Fellsmere Police Department Receives “Excellence in Policing Award”
Award money to be donated to the Fellsmere Action Community Team
The Fellsmere Police Department received the Rocky Pomerance “Excellence in Policing” award from the Florida Police Chief’s Association for its implementation of a community policing initiative called “partner institution policing”. The award was presented to Chief Keith M. Touchberry during the FPCA’s 62nd Annual Installation and Awards Banquet in Orlando on July 1, 2015.
According to the FPCA, “the Rocky Pomerance Law Enforcement Excellence Award provides a mechanism for the Florida Police Chiefs Association to recognize member agencies for developing and implementing an innovative approach to policing” and partner institution policing was recognized by the association as being that innovative. Each year, the Florida Police Chief’s Association presents the award to one small, medium, and large police department, and the Fellsmere Police Department won the award in the small agency category.
Partner institution policing is a collaborative effort to engage families, churches, schools, youth organizations, the criminal justice system and their service providers to identify issues, develop strategies and implement solutions to address mutual concerns while working together to improve the quality of life in Fellsmere.
“Partner Institution Policing is a collaborative effort to resolve community problems together. The success of the initiative is a result of that collaboration and the recognition we received as a police department also belongs to the community”. –Chief Keith M. Touchberry
A key mechanism to achieving partner institution policing is the Fellsmere Action Community Team (FACT), an organization the police department helped create to assist with the implementation of the Bridges Out of Poverty model system in Fellsmere. The mission of FACT is “to empower the families and individuals of Fellsmere to build and sustain a thriving community”.
In addition to helping create FACT and establish the Bridges model system in the community, some of the aspects of partner institution policing that were highlighted in the nomination were:
-Habitual Drunkard Program
-Animal Care and Control Campaign
-Police Internship Program
-Boys & Girls Club/Florida Tech community service hour’s project
-Youth Connections referral program
In addition to receiving a plaque, partner institution policing will be featured in an upcoming article in the Florida Police Chief’s magazine and the department received a check for $1000.00. The money will be donated to the Fellsmere Action Community team to support its efforts to “empower the families and individuals of Fellsmere to build and sustain a thriving community”.
For more information on the award itself, go to:
https://www.fpca.com/rocky-pomerance-law-enforcement-award
To read the Florida Police Chief’s official press release, go to:
https://capitalsoup.com/2015/07/02/florida-police-chiefs-honor-officers-agencies-for-outstanding-public-service/
