When I recently asked Bethlehem Police Chief Mark DiLuzio what he would wish for given unlimited resources, he said, “World peace.”

The line from the film “Miss Congeniality” was delivered with his signature lilt, a deadpan that somehow conveys an expectation of laughter. DiLuzio is known for throwing groan-inducing remarks into interviews, and that day was no different. We did laugh, admitting we’d both watched the movie recently, but we spent the better part of an hour discussing very real matters for his department; successes and challenges and what he feels will make Bethlehem a safer, closer community.

For those unaware, the Bethlehem Police Department has 154 officers, with five more training at the Allentown Police Academy. There are substations throughout the city, a four-horse mounted unit with a new home in Northeast Bethlehem expected to be completed in May, and four dogs trained to patrol and sniff out drugs or explosives.

Additionally, the department installed a new record management system last year, which DiLuzio said is a good program for data management; Naloxone, used to stabilize overdose victims, is now kept in all patrol vehicles; and there are officers, called Student Resource Officers, stationed in the middle schools and high schools both for safety and to work directly with kids in any number of activities.

“I’m trying to bring back many of the things we had years ago that went away through budget crunches,” he said, but the cornerstone of his yearslong strategy is evident: Community policing.

DiLuzio said Bethlehem has always practiced some form of community policing, but it fell by the wayside from cuts more than a decade ago. He’s stressed its usefulness as chief and works continually to expand its influence. “I see one of the biggest pushes [nationwide] is bringing community policing back. We started officer beats throughout the city. We have bike officers out now when the weather is good, and we have a joint program with Lehigh: A Lehigh officer and a city officer [riding together]. We have officers attending every block watch in the city to talk with the people. We work with the Ambassadors on the Southside and the Downtown Bethlehem Association on the Northside and the Chamber of Commerce. And our horses work with everybody.

“I think it’s doing damn good in the city,” he said. “People love one-on-one talking to a cop. The businesses, the residents … I like when beat officers or those bike officers take ownership of a neighborhood. The people and the cop work together and the cop says, ‘This is my neighborhood. I’m going to take care of it.’ If we do each neighborhood this way, we’re making a whole community safe.”

DiLuzio cites transparency and partnerships with the community as great modern successes for the department. Learning programs such as Citizens’ and Junior Police academies, both of which are popular enough for expansion, and regular public forums with the local NAACP, supplementing community policing, have convinced him residents have more in common with each other than not. “If we all just sit down and talk, we find out we all have the same concerns.”

Meanwhile the bane of public services, budgets, are his biggest administrative hurdle. “There’s a price of goods and services – supplies we need to run the department - computer goods, high tech stuff - the prices always go up. As you know we’re on a fixed budget to an extent. Make sure you do the best you could for your department and the citizens with what you have.”

With that in mind, DiLuzio said if he could truly wish for anything to better his department it would begin with more training for officers. “We do more than is state-mandated, but I have a limited training budget.

“A well-trained officer does a good job, because training is something you do your whole life. Society changes every year, and training has to change every year. You always have a new set of problems.” He would also like more officers out in the community and other specialized in certain problems, such as a dedicated animal control officer, a rehab and drug violation specialist, and a cybercrime specialist.

He said the department is in the process of training one detective to work cybercrime full time. He said computer crimes such as fraud, theft, child pornography and sex trafficking are everywhere, and the internet is like the Wild West. “It is uncontrolled and there’s a lot of criminal activity. A lot of people think that doesn’t happen here. Yes it does. This is the future of crime in America.”

Amercia’s current struggle is with drugs.

The nationwide increase in drug use, especially heroin, is being confronted every day in the city. DiLuzio said in 2016 city emergency service responders saved 93 overdose victims with Naloxone, and police officers saved another 24. However, he said some among those people were saved more than once; some within a few days and one the very same day.

“Drug abuse is the basis for a lot of crime in this country. If we ever got a handle on drug abuse in this country we’d see the crime rate cut in half or almost three-quarters. And I say that from experience from arresting people for theft, robbery, burglary, murders. The majority of murders are gang or drug related, taking out the domestic or DUI issues.”

To see real results in drug abuse though, DiLuzio said, “We have to sit down and air out all our dirty laundry. And a lot of people don’t want to do that.”

By that he means getting everyone at the local, state and federal levels of government on the same page; an unlikely prospect. “To affect overall crime in this country you have to get everyone involved in the dialog, and we’re not doing that. You can’t even get two groups in the same room together. It’s sad.”

But DiLuzio wants people to trust the police and call if they see something that doesn’t feel right. “Call us when you see it. If you see kids walking down the street at 2 a.m. testing car doors, call us. It doesn’t help us the next day when you say, ‘It was three and one of them was on a bike.’ It’s your community, step up and make the call. You might be helping your neighbor and you’re probably gonna help yourself because people involved in burglaries, robberies and thefts don’t just do one. I never caught a burglar that did one burglary. When they confess … I had one guy he did 52 of them. He showed me the houses. That’s what he did to support a heroin addiction. He knew he was caught and needed help.”

DiLuzio also expects to hear from residents if they have a problem with the police, but he said he’s pleased with the performance of his department. He has been chief since 2014 and, unlike his predecessors, has no plans to move along anytime soon. Already with the department for 25 years, he said, “When I took this job, I could have retired. I’m giving back. I’ll do this for 10 years if they let me.”