For the past 12 years, the New Brighton Department of Public Safety (DPS) has employed its Neighborhood Oriented Policing (NOP) strategy to increase the effectiveness of its neighborhood watch blocks. Patrol officers are assigned to these clustered areas as individual police liaisons for the nearly 20 different geographic enclaves of the city. Since NOP’s inception, residents of the city’s varied neighborhoods have embraced this police-community partnership, which has resulted in historically low crime rates and increased citizen participation in the department’s public-safety educational programs and volunteer efforts.
The New Brighton Department of Public Safety was recognized for its NOP program during the 2011 IACP Community Policing awards.