Charleston Police Fund Formed

The Charleston Police Department will be getting by with a little help from friends with the formation of the Charleston Police Fund of the Coastal Community Foundation.

The nonprofit Coastal Community Foundation serves eight coastal counties and manages more than $150 million spread out among more than 570 separate funds. The newly created Charleston Police Fund, announced Wednesday will help the Charleston Police Department pay for initiatives, technologies and supplies that may not be covered through other funding sources.

The fund has been under development for more than two years, Chief Gregory Mullen said.

"It's another very important community initiative between the Charleston Police Department and our civic, business and community partners," Mullen said. "Police foundations and funds have been called a partnership for 21st Century policing, and we are very excited today to announce the creation of the Charleston Police Fund of the Coastal Community Foundation."

Chairman of the Board of Advisers for the CPF, Ret. Gen. James Livingston said the fund's goal is provide the department with assets to allow it to experiment and incubate innovations within their department.

"The Charleston Police Fund of the Coastal Community Foundation has been established specifically for that reason, to enhance the opportunity for public safety improvements," Livingston said. "The fund provides a substantial opportunity for the business world and for the average citizen to get involved with the police department."

"The fund enables the police department to reach beyond its current capabilities and innovate and experiment and do those things that are necessary to enhance the police department's effectiveness in the local community," he added.

It's initial goal is to raise $50,000 the department needs to expand its Camp Hope program from three sites to five this summer.

The by Charleston Police School Resource Officers that serves at-risk youth by focusing on leadership and life skills as well as academics over the summer months. It started more than five years ago as a series of 2-week day camps downtown and this past summer expanded to West Ashley Middle and John's Island.

The first fundraising event for the new fund, A Lunch for Hope, will be held at 11:30 a.m. on June 11 at the Doubletree Suites located at 181 Church Street, downtown.

Expanding Camp Hope isn't the only thing the police department and the fund's advisory board want to pay for though. Mullen and Charleston Mayor Joseph Riley are also excited about the potential to find funding for many new innovative approaches to community policing, including studying and implementing predictive policing technologies.

"It can help officers on the street get real-time information so that they can better address when it's occurring, make quicker apprehensions, which prevent future crimes from occurring," Mullen said. "This will also allow us to do other emergency type situations in a more consolidated and more professional manner in terms of bringing all of our information together."

"Leadership development is another area that we're looking at significantly that has been utilized in other parts of the country," he added. "There are some significant opportunities in the United States for leader development, unfortunately they are very, very expensive, so we are able to only do a small number of those on a yearly basis. The fund, we think, will allow us to accelerate that development of our senior leaders and therefore not only develop the police department for today but also put in place leaders that will be here for the future."

Mullen said the fund could also help the department purchase technology it will need to begin experimenting with predictive analytics, which he called the next evolution in policing.

"Where you're looking at data and actually trying to predict where a crime may occur, to allow you to better deploy your resources to prevent that crime," Mullen said.

He said the department would also be looking into other technology such as aerial observation platforms and various survielance techniques.

Mayor Riley praised the department for efforts that have cut the rate of violent crime in the city in half in recent years and said the existence of the new fund and the public/private partnership it represents will help make the city even safer in the future.

"It's the first call on our financial resources, $38 million of city funds goes to the City of Charleston Police Department this coming year," Riley said. "Public Safety is number one, and will always be in terms of investing the resources that belong to the citizens of our city in a variety of governmental services."

"What this creates is an opportunity for us to take advantage of something that is unique in America, and that is the power, interest, involvement and generosity of the private sector," he continued. "In our country increasingly we are seeing public/private partnerships come together to achieve new opportunities to solve problems and challenges in the community."