If all politics is local, much the same is true of police work.

That's what a group of Thomas College students are learning this semester under the tutelage of former Waterville Police Chief John Morris.

Morris isn't the kind of guy to take retirement lightly. So since he left his Waterville post, he's kept himself busy by, among other things, teaching a course at Thomas called, "Community & Policing Partnerships."

The 16 criminal justice majors in the course have worked with Morris over the last few weeks to develop surveys that they will administer to Waterville North End residents today, house by house.

The 38 questions in the survey will provide a range of answers, from how safe area residents feel to what they think of the quality of life in the North End. We imagine the Thomas College students will get a collective earful of opinion, advice and direction.

And while we're sure that a lot of thought and analysis went into the development of the survey, we suspect there's something else afoot here, too: a lesson by Waterville's former police chief that the best kind of police officers are the ones who know their neighborhoods and the hopes and fears of the people living in them.