One-by-One: Not Just a Hipster Drivetrain

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by Austen Schlecht
Castle Rock (CO) Police Department

Law enforcement officers around the country are familiar with Community-Oriented Policing (C.O.P.) and the various models associated with it (SARA, CPTED, etc.); but as bicycle officers, we have other ways to serve the community that fall into the category of what Chief Jack Cauley of the Castle Rock Police Department has dubbed “One-by-One Policing”.

One-by-One Policing is a way of policing that takes C.O.P. to a new level of personal service. “By serving people one by one, together, we can create safe and secure environments where people can thrive,” Chief Cauley recently remarked at a department training. “One-by-One Policing is Castle Rock Police Department’s unique way of leading and serving people that is central to our mission of providing a safe and secure community. It is why we do what we do.”

One-by-One Policing encourages officers to address each citizen interaction individually, assessing the needs of the citizen and how best the police department can serve them. Sometimes that service can be based on a criminal event; other times it can be based on a quality of life issue. Chief Cauley believes there is a third dimension that has become even more important as of late: serving the community on a relatable level.

Effecting change in departmental ethos must come from the top down. Chief Cauley has established an ethos at the Castle Rock Police Department that encourages supervisors to give their officers the freedom to think “outside the box” and get very creative with how they interact with the public.

He has said, “One-by-One Policing starts within our organization. We focus on creating safe and secure environments for our employees so they are better equipped to serve the community. In order for the department to provide the best possible service to our community, we, as leaders, must serve our employees individually and create an environment where team members feel safe, secure and can thrive. Trust is then earned and exists between the leadership team and the rest of the organization.”

The Chief encourages his supervisors to enable their unit members to develop community programs that cater to the individual officers’ strengths as well as serve the public on a very personal level. Here in Castle Rock, my partner on the Bike Unit, Officer Jacob Coyle, and I have developed several unique programs, including Dirt Jumps and Donuts, Splashmob and AdaptABILITY Cycling.

Now I know none of those programs sound familiar to you because they aren’t; they are completely unique to our community. However, all three engage the police department with the community on a very personal level. So how did they come to fruition? Let’s take a look at an example of what this looks like when applied.

The bicycle unit at CRPD is a full-time unit over the summer months, which means we have four months of bicycling awesomeness before we return to a black-and-whites over the fall, winter and spring months.

We are tasked with patrolling our open spaces (singletrack mountain bike trails), bike paths, neighborhoods, retail areas and special events.

If all we did was ride the trails, neighborhoods and retail areas, pass out some stickers, and attend a few concerts, we’d get a pat on the back and a “well-done” from our supervisor.

But the ethos of the department, as professed and demonstrated by Chief Cauley, is to be creative and think of unique ways to serve the community. That is what we did. We did not ask for permission to create these programs; however, we made sure we were within policy and checked with the Town’s legal department to be sure the Town was protected legally. We then waited for the outcome. As it turned out, the outcome was a tremendous success!

One example of the type of program we devised has been dubbed AdaptABILITY Cycling. This is an adaptive cycling program for special needs adults. Its purpose is to provide transportation independence to an otherwise dependent segment of our community.

We noticed that special needs adults tend to depend on their parents, chartered shuttles or other fee-based means of transportation.

However, Castle Rock has an extensive paved bicycle path network which we thought could be safe and suitable for this population.

And so we embarked on an incredible journey with six special needs adult riders, some of whom had never before ridden a bike on two wheels.

Over the course of two months, we built a foundation of basic riding skills, moved on to vehicular cycling, and concluded with navigating the bicycle paths to get to their desired destinations.

By the end of the program, four of the riders were pedaling independently on two wheels, and three reported riding their bikes every day as their sole means of transport. They use their bikes to ride to and from their school and work, to run errands, and for recreation.

Jake and I agree that we have never experienced a greater sense of true service to our community than we have through this program.

As Chief Cauley said, “Providing safety and security is important to our community, but we are inspired to take our service to the community a step further. Many times this involves helping people with problems or concerns that are not specifically related to crime, yet are areas of concerns related to quality of life.” As a line level officer, I have witnessed the positive power of One-by-One Policing.

Through the encouragement of our superiors and a little creative thinking, we now have several regular community programs the community loves. To the community, the police department is a little more relatable; to our leadership, we meet the unique needs of our community.

I encourage you to look around your community and find a need that you can meet; it only takes burning a few calories on the part of the officer and (pardon the pun) shifting gears to create a One-by-One Policing program or event to meet that need.

For more information on the myriad programs that we have implemented at CRPD and for inspiration to implement programs that are unique to the community you serve, I invite you to join us for our One-by-One Policing workshop at the 2019 IPMBA Conference!

In the meantime, please visit the following links to learn more about our programs and how they have positively impacted the community.

https://kdvr.com/2018/09/16/signature-stories-castle-rock-police-bike-unit-continues-giving-back-to-community

https://youtu.be/mMeh7z_h6Gc

https://kdvr.com/2018/06/29/castle-rock-police-and-fire-departments-host-splash-mob-to-connect-with-kids/

Austen has served on bike teams at multiple agencies in Colorado and California. He is currently assigned to the CRPD Bike Unit and can be reached at aschlecht@crgov.com.

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