October 1990                                                      

                                                                  
                      DIRECTOR'S MESSAGE:
             POLICE AND CITIZENS WORKING TOGETHER

                              by

                      William S. Sessions
                           Director
                Federal Bureau of Investigation 
               
                                                    
     October is National Crime Prevention Month.  Most people 
believe that law enforcement professionals should be the sole 
preventers of crime; however, we cannot manage this 
responsibility alone.                                             

     To understand this, all we need to do is to look at the 
crime statistics for 1989, which reveal that crime is up all over 
the United States.  Both violent and property crimes rose last 
year.  In fact, the FBI's annual Crime Index total for 1989 
showed an increase for the fifth consecutive year.                

     The challenge to those of us in law enforcement is to fight 
crime harder and to cooperate more closely with citizens and 
volunteer groups in our shared struggle against crime.  And the 
key to our success will be crime prevention--forming strong 
partnerships with citizens of the community as we confront the 
challenges of crime in the 1990s and into the next century.       

     Of course, crime prevention is not a new concept.  In the 
early days of our Nation, private citizens kept the peace in 
their communities through respect for the law and through 
voluntary involvement in peace-keeping efforts.  For the most 
part, the church, the family, and the community imposed social 
sanctions that were the primary controls in preventing and 
controlling crime.                                                

     Unfortunately, as cities grew and the populations changed, 
this community support for law enforcement broke down.  As a 
result, the responsibility for crime prevention shifted.  Law 
enforcement officers, not citizens, became society's first line 
of defense against crime.                                         

     But as today's statistics remind us, law enforcement cannot 
prevent, or reduce, crime without enlisting broad-based citizen 
participation, cooperation, and support.  Moreover, our resources 
and manpower are shrinking, while our responsibilities are 
growing and the criminal element is becoming more sophisticated.  
So, we must get back to the basics and use community-based 
efforts to help control crime.                                    

     The FBI strives to increase citizen participation in many of 
its investigative efforts.  To illustrate, as part of our 
approach to the drug problem, the FBI is involved in reducing 
America's demand for drugs through the Drug Demand Reduction 
Program.  Selected Special Agents across the country go out into 
their communities to work with community agencies and concerned 
citizens to find solutions to the drug problem that plagues our 
society.                                                          

     In the war on crime, we must build better educational 
systems for the public so that instead of fearing crime, they 
will take measures to prevent it.  Indeed, every time a citizen 
becomes involved in crime prevention, our neighborhoods, our 
communities, and our Nation are improved.