Calling it a win-win proposition, the Barton County Commission Wednesday morning approved joint county-city participation in Great Bend Police Chief Steve Haulmark’s Operation Clean Sweep program. The partnership was brought up during a meeting last Thursday night between the commission and the City Council. 

“This is essentially a community service program that was developed to alleviate trash, refuse and blight from the community,” Haulmark said. 

On his own initiative, Haulmark has coordinated a weekly cleanup on Saturdays. He, volunteers and those getting community service hours have scoured the city and Arkansas River banks for trash which he hauls to the landfill in his personal trailer.

Under this agreement, both the city and county will offer $5,000. That would give the program a $10,000 budget.

“Prior to being given the opportunity to come to work for Great Bend, I worked in the Kansas City, Kan., Police Department for 25 years in  a variety of assignments,” he said. Among those was community policing.

“One of the projects that we had some success with is similar to Operation Clean Sweep,” he said. “So when I came here, I wanted to adopt a community policing philosophy with the Police Department.”

This took some education within the department, he said . “Some of the guys were a little bit resistant to do that. Arresting people is easy, but soft stuffs a little harder.”

He stressed, however, many of his officers were excited to take part. “They just love the community engagement stuff.” 

But, after gaining cooperation from Municipal Court and the prosecutor, “we set out to make this program work,” he said. To test it, he and some of his command staff identified addresses on the abatement list, and spent an afternoon cleaning up about six properties “just to show that it’s that easy to do.”

Making a difference

This program addresses what Haulmark calls the broken window theory. “What that means is when people see trash and blight, that can translate to the feeling that the area is bad or unsafe,” he said. 

“This can draw more trash and then, maybe, more serious crimes occur in those areas because people think nobody cares,” he said. So this policing philosophy offers practical solutions that balance public safety community service needs, the available funds and taxpayer expectations.

“What we’re doing is we’re trying to control crime by removing some of that blight, while at same time, helping citizens,” he said. 

So, the Police Department has partnered with the city’s Code Enforcement Department to get a list of people who have violations. Then, he and his team go out and take care of them. 

They are not really interested in helping landlords, since they have a legal process. “What we’re interested in doing is helping the elderly or the people who are not otherwise able to take care of that,” he said.

For now, he recruits “criminal justice involved individuals,” from the city’s Municipal Court system who are willing to work in lieu of paying  fines.

They go out every Saturday morning, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. “It gives these individuals an opportunity to save their money for other needs that they might have, but at the same time giving them that feeling of giving back to the community.”

It also offers them interactions with law enforcement officers in a positive setting and builds a rapport. “So it’s kind of a win-win all the way around.”

They have done several properties around town and spent considerable time along the Arkansas River. So far, they’ve picked up 10 and a half tons of trash from the river area. 

Expanding the program

“So, Project Clean Sweep doesn’t stop at the city line,” commission Chairman Shawn Hutchinson, District 3, said.

“No, it does not,” Haulmark said. Right now, they’re just using community service workers through the Municipal Court, “but we would welcome more.”

“If the Barton County  District Court wanted to send people, we’d be happy to do that,” he said. They are open to folks in the Community Corrections system as well.

He only requires these workers show up on time, have a positive attitude and are sober.

They have established a operating procedure that includes an application for the workers that lists expectations and sign-in-sign-out sheets as a way to track what each does. This process also has a summary of the projects been completed that day and a permission form for the property owners to sign.  

“One of the things you told me when we first started this conversation is that you spent close to a week down the river just to clean up that mess,” Hutchinson said. “That’s what made me really think that Barton County can step up and help you out a little bit. 

“I think that sometimes the money is the easy part,” he said.  “Finding people who are willing to go that extra mile and do things like this are super important. And for one to be proud to help support you if I can.”

“I envision this at some point, it’s not just picking up trash,” Haulmark said. Maybe they can help with a dilapidated porch or do some painting. 

“Just real quick note. The county has nuisance properties also,” County Counselor Patrick Hoffman said. If they’re willing to leave the city limits, he’d be willing to help make arrangement with the District Court.”