RELATED CONTENT

Police Force Home

Neighbourhood Action Team

Neighbourhood Community Programs

NAT Concept

Neighbourhood Action Resource Guide

Map of Community Offices

Contact the Police

Evolution of Community Policing in Fredericton

In 2005, the Fredericton Police Force was placed in the hands of new leadership with the appointment of Chief Barry MacKnight. With this shift came the realization that there was a pressing need to re-evaluate the service delivery model for policing in the Capital City. The vision of the new management team was to chart a fresh course for the organization, and at the end of 2006 a document titled the Future of Policing In Fredericton: A 5 Year Plan was introduced. The document outlined a strategy for enhancing public safety and service delivery and was based on research that included input from police and civilian employees of the Fredericton Police Force, citizens, City Council and senior City staff. The Plan was approved by City Council and the Fredericton Police Force received financial support during the 2006 annual budget process.

One of the key areas of interest in the 5 Year Plan was to analyze the effectiveness of community policing arrangements, which were introduced to the City in the mid 1980s. The primary notion of community policing, as it was originally introduced in Fredericton, was to encourage police-citizen partnerships to mutually identify, prioritize and solve local problems. Community officers were deployed according to the electoral ward system and, over the course of time, six community offices and twelve neighbourhood constables were deployed throughout the City. Despite the early successes of community policing from the mid 1980s to the mid 1990s, the increasing complexity of policing translated into heavier workloads, taxing our officers to deliver efficient services. By the turn of the 21^st, century community policing became increasingly marginalized within the Force.