Community Resource Officer

The Community Ambassador Program started in 2018 and consists of 12 members from different communities within Sioux Falls. The Community Ambassador Program started to assist the Sioux Falls Police Department with building contacts and relationships within different racial, religious, ethnic, and civic groups. The Community Ambassador members receive training where they get an in-depth look at the SFPD, the use of force policy, the complaint process, and the community outreach events in which officers participate. The Community Ambassador members assisted police with events like: Cinco De Mayo, Pride Fest, and National Night Out.

The Community Ambassador Program is a completely volunteer program.

For more information on the Community Ambassador Program, please contact Officer Brady Lieuwen or Officer Kyle Johnson.

Coffee with a Cop is a national program that is designed to allow for one-on-one conversations between community members and police officers over a cup of coffee. The events occur about six times per year and are relaxed, informal and open discussions about community issues that residents feel are important. There are no radios, cellphones, or other distractions so that the conversation remains relaxed and stress-free. These conversations help us to build trust and work toward mutual goals with community members. We have been holding CWAC sessions is 2015, and we encourage you to check the calendar below for an event near you that you can attend.

 

 

Police work is something that most people find very interesting. Television, movies, books and the media often cover police related stories, dramatizing the work done each day by the men and women in uniform. Quite naturally this piques the interest of the citizens of Sioux Falls as to what their Police Department does. The CPA is designed to help answer those questions.

CPA is intended to build bridges and relationships between our citizens and the Police Department. Often police and citizens have complex relationship. Citizens often believe that they see police not doing their job or exceeding their boundaries. CPA provides citizens a firsthand look at what rules, regulations and policies the police follow. It also shows them and allows them to do some of the training that their officers go through in order to wear the police uniform. In this way, some of the misunderstanding may be alleviated. CPA is not trying to train citizens into a reserve police force, but merely to build relationships with the community and to dispel any myths they may hold.

Sioux Falls boasts a very diverse group of citizens, many of whom are immigrants and refugees. The Sioux Falls Police Department welcomes these new community members and recognizes that the places from which they came do not always have the same structure, rules of law, and infrastructure. We recognize the disadvantage that this creates and our goal with NICE is to help ease the transition for these folks to their new home. We aim to teach them the laws and rules of our city and how to be good neighbors in their new community. We hope to dispel misconceptions that many of these new citizens have about law enforcement in general. Not every country provides law enforcement services, or not in the same manner. For this reason many groups of people are reluctant to include police in their options of solutions for problems they may face. We want to build a bridge to these new community members and show them that we are here to help. NICE is the tool we use to accomplish that goal.

 

The Crime Free Multi and Mobile Housing Programs are a prevention tool designed to help eliminate criminal activity in apartment and mobile home park communities. This is done by using crime prevention methods, including management training, security surveys of properties, information for tenants, and the use of the Crime Free Lease Addendum to supplement the application process and lease enforcement. The program started in 1992 in Mesa Arizona and has since spread throughout the United States and the world. Sioux Falls joined the program in 1997 and has been actively working with property managers since to provide safe housing for the citizens of Sioux Falls.

 

The effort to organize a Watch is usually spearheaded by a few concerned residents, a community organization, a business organization or a law enforcement agency. Anyone who lives or works within the geographical unit or area can join the Watch group. Members learn how to make their homes and neighborhoods more secure, watch out for each other and report illegal or suspicious activities to the police. Neighborhood Watch helps build pride in the neighborhood and often serves as a springboard for efforts to address community concerns such as recreation opportunities for youth, child care, programs for seniors, etc.

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