In the 1980's, the Sheriff’s Office implemented strategies to establish a closer working relationship with the community to include, decentralizing patrol and investigative functions. Specialized training was provided to patrol deputies focused on community-based, problem solving tactics, and establishing fixed patrol areas.  These efforts enhanced our commitment of service and led us to a point of instituting a structured community based policing program.

In the early 1990’s, the term “community policing” arose to define “a philosophy of full-service, personalized policing where the same deputy patrols and works in an assigned area on a permanent basis, working in a proactive partnership with citizens to identify and solve problems.”  This establishes a foundation for a sensitive and closer partnership with the communities they serve.  The deputy assigned to this position is a Community Resource Deputy.

In 1993, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office was one of five law enforcement agencies in the nation awarded a three year Community Policing Demonstration Grant by the Bureau of Justice Assistance.

It was projected that initially Squad Community Resource Deputies would establish community stations by way of grants or donations in their respective areas.  In fact, many of the “part-time” Community Resource Deputies have assumed “full-time” assignments with the establishment of additional community stations.

Community Resource Deputies establish community councils, comprised of residents, merchants, public service providers, local school officials, area ministers, and other interested parties, to serve as an advisory board concerning neighborhood issues. Once these issues are identified, deputies assist community members with efforts to eliminate or reduce problems.  Some Community Resource Deputies are assigned to a regular patrol squad, with the primary function of serving as the liaison between the designated community, the Sheriff’s Office, and other governmental agencies.

The Community Resource Deputies, along with patrol deputies, focus on crime suppression and improving the quality of life in their assigned communities. Community Oriented Policing is designed to change the way in which the Sheriff’s Office delivers police services, moving from “reacting” to calls for service, to “proactive” problem solving to reduce repeat calls for service and prevent crime.

The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office advocates the community-policing model.  The concept is an agency wide initiative.  The scope of standard community policing deployment was expanded to not only concentrate on high incident neighborhoods, but to direct the strategies of partnership and problem solving to prevent and deter crime in communities throughout the entire county.

The citizens of Hillsborough County have embraced the concepts of community policing and have come to identify the community deputies as true partners in ensuring the safety and well being of their respective neighborhoods.