[originaltext] Members of the city council and distinguished guests, it is m

Members of the city council and distinguished guests, it is my privilege to introduce to you today--Mr. Robert Washington--chief of our city’s police force. He’ll address us on the subject of the Community Policing Program. Most of you know that Mr. Washington has a distinguished record as head of our police force for more than ten years. However, you may not know that he also holds a master’s degree in criminology and studied abroad for a year with the international police force, which deals with crimes around the world. Mr. Washington first introduced the Community Policing Program eight years ago. The idea behind the program is to get police officers out of their cars and into our neighborhoods where they can talk directly to merchants and residents about the real dynamics of our city. These officers do more than make arrests. They try to find ways to help solve the problems that contribute to crime in the first place. Often, that means hooking people up with services offered by other city agencies such as schools, hospitals, housing, drug treatment centers. And the program seems to be working. Crime is down and our citizens report that they feel more secure. Today, Mr. Washington is going to tell us more about this program. Now let’s welcome Mr. Robert Washington.