Omaha police focus on community relations pays off
OMAHA — When Omaha Police Chief Todd Schmaderer took over the department's top post in 2012, the agency was struggling for ways to curb rampant gun violence that had long plagued the city. Two years later, homicides have dropped dramatically and tips from the public have helped solve some of Omaha's most violent crimes.
Much of the credit is going to Schmaderer and his push to improve the department's relationship with the city's poorest and most crime-ridden sections.
"Who knows the community, who knows the neighborhood, better than those that live there?" Schmaderer said recently. "We had way too many scenarios where we couldn't get anybody to come forward and talk to us — couldn't get any witnesses willing to put themselves out there in order to solve these cases."
The community policing effort has included weekly meetings with community organizations, churches and individuals, as well as hosting neighborhood events and community training sessions in which residents — especially young people — get to meet and ride with officers and learn about police operations.
Schmaderer, who has spent his nearly 20-year career in Omaha, also dissolved the department's "utility crew," a collection of about 20 uniformed officers sent into the city's highest-crime areas who often clashed with residents.
"That was one of the centers of harassment of alleged gang members in north Omaha, so getting rid of it was a positive step," said Sam Walker, a retired criminal justice professor at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and the author of 14 books on policing, criminal justice policy and civil liberties."
*Schmaderer and the department's efforts have received praise from other law enforcement agencies and community organizations, and even longtime critics of the department praised Schmaderer's quick action in firing four officers last year following the March 2013 arrests of three brothers — secretly recorded by a neighbor — that led to allegations of police brutality."
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