Urbandale Police Department Honored for Helping Immigrants

A program to help immigrant families in Urbandale has earned the city's police department national recognition.

The Making a Connection program was one of 10 finalists for the Webber Seavey awards, an annual contest sponsored by the International Association of Chiefs of Police.

The awards recognize police efforts that improve the quality of life in their communities.

"We're quite happy we finished in the top ten," said Police Chief Ross McCarty, who learned last week that his nomination was not chosen as one of association's three winners. However, descriptions of all 10 finalist programs from 2010 are on the association's website to educate other departments.

The Making A Connection summer camp started in 2010 for immigrant children who lived in the Ambassador West apartment buildings or who went to Karen Acres Elementary School. The program was operated by the police and parks departments with help from Karen Acres teachers. 

Students worked on educational and social skills and police and social agencies held monthly picnics with the childrens' families to foster trust and understanding.

McCarty said the program's goal is ultimately to prevent crime "and crime starts with social problems."

Community Policing Approach

McCarty, who became Urbandale chief in 2009, favors a community policing approach and has moved the department in that direction.

The Making a Connection program began with concerns about problems in and around the Ambassador West apartment complex, at 3705 Elm Drive. 

Children were home alone during the summer while their parents were at work and didn't have enough to eat. The apartment complex had safety and sanitation issues. The children were covered in bites from bed bugs and were accidentally getting locked out of their apartments so they were going to the bathroom in hallways, said Police Officer Randy Peterson. Drug dealers and gang members were using the children as lookouts for criminal activity at nearby North Karen Acres Park, he said.

"We saw encroachment of a lifestyle that we didn't want to condone in Urbandale," McCarty said.

Peterson credits McCarty with leading a multi-group effort to address the problem. "The chief understood if we want to get something going that is sustainable, we need to get the community involved," he said.

McCarty said a community-oriented police approach involves: 

• Identifying a problem.
• Establishing partners.
• Working together to create solutions.
• Implementing a prevention model.

How it Worked

Urbandale's police and parks departments contributed a total of $8,000 to start the Making a Connection summer program for the children in that neighborhood.

teachers and administrators helped a parks employee run the program. An Urbandale family contributed free lunches five days a week.

The Urbandale Food Pantry adjusted its hours so the working immigrant parents could pick up food in the evening. Local churches got involved with tutoring and mentoring adults and children, and the Polk County Health Department began offering free back-to-school physicals for low-income families at targeted schools.

"We reached out to the community, from the faith communities to service organizations," McCarty said.

Results

"So many good things grew out of this program," Peterson said. The children involved in the program maintained or improved their academic skills over the summer and were in trouble at school much less frequently the next year, according to Karen Acres officials.

City officials began to address problems at the Ambassador West apartments and eventually the property changed hands and the new owners began to improve the situation.

Urbandale Community Action Network, an emerging community improvement organization known as UCAN, began to take over efforts to address the issues of Urbandale' immigrant residents.

Mary Polson, a UCAN director and Urbandale City Councilwoman, said McCarty recognized the need for some kind of program "and when [Parks Director] Jan Herke started connecting the dots, McCarty stepped forward and said, 'How can we help?'"