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Name: Jeff
Location: CT USA

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Customer Service

By way of explanation, for those of you who are not members of the IACP Community Policing Committee, I am one of the “community” members of the Committee having never served in a law enforcement capacity. I am instead an architect with some experience designing police facilities.

A couple of weeks ago, at the Connecticut Chiefs of Police annual trade show, I happened to be speaking with a Records Clerk from one of the local departments who complained to me that a recent lobby renovation at her PD had resulted in a very unfriendly lobby environment. During our discussion I couldn’t help but reflect on some of the unfortunate police department lobbies that I have encountered in my work.

In one agency on Cape Cod in Massachusetts, while checking in at the front desk I couldn’t avoid overhearing an officer taking a statement from a citizen. They were seated in the lobby, within ear shot, at a nearby table. I can imagine how uncomfortable it must be to speak about being a victim with a total lack of privacy. In another facility in New Hampshire, a sex offender was checking in with the desk officer while I waited alongside in a lobby space of less than 100 square feet. Just imagine how uncomfortable it would have been for a mother and child in my place. In several nearby towns, including the one our friend the Records Clerk was complaining about, a citizen who enters the lobby is at a complete loss to know where to seek help. They are confronted with darkened dispatch windows and a sign that reads “Pick up phone for Assistance”. The client is unable to make visual contact with any department personnel. Why would a citizen even bother coming to the police in person with this kind of service?

At our Community Policing Committee’s recent mid-year meeting, one of my fellow committee members asked if I might have time to discuss different approaches for police facility design to enhance and express the community policing philosophy of his agency.  I look forward to following up on that conversation as I feel there is much that can be accomplished through architecture to reflect and support a police agency’s culture. But as powerful as architecture might be, I am reminded that community policing is about interaction and partnerships between police officers and citizens. This kind of personal interaction is far more powerful in determining your agency’s relationship with the community.

In the earlier example provided by our friend the Records Clerk, a number of factors contributed to the unfriendly environment. The dispatchers, behind their bullet resistant glass, prefer low level lighting. It is a common request and is more comfortable for the dispatchers. However, the brighter lights in the lobby create harsh reflections on the glass of the dimly lit dispatch room, and the dispatchers stationed well back from the service window are invisible to the public. The red phone for communication just adds insult to injury from the standpoint of our citizens. Many visitors overlook both the sign and the phone, as the clerk described, and continue on past the darkened dispatch to arrive at the records window where, to make things worse, they are instructed to go back and pick up the red phone.

So let me ask, based on the interaction described above, is this the kind of organization that your clients would want to partner with?

I know for many agencies out there, I may be preaching to the choir, but for those of you that have not embraced community policing is an agency wide philosophy that includes every member of your leadership staff, every officer, every civilian staffer, every volunteer and every dispatcher. Consider that those who serve on the front line of interaction with your clients at the station have a vital role in building bridges with individual citizens. These individuals must embrace a philosophy of customer service, and become ambassadors of your message of building partnerships with your community.

In my opinion, in each of the examples provided above, the agency and the police personnel involved had options to serve their clients more respectfully, without changing the architecture, but instead by embracing a customer service attitude that would support a community policing approach to service delivery.

There is a lot I could do with architecture to reflect your agency’s commitment to community policing, but there is far more that your personnel can do every day through their interactions with your clients. Make sure your agency’s front line of citizen contact is building an image of customer service and creating the foundation for partnership with your community.

By way of explanation, for those of you who are not members of the IACP Community Policing Committee, I am one of the “community” members of the Committee having never served in a law enforcement capacity. I am instead an architect with some experience designing police facilities.

A couple of weeks ago, at the Connecticut Chiefs of Police annual trade show, I happened to be speaking with a Records Clerk from one of the local departments who complained to me that a recent lobby renovation at her PD had resulted in a very unfriendly lobby environment. During our discussion I couldn’t help but reflect on some of the unfortunate police department lobbies that I have encountered in my work.

In one agency on Cape Cod in Massachusetts, while checking in at the front desk I couldn’t avoid overhearing an officer taking a statement from a citizen. They were seated in the lobby, within ear shot, at a nearby table. I can imagine how uncomfortable it must be to speak about being a victim with a total lack of privacy. In another facility in New Hampshire, a sex offender was checking in with the desk officer while I waited alongside in a lobby space of less than 100 square feet. Just imagine how uncomfortable it would have been for a mother and child in my place. In several nearby towns, including the one our friend the Records Clerk was complaining about, a citizen who enters the lobby is at a complete loss to know where to seek help. They are confronted with darkened dispatch windows and a sign that reads “Pick up phone for Assistance”. The client is unable to make visual contact with any department personnel. Why would a citizen even bother coming to the police in person with this kind of service?

At our Community Policing Committee’s recent mid-year meeting, one of my fellow committee members asked if I might have time to discuss different approaches for police facility design to enhance and express the community policing philosophy of his agency.  I look forward to following up on that conversation as I feel there is much that can be accomplished through architecture to reflect and support a police agency’s culture. But as powerful as architecture might be, I am reminded that community policing is about interaction and partnerships between police officers and citizens. This kind of personal interaction is far more powerful in determining your agency’s relationship with the community.

In the earlier example provided by our friend the Records Clerk, a number of factors contributed to the unfriendly environment. The dispatchers, behind their bullet resistant glass, prefer low level lighting. It is a common request and is more comfortable for the dispatchers. However, the brighter lights in the lobby create harsh reflections on the glass of the dimly lit dispatch room, and the dispatchers stationed well back from the service window are invisible to the public. The red phone for communication just adds insult to injury from the standpoint of our citizens. Many visitors overlook both the sign and the phone, as the clerk described, and continue on past the darkened dispatch to arrive at the records window where, to make things worse, they are instructed to go back and pick up the red phone.

So let me ask, based on the interaction described above, is this the kind of organization that your clients would want to partner with?

I know for many agencies out there, I may be preaching to the choir, but for those of you that have not embraced community policing is an agency wide philosophy that includes every member of your leadership staff, every officer, every civilian staffer, every volunteer and every dispatcher. Consider that those who serve on the front line of interaction with your clients at the station have a vital role in building bridges with individual citizens. These individuals must embrace a philosophy of customer service, and become ambassadors of your message of building partnerships with your community.

In my opinion, in each of the examples provided above, the agency and the police personnel involved had options to serve their clients more respectfully, without changing the architecture, but instead by embracing a customer service attitude that would support a community policing approach to service delivery.

There is a lot I could do with architecture to reflect your agency’s commitment to community policing, but there is far more that your personnel can do every day through their interactions with your clients. Make sure your agency’s front line of citizen contact is building an image of customer service and creating the foundation for partnership with your community.