By Kirstin Garriss
Your4State
In an effort to prevent crime, the Hagerstown Police Department is creating a new squad that would bring a more “holistic approach” to policing.
“We can give to specific neighborhoods that are just in need, that just need a little help -- maybe a little push sometimes,” said Acting Chief Paul Kifer with the Hagerstown Police Department.
That’s the goal for the department’s Neighborhood Guardianship Program.
“We’re guardians and the friends of the community. And somewhere along the line, I think in law enforcement in general, we kind of lost our way a little bit there. We’ve forgotten that part of it I should say. So, it’s a way for us to move back into that guardianship,” said Kifer.
Thanks to a $500,000 Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) grant from the U.S. Department of Justice, the department will hire four new officers. They’ll then move four veteran HPD officers into the new Neighborhood Guardianship Program where they’ll patrol four specific neighborhoods.
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