Captain Dabdoub Applauds Adopt-A-Cop

By B.B. St. Roman

Our 8th District NOPD Commander Louis Dabdoub feels strongly that the true meaning of community policing depends on real relationships. He applauds programs such as Adopt-A-Cop and COPS 8 as dynamic steps in this direction.

Recently Capt. Dabdoub compared the two programs. He called COPS 8 "an awesome organization that exists to improve the morale and working conditions of our police officers in the 8th District as a whole. It has served to establish relationships between our officers and the community that hadn't existed before." COPS 8 is designed to accept monetary donations, which in turn are dispersed to 8th District police officers in the form of equipment, uniforms, meals during high-stress work periods, appreciation parties, as well as special funds for injured officers.

The Adopt-A-Cop program differs in that it does not allow any monetary donations. Its sole purpose is to foster INDIVIDUAL relationships between officers and the community by encouraging citizens to show their personal appreciation to an officer with cards, cookies, invitations to family events, etc. Capt. Dabdoub noted that it "provides officers who otherwise tend to live in the cocoon of police work to get to know and understand the community from the perspective of its members. Adopt-A-Cop is an enhancement to COPS 8." In order to protect the integrity of Adopt-A-Cop, Capt. Dabdoub has established a policy that disallows officers to handle incidents involving their adopted person/family during the "adoption" period, unless of course it's an emergency life-or-death situation.

Capt. Dabdoub expects and hopes that FQCP's new Adopt-A-Cop program will greatly benefit the relationship between the community and the police officers, and that, like COPS 8, will extend to other police districts in the city.