Police officers once assigned to beats across 55+ square miles are now focused on becoming part of and protecting a single district as the Town of Cary Police Department implements GeoPolicing -- a new approach to community safety that enables officers to become experts on the needs, issues, and concerns of the people within the specific areas they serve.

With GeoPolicing, Cary is now divided into three districts,
 District 1 -- primarily central and northern Cary including most of downtown north to the airport.
 District 2 -- primarily western Cary from Weatherstone Elementary School west into Chatham County
 District 3 -- primarily comprised of southern and eastern Cary from Cary Elementary School south to the West Lake area

Each district has a command team comprised of a police captain and two lieutenants, who have authority, responsibility, and accountability for deploying personnel and resources based on the needs of their districts. District commanders are directly involved in identifying emerging issues in their districts and responding effectively to those issues using a proactive policing model that identifies issues, gathers data, involves stakeholders, and implements specific strategies. Each command team overseas five sergeants, two corporals, two to four school resource officers and 22-25 patrol officers.

While much of the day-to-day policing decisions and resource allocations are now being made at the district level by district command staff, the Chief of Police, Deputy Chief and majors continue to oversee all operations. In addition, GeoPolicing only involves the police department's patrol and school resource officers; other functions such as criminal investigations, traffic services, and animal control remain town-wide operations.

"As Cary continues to grow and change, we are constantly looking for the very best tools available to keep our community safe, and we're extremely excited about the benefits we believe GeoPolicing will bring," said Town of Cary Police Chief Pat Bazemore.

GeoPolicing emphasizes citizen interaction and participation in problem solving. Through community meetings, special events, and informal visits, citizens will get to know the officers that are responsible for patrolling their district, and the officers will get to know them, too.

"In Cary, we believe that our community safety is directly tied to how involved citizens are with helping keep it safe," said Bazemore. "Community policing has long been part of our efforts, and moving to GeoPolicing will take us to the next level in creating and maintaining effective bonds with those we serve. We want our citizens to know that what's important to them is important to us."

Planning for the Town of Cary's switch to GeoPolicing began in May 2008 and cost about $38,500 to implement, most of which went toward necessary upgrades to various positions to complete the reorganization. Other places that use GeoPolicing include Wilson, NC, Gastonia, NC, and Irvine, CA.

Learn more by visiting the GeoPolicing section at http://www.townofcary.org/depts/pddept/geopolicing.htm , where you'll find maps of and specific contacts for each district.