Community Services Section : The Rangers (Community Oriented Police Unit)

The Rangers use four-wheelers to patrol
the public housing properties
The Rangers (Community Oriented Police Unit), is a group of specially-trained police officers who have responsibility for reducing crime in targeted areas. The majority of units are dedicated to the Mobile Housing Board and its public housing properties.

The Mobile Police Department was the first in the southeast to adopt and implement Community Oriented Policing when it opened a mini-precincts in 1990 in some of the city's housing projects where crime had become widespread. Through federal grants, the Mobile Police Department dedicated and assigned community oriented policing personnel to bring this program closer to the citizens of Mobile.

Rangers have established a rapport with children in the public housing developments.
The program has been immensely successful and many citizens whose quality of life has been enhanced through Community Oriented Policing have expressed renewed faith in law enforcement and pride in their neighborhoods.

Operating under the community policing concept, the Rangers have taken the concept of community policing to a new level in recent years, enlisting individuals and groups within these public housing developments to collaborate on crime prevention projects.

This unit is commanded by a lieutenant who is immediately subordinate to the captain of the Community Services Section.