02/14/08 Agency Receives Providence Community Partner Award  “We stand here today surrounded by our partners who have worked side-by-side with police to create a safer city,” said Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline as he joined Police Chief Dean M. Esserman, the men and women of the Providence Police Department, community organizations and residents at Lockwood Plaza to celebrate five years of community policing.  Family Service of Rhode Island received a Community Partner Award for its five years of working closely with the city's police department.                         (L-R) Dr. Susan Erstling, Family Service of RI senior vp and head of agency's partnership with police; board president Malcolm Farmer III; Mayor David Cicilline; Colonel Dean Esserman, Providence's police chief. (Photo credit: Eliza Domingo, photographer, City of Providence) Family Service of Rhode Island provides social workers 24/7 to violent crime scenes involving children, and staff to travel with officers on patrol to intervene at family and neighborhood disturbances.  The head of the program, Dr. Susan Erstling and board president Malcolm Farmer,III, accepted the award on behalf of the agency.   The successful crime prevention initiative has resulted in a 30% drop in crime in Providence over the past five years and serves as a national model for law enforcement agencies throughout the country.   “We have built a police force based on the principle that its most important asset is not manpower or technology, it is trust,” said Mayor Cicilline.   “There’s no question, our reduction in crime is the direct result of the community’s partnership with the hard working men and women of the Police Department.”   “This police department did not do the job alone” said Colonel Dean M. Esserman, “Over these past years we have worked in partnership and today we honor those partners.” Other organizations receiving Community Partner Awards: the Institute for the Study and Practice of Nonviolence; the Providence After School Alliance; the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC); and The Providence Plan.  Officials unveiled statistics over the past five years which indicate that violent crime in Providence dropped from 14,039 in 2002 to 9,821 in 2007.  The 30% reduction bucks the national trend in which other cities have experienced increases in violent crime. Providence’s community police program has attracted the attention of law enforcement officials throughout New England and other parts of the country including Boston; Dallas, Texas; New Haven, Connecticut; Hartford, Connecticut; Brockton, Massachusetts; Fall River, Massachusetts; New Bedford, Massachusetts; White Plains, New York.                  (end)