68 lines
3.4 KiB
Plaintext
68 lines
3.4 KiB
Plaintext
October 1990
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DIRECTOR'S MESSAGE:
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POLICE AND CITIZENS WORKING TOGETHER
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by
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William S. Sessions
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Director
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Federal Bureau of Investigation
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October is National Crime Prevention Month. Most people
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believe that law enforcement professionals should be the sole
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preventers of crime; however, we cannot manage this
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responsibility alone.
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To understand this, all we need to do is to look at the
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crime statistics for 1989, which reveal that crime is up all over
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the United States. Both violent and property crimes rose last
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year. In fact, the FBI's annual Crime Index total for 1989
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showed an increase for the fifth consecutive year.
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The challenge to those of us in law enforcement is to fight
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crime harder and to cooperate more closely with citizens and
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volunteer groups in our shared struggle against crime. And the
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key to our success will be crime prevention--forming strong
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partnerships with citizens of the community as we confront the
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challenges of crime in the 1990s and into the next century.
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Of course, crime prevention is not a new concept. In the
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early days of our Nation, private citizens kept the peace in
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their communities through respect for the law and through
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voluntary involvement in peace-keeping efforts. For the most
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part, the church, the family, and the community imposed social
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sanctions that were the primary controls in preventing and
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controlling crime.
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Unfortunately, as cities grew and the populations changed,
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this community support for law enforcement broke down. As a
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result, the responsibility for crime prevention shifted. Law
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enforcement officers, not citizens, became society's first line
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of defense against crime.
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But as today's statistics remind us, law enforcement cannot
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prevent, or reduce, crime without enlisting broad-based citizen
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participation, cooperation, and support. Moreover, our resources
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and manpower are shrinking, while our responsibilities are
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growing and the criminal element is becoming more sophisticated.
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So, we must get back to the basics and use community-based
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efforts to help control crime.
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The FBI strives to increase citizen participation in many of
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its investigative efforts. To illustrate, as part of our
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approach to the drug problem, the FBI is involved in reducing
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America's demand for drugs through the Drug Demand Reduction
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Program. Selected Special Agents across the country go out into
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their communities to work with community agencies and concerned
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citizens to find solutions to the drug problem that plagues our
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society.
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In the war on crime, we must build better educational
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systems for the public so that instead of fearing crime, they
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will take measures to prevent it. Indeed, every time a citizen
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becomes involved in crime prevention, our neighborhoods, our
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communities, and our Nation are improved.
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