LYNN – City residents will undoubtedly miss the presence of Lynn Police on foot patrol as the department’s grant-funded program begins to wind down.Police Chief Kevin Coppinger said the community policing strategy, which kicked off in July, was targeted toward the city’s most crime-ridden neighborhoods in an effort to beef up police visibility and offer residents a sense of security.The walking patrols were most often seen in parks and certain neighborhoods on Thursday, Friday and Saturday afternoons and nights during the summer months, a time when crime often spikes in the city.At of the end of September, Coppinger said burglaries are down 17 percent, stolen vehicles by 37 percent and street robberies are down by 1 percent.”Overall, crime is down 10 percent in the city,” he said. “But that number can fluctuate and suddenly go the other way, so are the foot patrols responsible for the crime being down? I don’t know, but they certainly do help.”By having officers walk the streets, Coppinger said they’re able to interact with the general public on a more proactive basis to reduce crime by connecting with people on a personal level and making them part of the crime solution.”We’ve had a good, positive response from people in the neighborhoods who said it gave them a greater sense of ownership of their neighborhood,” he said.While this short-lived program benefited city residents during the past few months, the department used to have a full-time Community Liaison Team in the mid to late 1990s, which Coppinger had 24 officers assigned to the bicycle and foot patrol unit seven days a week in every city neighborhood to address quality-of-life issues.”That program was outstanding, but by the turn of the millennium, we ran out of money for it,” he said. “It can be costly, but nothing is better for the effectiveness.”While that strategy has gone by the wayside, Coppinger said the Park and Walk program remains a regular part of the department, It has officers monitoring particular areas of the city on foot.Next year Coppinger said he plans to request that city officials pick up the foot patrol program again, which was paid for by the Executive Office of Housing and Urban Development via the Community Development Block Grant.”It’s really a win-win for the city,” he said.