The five Traverse City Police Department Sector offices serve and protect the community right where people live and work.
Since the program began in 1986, the department has placed officers into neighborhoods and schools, bringing them into daily and informal contact with residents, visitors and businesses. The department assigns five of its 33 officers to community policing.
"The officer gets to know the people and the comings and goings, gets to know the people and the businesses," said Sergeant Brian Heffner of the Traverse City Police Department.
Heffner, who served as a community police officer based at Central Grade School from 1992-94, noted that a sector officer provides a different type of policing.
"When you're working the road, typically you're reacting to calls whereas community policing is more proactive," he said. "You're getting out into the community and hopefully stopping crimes before they occur. It's proactive instead of reactive."
"It's nice for the population to be able to interact on a positive level," Heffner added.
Officer Tim Smith moved his office Friday to an existing department facility at the Grand Traverse County Civic Center. He spent two years at the Traverse Heights Elementary School location but extensive renovations there that are moving the school to Sabin for the 2006-2007 school year prompted the relocation.
The new address and phone number (see below) for his South East Sector Office the next year does not mean new duties.
Smith, who also serves the department as an evidence technician, a member of the honor guard and a trainer of new officers, is responsible for the geographically largest sector of the five. He will still drive, walk and bike through the area, talking with residents or looking into complaints. Sector officers also respond to emergency calls that occur in their territory.
"We have different tasks with the public and we get more in-depth with the complaints," said Smith, a 1992 graduate of Traverse City Senior High and a police officer in the city for three years. "We hold community meetings and we do bike patrols, too."
Working in the schools is particularly satisfying, where he can get to know the students and be a positive presence in their lives. Bike rodeos and other interactions are forge connections between students and the three sector officers who work out of the schools. Smith noted he declines to be the 'tough guy' meting out punishment at school, choosing instead to talk and reason with a child in trouble.
"We're still role models to the kids out there," said Smith, who spent six years as a department reserve officer, starting in high school, before leaving the area for college and to launch his law enforcement career. "When I hand out little badges and stickers, kids just get a gleam in their eye and say they want to be a police officer."
The five Traverse City Police Department Sector Offices are listed below.
n Downtown at the Traverse City Visitor's and Convention Bureau, 101 Grandview Parkway. Officer Michael Peters, 946-7777.
n West at Willow Hill School, 1250 Hill Street. Officer Jeremy Metdepenningen, 947-7743.
n South West Office at Glenn Loomis School, 1009 South Oak Street. Officer Scott Maxson, 947-7784.
n North East Office at Oak Park School, 301 South Garfield. Officer Paul Ellul, 947-7786.
n South East Office at the Grand Traverse County Civic Center, 1125 West Civic Center Drive. Officer Tim Smith, 947-7751.