The Orlando police department received its accreditation as a police agency in the year 1997. It is responsible for security within Orlando in Florida. It is an effective department in a city with relatively high criminal rankings. It handles prevention, arrests and investigation of crimes within Orlando. It aims and purposes to create an environment that is possible to live. It is well staffed with a patrol team of about 700 trained officers.
The department encourages the involvement of its citizens in maintaining security. For this reason, it encourages community policing. They allow volunteering of willing individuals to help in maintaining security. These volunteers work in various capacities. This interaction between the citizens and the police is effective in curbing crime. They also have an academy for training citizens.
The department is well organized in a way that ensures coverage of every area that requires the provision of security. There are, therefore, specialized units of this department that work towards attaining maximum security for the city. One is the traffic unit. This department deals with ensuring road safety and inspection of vehicles. Inspection is done to prevent unlawful transport of materials, transport of materials that pose a possible security risk to the citizens and ensure no criminal act is happen on the roads.
Another unit is a K-9 unit. This is a useful unit during investigations and following up on leads. It uses highly trained dogs that easily detect the smell. They are effective in following and tracking down of suspects. There is also the Special Weapons and Tactics unit, SWAT. They are a highly trained unit handles delicate security situations whereby it would be futile to use regular police. They use light weapons and specialized tactics. They handle terrorism attacks, hostage situations and heavily armed attackers. Other units include the marine patrol, mounting patrol, gang unit, bike unit, airport division, international drive among others. They work in their respective fields for the ultimate goal of enhanced security.
The department has made an effort to keep connected with the citizens. It interacts with them through various ways. One is through its website where they can easily have access to information and updates on the activities of the police. They have a neighborhood watch, which is a program that provides sensitization of the people on their own security, guidelines to staying safe and much more. This partnership between residents and police enable them to detect crime easily and obtain accurate information about it.
Online reporting is a very crucial effort to enable fast detection and handling of crimes. The Orlando police department has provided contact numbers and email addresses to be used in contacting them for different purposes, occurrences and situation. This differentiation is important because it ensures specialized handling of every reported case.
However, there has been reported a case whereby a police officer from Orlando police department was arrested on DUI charges. Sean Gilhuly, an officer who has been a member of the patrol team since 2011 was off-duty at the time of arrest. Apparently he was found asleep in his car drunk restricting proper flow of traffic. He also resisted arrest, refused to take a sobriety test and made it hard for him to be transported after arrest. Such behavior is unexpected and unfortunate from a police officer, especially because they are the same people who are expected to maintain order. After this incident, he was relieved of his duties pending internal investigations.
Works Cited
Chen, Sharon. "Family protests deadly police shooting." FOX 5 San Diego 2 June 2013: 5.
