Winner, 2000 James Q. Wilson Award for
Excellence in Community Policing

Roseville, California, is a rapidly growing city of 73,000 people in the Sacramento metropolitan region. Incorporated in 1909, Roseville was primarily a railroad town until the early 1970's. The city’s core consists of old residential neighborhoods and downtown areas that have been surrounded by rings of newer and newer suburban retail and residential growth areas.

The Roseville Police Department began its Community Policing efforts in the early 1990's with a federal Weed and Seed grant, focusing on several troubled neighborhoods in the city’s core. What started as a project with a few officers working in those neighborhoods quickly became a model for a broad police/community partnership that now encompasses the entire community, and involves not only the police, but also the city government.

The police officers assigned in those original neighborhoods mobilized residents and together they saw some amazing results. In just two years, the crime rate fell dramatically in each neighborhood. One neighborhood experienced a decline of more than 80 percent. These declines have continued. Gang activity in another neighborhood dropped to almost nothing. Parks were cleaned, refurbished, and built. Yards were cleaned and houses painted. A youth center, the product of 100 percent police and neighborhood effort, was opened. But most importantly, citizens were empowered.

When citizens in those impacted neighborhoods saw the positive outcomes, they wanted to share their successes. Acting as a cohesive group, they asked the police department to do in all neighborhoods what had been done in theirs. The police department responded with an aggressive Community Policing plan that, over the course of four years, exceeded the original expectations.

A group of citizen leaders from neighborhood organizations, representatives from other city departments, and the police department began meeting. They divided the city into 37 distinct neighborhood areas. The police department appointed a special unit to work with volunteers from the original neighborhoods. Together they organized formal neighborhood associations in each of the 26 residential neighborhoods, as well as an umbrella organization to facilitate communications and efforts between neighborhoods.

Officers from each division and unit of the police department volunteered to work with a neighborhood. Most neighborhoods had two or more officers working with their fledgling organizations. Officers were to be accessible, to mobilize and mentor citizen leaders, and to lead problem solving efforts to reduce crime and disorder.

As these empowered neighborhood organizations became active, other city departments saw the opportunity and got involved. By 1999, it became the standard course of operation for most departments in the City of Roseville to carry out their business in coordination with the neighborhood associations. Today the city has a three-person neighborhood services division that coordinates the interaction of city government and neighborhood organizations.

On January 15, 2000, the police department dissolved the specialized unit which coordinated the neighborhood organization effort; its mission was complete. There is no turning back now. Community Policing is the standard at the Roseville Police Department.

For additional information:

Email: Sgt. Bud Herring
Agency website: Roseville Police Department