When Carri Blake-Brekke was living the life of a military wife and having babies at Ft. Benning, Ga., the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, Calif., and Goodfellow Air Force in San Angelo, Texas, she always felt quite sheltered on post.
“Life on the base was comprised of a very close-knit community, where everyone took care of each other,” she said. “It always felt safe and secure because the military takes care of its own. Military families depend on it being this way.”
Even youngsters can roam more freely on base, with less supervision, said Blake-Brekke, who raised four children as a military wife.
“Parents tend to allow their children the freedom that they never would off base,” she noted.
Today, Blake-Brekke performs story-time and children’s songs as “Mrs. B” at military bases, DOD schools for dependents, and bookstores in the U.S. and Europe. She’s performing for more than 250,000 youngsters at military bases worldwide on her latest tour. And Blake-Brekke still finds military facilities to be secure, usually safer than what’s outside.
Safety is high on the quality-of-life scale for families living on base in Ft. Carson, Colo., said Master Sgt. Brian Reinwald of the Ft. Carson Provost Marshal’s Office. Elected representatives of Ft. Carson’s housing units meet each month with representatives of the Provost Marshal’s Office to go over law enforcement issues, said Reinwald, who is the Physical Security NCO-IC at Ft. Carson.
Thwarting lawbreakers on base takes many forms, says Staff Sgt. Kenneth Pettis, who is the investigator supervisor at Ft. Carson.
“When it comes to crime prevention, we have walking the beat, we also have a D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program, we have a school resource officer, and we have a bike patrol,” Pettis said. “They all work together within base housing for families.”
One other tool that Pettis’ team uses is spreading the word about crime-prevention patrols at Ft. Carson.
“We are making military housing residents aware of the patrols and what they are doing,” he said. “It starts with getting residents to realize the role of the Department of the Army police officers.”
Incidence reports show an overall reduction in base crime since the patrols started, according to Pettis.
About 7,400 hundred family members live in Ft. Carson housing units. Ft. Carson is located on the south side of the City of Colorado Springs, Colo.
Eyes and Ears
Strategic alliances like one in operation at Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota will insure that military installations continue to remain safe for families.
“Our base has partnered with the local community on Operation Eagle Eyes, an anti-terrorism initiative that enlists the eyes and ears of the base and local community alike, in fighting the global war on terror, said Capt. Michael Meridith, chief of public affairs for the 319th Air Refueling Wing at Grand Forks.
“It starts with teaching people about the typical activities terrorists engage in to plan their attacks,” he added. “Armed with this information, anyone can recognize elements of potential terror planning when they see it. Next, the program provides a 24-hour phone number to call whenever a suspicious activity is observed.”
Also in North Dakota, the Minot Air Force Base has been working with the Mayor’s Council for a Safe Community in Minot during the past four years on programs to reduce motor vehicle accidents, impaired driving and underage drinking.
“It’s critically important for us to work together with the air base,” said Kristen Partlow, who is coordinator of the Mayor’s Council for a Safe Community, which is a coalition of 20 local agencies, businesses and other organizations. “The communities are really blended, with military families spending a fair amount of time in town.
Partlow said the council has found it is addressing the same safety issues, on base and off base.
While Minot has a low crime rate, “we find that many of the lesser crimes committed here are often alcohol-related, so we do a lot of alcohol awareness work,” she said.
A military base isn’t an impenetrable fortress, said Donald C. Cook, Jr., vice president of operations and support services at the National Crime Prevention Council in Washington, D.C., home of McGruff the Crime Dog, and Taking A Bite Out of Crime.
“For the military, crime prevention issues can be exacerbated because of the insulated nature of military bases and family members being left at home alone while the service member is deployed overseas,” said Cook, a retired colonel in the U. S. Army Military Police Corps with 30 years of service. “Some may even feel they are not vulnerable to crime and that is a mistake.”
Helping military families understand how to reduce their risk of victimization on or off the military base is an imperative.
“If we do not take care of family member safety, we give deployed personnel an additional worry on top of their military assignments,” Cook noted.
Military, Civilian Partnerships
There many examples of military and civilian police teaming up to enhance public safety. Military police, for instance, often permit local law enforcement to sharpen their aim on base firing ranges.
Other examples include a military cooperation committee at the 21,000-member International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), an IACP draft memorandum of understanding that will simplify creation of civilian-military law enforcement partnerships, and now, a proposed IACP civilian-military award that will recognize cooperative efforts that lead to better law enforcement. Tentative plans call for presenting the first award at the IACP national conference in 2007.
“These cooperative programs help improve police work on both sides, civilian as well as military — there’s absolutely no doubt about that,” said Larry Haynes, education and training manager at the IACP in Alexandria, Va.
Haynes, a 30-year Army veteran, said when he went to Vietnam, the Army’s policy was, “If we had wanted you to have a wife, we would have issued you one.”
Well, that has all changed, and so certainly quality of life and safety are very high on the soldier’s priority list,” Haynes said. “When deployed soldiers head overseas, they want to be confident that their families are being taken care of and that they are in a safe, crime-free environment at home.”
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