Sutter County Sheriff's Department
www.suttersheriff.org
Live Oak Neighborhood Deputy Program
City of Live Oak was the first implementation of the Neighborhood Deputy Program for Sutter County. Neighborhood deputies are the essential element to the success of the Community Oriented Policing and Problem Solving (COPPS) philosophy. Community Oriented Policing is a model based upon relationships between deputies and citizens who work together as partners toward proactive identification and problem solving of issues to achieve a higher level of crime prevention in the community.
Deputy Weatherup with Live Oak City Hall employees Since March of 1999, each deputy has been assigned a specific area of Live Oak and charged with the responsibility of getting to know the people and the problems in that area. Each deputy is directly accountable for determining the needs of the people and using all available resources, including the members of the community, to respond to the needs and solve problems together. In 1829, Sir Robert Peel, who is considered the father of modern law enforcement, made the following statement about the role of the public in their community.
"The public are the police and the police are the public. The police, are only members of the public who are paid to give full time attention to the duties incumbent upon every citizen in the interest of community welfare and existence."The key to the success of the Neighborhood Deputy Program is that individuals develop a kind of "ownership" of the deputy assigned to their area. This will foster the free flow or exchange of information where people can communicate with their deputy about anything that goes on in their neighborhood. Recently, a survey instrument distributed to Live Oak residences polled the public on various potential concerns in their neighborhoods. Survey information and data has been entered into a database for later analysis and strategic problem solving. Periodically, the survey will be adapted and re-administered. Many enlightening issues and concerns have come to our attention from the surveys.