The
Foot Patrol operates between 7:30 AM and 3:00 AM, with auto
patrols covering the remaining hours. Even during the regular
shift, some of the patrol work is still done with the Sheriff's
black-and-whites and the University's all-white cars.
Santa Barbara County Sheriff John Carpenter maintains that the
current goals of the Foot Patrol are no different from it's
original objectives--to humanize the relationship between police
and Isla Vista residents and to help stifle the area's extraordinary
crime rate.
"Nothing has changed in respect to the objectives of the
Foot Patrol," said Carpenter. "What has changed is
the constituency. Current Isla Vista residents are very different
from who they were back then."
A unique feature of the patrol, and one that has attracted great
interest nationwide, is the return to what was once a basic
trademark of all police activities--the foot officer on the
beat. The Houston Police Department recently adopted a similar
"community policing" program, assigning each officer
a permanent neighborhood beat. Different variations of community
policing have been seen in Dallas, Baltimore, and Los Angeles.
But the I.V. Foot Patrol was one of the first.
One problem, however, is that the Foot Patrol was originally
designed as a "specially trained" force of officers.
Patrolmen received special community relations training, including
public relations, human relations, race and ethnic relations,
and sensitivity sessions with Isla Vista residents. Currently,
however, officers assigned to the Foot Patrol do not receive
any of the special training needed to help them deal with problems
unique to the Isla Vista community.
However, both the UCSB Police Department and the Santa Barbara
County Sheriff's Department claim their officers receive specialized
training in all aspects of law enforcement before they are ever
assigned to the Foot Patrol, with each County-supplied deputy
"hand-picked" and personally approved by the Sheriff
himself. The assumption is that the kind of community relations
training which I.V.'s special police force received during the
1970s has become generalized in all police training schools.
"The
University of California's training program covers it all,"
said UCSB Chief of Police John McPherson. And serving on the
Foot Patrol is now a priority among police officers. According
to Lt. Joseph Smith, special details with the Sheriff's Department,
deputies wishing to work on the Foot Patrol must pass an intensive
screening process. "Every officer who comes to the Foot
Patrol is hand-picked for a wide variety of personal qualities
and the good job they've done with the department," said
Smith. "Proof of that can be seen in the absolute absence
of complaints against Foot Patrol officers despite the much
greater number of calls they receive as compared to those assigned
to the main station."
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