargy. Not when it comes to law enforcement there any problems they're going to hear about and it is true. And it's to their credit that they've heard about very few since they've been in office. So I come in you and your

00:20:54.420 - 00:21:14.500

staff for that mark, for sure. I do have a good staff. You doing drinking are going crazy people over there. Um, as I understand the community oriented, policing, problem oriented policing program we're talking about, which is in Rosalynn area. The solutions include involving other government agencies,

00:21:14.500 - 00:21:35.500

non profit agencies, citizens eyes. This all correct. It is that the amount of public resource is, or or groups that can get involved in the community oriented concept is is really unlimited. We use zoning planning, public health, adult and child protective services, county probation, fire departments,

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tow companies, auto dismantle, er's you name it and there's an application for it. Somewhere in the program, you have an example where you involved a lot of these. Well, there was one. It wasn't actually in the Roseland area but was in the West County. And we

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had a place in the West County where we repeatedly got complaints from neighbours because of abandoned cars, illegal houses, unlawful septic systems, public health problems and a lot of theft. It was kind of a commune, and the community was concerned about a lot of theft. And

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we, with the help of the the Ernie Carpenter West County supervisor, got a meeting together and we included zoning, public health of the building department, um, fish and Game. We got a number of different agencies involved and actually took it a multi disciplined approach to dealing

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with with the problem. We got a search warrant for the place we went there. They were given citations to take corrective action. We towed a number of abandoned cars, and it it really had a very successful conclusion because we have not had the complaints from the

00:22:41.740 - 00:22:56.380

neighbours as a result of that. And this is something I have been going on for years. Once again, the proof positive that you're doing it right. You're not getting the complaints from people who are feel put upon. Um, Now that has been successful in Rosell in

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the community or in a policing program, will you probably use it elsewhere. Absolutely. We're doing um, right now, actually, we are using the concept in the Cinema Valley with our substation in the Boy Springs area and also in Greenville with the substation we have in that

00:23:15.800 - 00:23:37.710

area. So it's Ah, it's something that right now we have actually that the three programs going, um and and we are looking at expanding it to a county wide effort. You're providing contract law enforcement, right to present to the city now of Windsor. Um, are you

00:23:37.710 - 00:23:54.160

implementing the community oriented policing program there yet? Yes, that is absolutely That is one of the one of the selling points when we talk to them about providing contract law enforcement. And we told them that that we would replicate our Roseland program in their town, and

00:23:54.160 - 00:24:09.760

that's exactly what we're doing and having the same types of results, every community and the county's gonna want to get involved in that quickly. You know what is really great about this is you're talking about, as we said earlier renewal in a neighborhood pride fact that

00:24:09.760 - 00:24:23.540

they're proud of living there, and they want it to be right, and they're going to do their darnedest to make sure it is right with your help with direction. Law enforcement. Right now, we talked about Rosen and and in some of the other we like to

00:24:23.550 - 00:24:38.630

think of Grenvilles number Valley Windsor. What are your plans for the rest of the unincorporated area of the county right now? We're looking at it at a new concept of providing law enforcement Countywide, and it's a study that we're doing because we want to make sure

00:24:38.630 - 00:24:52.640

that we do it right, or as right as we can, were bound to make mistakes. But we right now have have watched commanders that are around the clock so that we have watched commanders on duty 24 hours a day. And what we're looking at it is

00:24:52.640 - 00:25:10.770

the concept of area commanders where we take those same number of personnel and we divide the county into geographic areas where these watch commanders and would become responsible for a geographic area so that with the deputies, two sergeants in these lieutenants would have a responsibility for

00:25:10.780 - 00:25:30.290

identifying the different communities issues and addressing it with the community oriented policing concept in those areas. Kind of assistant assistant sheriffs. You already have a very point. Assistant Sheriff Dale Norm, but kind of an assistant assistant sheriff. These guys will they all kind of service the

00:25:30.640 - 00:25:48.240

chief of that particular, It's great to because then people feel, Although they know you, the elected Sonoma County sheriff, they feel that they've got their own person right there that understands that chameleons is primarily concerned with it. It gives gives the administrator of the lieutenant an

00:25:48.240 - 00:26:07.740

opportunity to spend more time in the community and really deal with a lot of those other community issues. When do you think you would have this new community oriented policing program in place? Let's say, for the county, our target is mid to late 1994 and again,

00:26:07.800 - 00:26:20.960

you know, we know it's really not, but and it and it is a major departure from the way that we have provided services in the past. And, you know, we I'm all for trying things, and we're bound to make mistakes when when we try things. But

00:26:20.960 - 00:26:37.060

I want to make sure that we have at least thought through all of the implications of this major change in service delivery, and I am sure that it's something that we are going to try, at least in some degree. I'm gonna ask you a question here

00:26:37.060 - 00:26:51.810

next that I don't really agree with, but I'll ask what you think. Do you think the community oriented policing concept is a new fad that will be replaced by something else? And what I meant when I said I don't agree with? I hope not. But go

00:26:51.810 - 00:27:06.050

ahead. Do you think it will know? Didn t I think community oriented policing is an old fad. I think that for a period of time, as I said, we got away from the community law enforcement, either by community design or by law enforcement design. We we

00:27:06.110 - 00:27:21.550

took ourselves a separate and apart from the community and I think that what we need to do is get back to where we were utilized. The new technology utilize all of the current resource is that we have available to us but be part of the community

00:27:21.570 - 00:27:36.570

because that's really who we are. I mean, it's it's not just a job. We are people who live and work in this community. We know I'm from the generation before yours. Uh, but I do remember in living I was born in Cincinnati, lived in open before

00:27:36.570 - 00:27:51.720

I came here 10 or 12. But I do remember the cop on the beat, as we call them in those days was somebody I really was very farmed oven had great respect for and feared to some degree whenever I did anything wrong. But it was a

00:27:51.720 - 00:28:07.900

good concept, and it was it was one of the strength of America. And it seems to me that you're going back to that to this is I'm saying not retracting in thymus faras, wonderful advancements and technology and police protection work. But we're going back to the

00:28:08.170 - 00:28:22.420

human concept. We're here. We're just as interested in the pride in the goodness of this area as you the residents are. And we're here to help you keep it that way. I want people to feel good about their contact with law enforcement. You know, when when

00:28:22.420 - 00:28:41.180

a cop comes to your home and leaves, I want people to feel that it was a real positive contact. Would this community oriented policing program have application to government in general? Do you think? I think absolutely it would. Um, there is, uh, well, actually, San Diego

00:28:41.180 - 00:28:58.990

Right now, San Diego County is using the community oriented government philosophy. I think there are a multitude of government issues or expectations that the community has of government that really need to be addressed with that multi disciplined approach that I think we have departmental ized too

00:28:58.990 - 00:29:16.340

much in government over the years. And I think we really need to get back to the government in general. Okay. Thank you, my friend, for a very instructive visit, as usual. The pleasure, ladies and gentlemen, my guest has been mark ideas, Sonoma County sheriff who has

00:29:16.350 - 00:29:30.640

been reserved for the past three years. Be up for your approval in the next year. I'll tell you one thing is a very fine job. For three. We've been talking about the community oriented policing concept and how how successful its meaning Rosemond and I was probably

00:29:30.640 - 00:29:44.160

gonna be applied elsewhere in the county. My name is Richman, 19. Your program is Sonoma can in the nineties. I'll be back with you next week with another member of the county government family related agency. Still in good luck would help each and every one of

00:29:44.160 - 00:29:44.350

you