The Dover Housing Authority’s Police Liaison Program provides services to the residents of the Dover Housing Authority. The Dover Housing Authority consists of 529 units; to include 300 elderly dwellings and 229 family dwellings. A police officer is stationed within the family housing police substation, located at 93 Pleasant View Circle. The DHA liaison officer plans community programs, youth programs, crime prevention initiatives and generally responds to incidents and problems within the family and elderly neighborhoods. Often, the officer will receive direct contact from the residents, or intervene, before a call to the police department’s Dispatch Center is initiated.
The family housing complex has over 300 children and is one of the largest of its type in the State of New Hampshire. The officer is responsible for the following duties:
- Routine foot and vehicle patrol
- Preliminary and follow-up investigation of crime
- Conducting neighborhood watch meetings and planning other crime prevention/safety programs
- Teaching DARE at the Dover Middle School
- Planning activities and events that instill community pride and involve the residents in their community (e.g. Christmas Parade Float / Bike parade)
The DHA liaison officer also plans safety talks, holds coffee with cops to introduce residents to officers on a personal level and coordinates drug take backs for the elderly sites for expired and/or unused prescription drugs.
The DHA Neighborhood Officer Program was the Dover Police Department's initial experiment with the community policing approach and has proven very successful. Since the Neighborhood Officer Program was instituted in 1989, it has achieved the following:
- An increase in the neighborhood's sense of security and pride.
- Serious crime, such as burglary, has been greatly reduced.
- In a joint Police Department - DHA project, a grant was received to build a baseball field at the DHA. This grant (combined with local donations of equipment, supplies and funds) resulted in a facility that was dedicated in the summer of 1994. The facility is used to conduct youth athletic activities at the DHA and as part of the Police Department's overall community outreach effort.
- The Dover Police - DHA Neighborhood Officer Program has previously won the first place award in from the Department of Housing and Urban Development for "Quality of Life Improvement". This program is widely used by HUD authorities in this region as a model for other public housing facilities.
- This program also won a National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials "Merit Award" for outstanding achievement in housing and community development.
2019 Dover Housing Authority Annual Christmas Baskets