Marina Police look to the past for policing in the future

The Marina Police Department held a meeting this week to find ways to get closer to the community it serves. Officers looked at two key ideas: Police legitimacy is the way the community sees the police and the way they enforce the laws and treat the citizens. Procedural justice is the way they go about doing their business.

They also looked at and educated themselves with theories about policing from nearly 200 years ago. In 1829, Sir Robert Peel created the modern police force with one idea – Police are the community and the community is the police. In other words, officers must build relationships with the people they serve.

“We want to go back to the fact that we have a uniform but we are still human beings,” Commander Roberto Filice said. “We are going to treat you with respect, we are going to be legitimate with you and we are going to give you the best service we can, but treat us the same way. Let’s respect one another because ultimately, the community is one. The police department and the community is just the same thing.”

Part of this theory includes meeting the people they serve and protect. The department has two community liaison officers, dedicated to meeting with businesses and neighbors to get a feel about how things are going.

One business owner says it makes a difference.

“The way that I see the officers — they’re friends,” Isidro Guzman said. “They’re people from the community. And every single one they come over here, the new ones, I start talking to them, and they know who I am.”

The department said it’s striving to be transparent and accountable. That’s why citizens may notice a heavy police presence on social media.

“We believe that information is power and that our citizens need to be informed as to what goes on in our community,” Filice said. “They need to be informed as to what we do. We have nothing to hide, so we put out there everything we do. Good or bad, and if we make a mistake, we are going to own up to it and say we are sorry, we made a mistake. Again, we are human beings. Our officers are human beings.”