Mission & Vision

We, the employees of the Beaufort Police Department, believe that providing superior service to the citizens, merchants, and visitors of Beaufort is our primary responsibility, and that all of our work should be structured with that goal in mind. We further believe that in meeting this goal, we shall be responsible to decisions made by the City Council, city manager, the police chief, and the citizens of the City of Beaufort. To achieve and maintain superior standards in our work performance, we are committed to the following values:

• Concentrated planning and decision-making involving employees’ participation to the greatest extent possible
• Consideration for the importance of the employees and recognition of individual contributions and initiatives
• Discussion and information shared in a constructive, open, and supportive manner
• Energetic in the pursuit of proficiency and responsibility in the performance of our work
• Excellence in the delivery of services to our city’s citizens, merchants, and visitors
• Impartial treatment and opportunity for all employees
• Integrity and honesty in all aspects of service

The principles of the Beaufort Police Department were adopted by City Council in the form of a Resolution on Sept. 12, 1995, and are:

• Whereas, community policing is based on a strategy to build a closer relationship between the citizenry and the police department which services it.
• Whereas, the community must accept and share responsibility with the police for social order, and the community and the police must work together to identify problems and develop pro-active community solutions.
• Whereas, the community, neighborhoods, families, individuals, schools, churches, local government and businesses must become empowered to accept the challenges and assume ownership of their community.
• Whereas, the community policing philosophy establishes priorities for police efforts which focus on customer services and satisfaction.
• Whereas, to achieve mutual trust between the police and the community, the police will develop and implement the concept of assigned officers to one beat for an extended period of time promoting daily direct and positive contact between the police and community residences which will enhance friendship and understanding, and creating the opportunity for the police to get to know the public they serve.
• Whereas, community policing strongly advocates and invites community partnerships, challenging community members to take charge of their own destiny.
• Whereas, under the concepts of community policing, alternatives are reviewed on how to handle situations and incidents in other ways, rather than always having to dispatch an officer to an incident.
• Whereas, community policing encourages all citizens to participate in community needs assessments that are sensitive to all cultural and ethnic populations within the community.
• Whereas, community oriented policing and problem solving requires a leadership style that makes more effective use of the human resources within the Beaufort Police Department and the community by developing a concept of management based on the principles of quality leadership which maintains vision and managing through values rather than rules. Focus on teamwork, seeking input before decisions are made, asking the people who work about ways to improve the process, customer oriented, focus on improving the systems and processes before blaming individuals, encourage creativity and risk taking that tolerates honest mistakes, creating an open climate that encourages providing and accepting feedback, developing goals and strategic plans to achieve the principles of quality leadership, and avoid top-down decision-making.
• Whereas, community policing is based on decentralization, with community services driven from the bottom up, which makes full use of the knowledge, skills, and expertise throughout the organization.
• Whereas, under the concepts of community policing there is a shifting of being incident-driven to problem-driven; and to expand the police function into a community policing concept, training will be comprehensive and open to bring about the transition in skills, attitudes, and values of the department employees.