Is Foot Patrol Still Relevant?

Whether you’re the Chief of a five-man agency or the Sheriff for a 4,000-man office, the question of foot patrol will inevitably be brought to you. If you already have foot patrol assignments underway, then your answer is predetermined. If you don’t have foot patrols going, then you might be asked (or ordered) to launch such. The challenge is inevitable: If you have them, someone will be upset about it. If you don’t have them, someone will be upset about it. So what are the arguments, pro and con, where foot patrols are concerned? That is exactly what we attempted to answer as we researched this article.

If you work in a small enough jurisdiction—by population—it might make little difference whether you’re on foot or in a patrol car. It’s likely that you know all the good people in your area, and all the bad, and all those who are just visiting or otherwise don’t belong. The only difference between walking or driving is how fast you get to a call when dispatched. Your relationship with the citizenry isn’t noticeably impacted by your presence on foot or waving as you drive by. On the other hand, if you are part of an agency that spans over 10,000 sworn officers, then it can make a huge difference in how you relate to citizens if you’re showing up in a patrol car versus walking/running up.

In today’s world of mainstream media often sensationalizing specific events, mostly to the detriment of how the public perceives law enforcement, anything we can do to enhance our community relationships is a good thing. The more we can get to know the citizenry and provide to them a positive image of law enforcement as we do our jobs, the less impactful the negative stories will be. Further, if our personal character is well known to our citizenry, then when someone makes a false accusation against us, such will be far less believable.

While foot patrols are often used for special events such as parades, street festivals, holiday events and more, many agencies don’t make regular use of them day to day. Many reasons are given from manpower to officer survival concerns. Those are both valid reasons for limiting or not having foot patrols and there are plenty of other reasons as well, but when you look at the potential good to be gained from such a simple assignment, it becomes obvious that foot patrols should be used anywhere conditions permit. We’ve already briefly discussed personal perception and improved law enforcement/citizen relationships as good reasons for using foot patrols. What might some other reasons be?

Intelligence: While a lot can be seen from a patrol car cruising by slowly, the angle of observation and depth of perception are both limited. The officer driving, and even the one in the passenger seat, is looking from the same seated position the entire time (simply by circumstance). How intense the perception is depends on what’s being viewed. Yes, citizens might be looked at differently depending on their behavior, what they’re carrying, who they are associating with and more. But how close does the driving officer look at trash cans? Mailboxes? What’s on the seats of vehicles as he drives by? (He can’t even see that last one.) A lot of actionable intelligence can be gathered by the observant officer while he is on foot patrol. He can see discarded paraphernalia, where certain groups of people congregate or which businesses they patronize. He can identify who in given neighborhoods is respected and who isn’t. He can find out who the residents think might be a problem or a nuisance. Sometimes the officer can find out where a wanted criminal is from a knowledgeable and careful citizen with some respect for the law.

Crime Prevention: Yes, we all accept that a uniformed presence is a deterrent for crime, but how many look beyond that? Community Oriented Policing focuses on problem solving and, more specifically, by having the officer(s) work with the community in partnership to find solutions to existing problems, thereby preventing the motivation or potential for crimes before they can happen. An officer assigned to foot patrol in a given area for even just a few weeks will quickly learn where the problems exist and he’ll usually get an earful from the residents about how to fix the problem. Not all of the solutions offered will be reasonable or possible, but the very fact that people are talking to the officer and working to find communal solutions is a step toward better police/community relations.

Humanizing Law Enforcement: When an officer drives by in a patrol vehicle, he’s somewhat disconnected from those he passes. Even if he smiles and waves, he’s still “just that cop driving by.” Do the citizens see a human being doing a difficult job? Are they even thoughtful of the circumstance when that officer drives by at ten in the morning, Christmas Day? Do they think about the fact that he left his family at home to come out on the street? Change that circumstance to one where the officer is walking by, greeted by citizens, holiday wishes are exchanged and some cheer is raised. The citizens can’t just view the officer in a disconnected fashion when he’s standing before them, able to ask about their morning and sharing a brief story about his own—or what will happen when he gets home because he had to leave before his kids were even out of bed that morning. Being HUMAN goes a long way in community relations and it’s something we need to leverage as much as we can.

Let’s not forget though, the officer on foot patrol is carrying his entire office. In today’s law enforcement environment, that officer has to wear or carry virtually everything and some of it would be sitting on his passenger seat if he were in a cruiser. In addition to all of the items normally on his gunbelt (gun, magazines, baton, chemical irritant, EMD, handcuffs, flashlight, radio and PPE gloves) he’s also wearing at least one body camera and potentially carrying both a blow-out kit (personal trauma kit) and a ticket book/electronic ticket device. Some of that might be on his vest and he has to be dressed for the weather.

The weather is obviously a consideration and while we hope officers don’t have to do much foot patrol in the rain, doing so on hot days, cold days, snowy days... that can happen. He’d better have the right hat, coat, gloves and boots. The gloves have to allow for great dexterity and decent tactile sense, but they’d also protect from cuts and keep the officer’s hands warm when needed. The coat has to allow for quick access to his gunbelt and all the tools thereon, but it had better be waterproof and warm enough depending on the season. The hat is also seasonally specific but has to protect from sunburn in every season.

Perhaps the most important is the boots. In the summer they need to breath but be waterproof. In the winter they need to breath but be insulated and retain heat as well as possible. They need to offer great ankle support, foot bed comfort and protection. Oh, and they have to do all that while being as light as possible.

Approached correctly, and used strategically, foot patrol can still play a highly valuable and vital role in day to day law enforcement operations. A wise Chief or Sheriff will make sure he includes such assignments in his scheduling and budgets.