The hot term in law enforcement is community policing.
But what does it mean? And what does it look like?
The goal is to reconnect with the communities that officers serve. Last year, ABC2 asked commissioner Kevin Davis how he planned to do that. His answer included teaching his officers how to walk an old fashioned beat.
It's a brand new curriculum developed with the purpose of teaching new and existing Baltimore officers how to manage and walk a foot patrol. The goal is to get them to better connect with the people in their post and get back to the basics.
ABC2's Brian Kuebler watched as one of the first classes took the lessons to the streets of Park Heights.
Major Marc Partee developed the course and he believes this will help repair relationships and make better cops.
"Actually walking is making it real," he said. "The academic portion where we talk about the history and we walk about warrior versus guardian and then we move into the communication portion...that is all on the screen and it pretty, but once we start walking and then we start connecting with people, then they see, oh that is what we need to do again. We need to start connecting with the folk that we serve and our jobs get that much more easier because there is no barrier between us."
Major Partee has developed a 40-hour course for new trainees and an eight hour version for existing officers in their in-service training.
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