By Reid Forgrave
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Jennifer Muashsher, a Colerain Township police officer in the new Neighborhood Resource Officer program, looks around the back of boarded-up apartments to make sure no one has broken in. (Tony Jones photo) | ZOOM |

COLERAIN TWP. - A woman called police last month, concerned about her 71-year-old neighbor suffering from dementia.

The woman's pool had molded over, and her backyard resembled a jungle.

Concerned about the health risks, Jennifer Muashsher, an officer in the township's fledgling Neighborhood Resource Officer program, told the woman she could help.

The next day, the health department examined the pool. The day after that, the fire department drained it, covered it and chopped down the weeds. Muashsher, whom the woman called "my friend Jen," spent the better part of three days helping.

The woman cried when township officials finished.

"Honestly I never thought anything like that ever existed," said Melissa Troisi, the woman's daughter. "All you ever hear in the news is how understaffed and overburdened the police are. You'd never expect to see police working like this. The world's a big and impersonal place, and you don't see things like this anymore."

That's what officials hope to do with their new community-oriented police program that started in June: give their police officers a more personal relationship with the community. In Ohio's largest township in population and in land area, where an estimated 40,000 calls for police assistance are made yearly, the six officers on duty each shift often have a tough time covering the wide area and array of problems, police say.

"Our patrol officers just don't have the time to figure out those simple problems that plague our neighborhoods," said township Police Chief Steven Sarver. "... But these neighborhood resource officers have the time to do that sort of problem-solving."

A 1-mill public safety tax levy approved by voters in November 2002 enabled the township to increase its police staff by nearly 50 percent.

Now, two bicycle officers will focus on the business district along Colerain Avenue, while the other officers will split the remainder of the township's communities.

Neighborhood officers will not focus on isolated incidents. Instead, they will look for crime trends in certain areas - things like increased vandalism, burglaries or car break-ins.

"Traditional policing creates the standard product," said Doug LaMey, one of the neighborhood officers, "but we have the time to tailor our product to the community."

"The best part," Sarver said, "is neighbors feel like they own these police officers."

E-mail rforgrave@enquirer.com