Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz

Paroloe Ride-Alongs

An important component to fighting crime
is making sure that individuals don´t have an opportunity to repeat
their previous criminal behaviors after incarceration.

Weed and Seed formed a partnership with the Massachusetts State Parole Board and the Brockton Police Department to conduct parole ride-alongs.

During these ride-alongs, Brockton police officers ride with parole officers to visit the homes of parolees living in the Weed and Seed area.

This partnership not only reinforces law enforcement´s strong commitment to preventing recidivism, but it also allows each department the opportunity to become familiar with the other.

The rid-ealongs have resulted in better communication between officers and an increased knowledge of the parolee´s in our target area. Now, it is not uncommon for a Brockton police officer to call the parole office during his normal shift to report on the activities of a parolee he visited during a ride-along.

This information could lead to the parole officer issuing a warrant for the parolee due to a violation of his conditions of release. Most of the individuals have warrants issues due to the commission of a technical violation (affiliating with a known felon, out after curfew, etc) . Oftentimes, failing to abide by parole conditions is a precursor to more serious criminal activity.