In 1994, the newly elected mayor of Albany, New York, made a commitment to community policing to decentralize the city's patrol force and emphasize problem solving.

Brief Stats: 100,000 residents Police department manpower: 334 COPS Grants: COPS Universal Hiring, COPS MORE, and Domestic Violence.

Policing Focus

From an old "watchman" approach to "quality of life" policing. Contrary to the past, officers were encouraged to pursue low-level violations such as noise control, traffic violations, and drug use to improve the quality of life in their neighborhoods.

Partnering and training. The Albany Police Department (APD) built support with outside agencies by paying particular attention to interagency relationships in training sessions. Training topics, ranging from problem solving to cultural diversity, helped empower officers to come up with their own solutions to neighborhood problems. Building community power by creating neighborhood associations was also key.

Help from COPS. The APD pursued several Federal policing grants to help advance its community policing efforts, including hiring officers through COPS grants to increase manpower from 298 to 334. In addition, Albany used two COPS MORE grants to hire civilians and provide money for officer overtime. The APD's final Title I COPS grant came from a 1995 application for a Domestic Violence grant, which eventually funded a two-person civilian unit charged with helping victims navigate the sometimes-complicated criminal justice and service systems.

For more information, click on the NATIONAL COPS EVALUATION-ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE CASE STUDY: Albany, New York, by David Thacher, which chronicles the history of APD's community policing efforts in three stages:

1. Recent history of Albany's police and its government.
2. The reforms of the past 4 years, focusing on the strategies APD administrators and others used to establish community policing.
3. The consequences of change, reviewing briefly how the APD operates today.