Chicago Alternative Policing Strategy: A Case Study

In addition, the success that has come from the implementation of the Chicago Alternative Policing Strategy only shows that in the future it will become more successful. This program has helped improve the residents’ confidence that the police are there to help combat crime, to ensure the community is a safe place to live as well as a reduction in major crimes. “Evaluations of the alternative policing strategy in Chicago show that from 1993 to 2002, the fear of crime went down by 20% among groups most fearful of crime and

Policing is a very difficult, complex and dynamic field of endeavor that is always evolves as hard lessons teach us what we need to know about what works and what don’t work. There are three different Era’s in America’s policing: The Political Era, The Reform Era, and The Community Problem Solving Era. A lot has changed in the way that policing works over the years in the United States.

In cities and towns across the country, tragic deaths of citizens in confrontations with police have have spiked a wave of distrust for law enforcement. The bad perception for law enforcement is unfair to the officer’s who are dedicated, and mean well in their duties, yet unfortunately, it has created tension between law enforcement agencies and the communities they serve. Due to the recent deaths and confrontations, reform proposals and new policies have been a national conversation to implement new initiatives to strengthen the bonds between law enforcement officers and the communities they serve. Although, confrontations between law enforcement and citizens in the community have spiked, the concept of community policing is not new. Throughout the years the philosophy of community policing has been to

Due to these apparent successes, the problem-focused approach has been used to address a diverse array of problems such as gangs, drugs, school crime and the management of police call for service in urban, suburban and even rural communities. The exploration of possible responses to a problem is handled by police officers. Once a problem is identified, officers are expected to work closely with the community members to develop a solution, which can include a wide range of alternatives to arrest. These may focus on the offender, the community, the environment, outside agencies, or the need for some kind of mediation. Problem-oriented policing grew out of twenty years of research into police practices, and differs from traditional policing strategies in many significant ways. For example, problem-oriented policing enables police agencies to be more effective. Currently, police agencies commit most of their time to responding to calls for service. Problem-oriented policing offers a more effective strategy by addressing the

The Resident Officer Program of Elgin (ROPE) is a program in which officers live and work in distressed neighborhoods of the city to help solve the community‘s problem and improve the quality of life for the residents of Elgin. This is not a quick fix program. In neighborhoods that have deteriorated and in which crime has risen over the years, reversing the situation will take a long-term investment in time and personnel. However, numerous resident officer programs have sprung up around the nation since the early 1990’s. Supporters of these programs believe resident officer programs capture the essence of community policing: improved relationships between police and their neighbors, who team together to fight crime and address

When discussing how exposure to community policing can affect low economic neighborhoods, one must ask what is community policing? Miller, Hess, and Orthmann (2014) stated, it is a philosophy or orientation that emphasizes working proactively with citizens to reduce fear, solve crime-related problems, and prevent crime. Community policing can be a positive change in the community and for the law enforcement personnel that serves the community. An important concept to always remember is that the police are the community, and the community are the police (Miller et al., 2014). To successfully integrate this into police departments, we must examine several factors that have made police departments what they are today, what are ways to implement this new form of policing without resistance from law enforcement and citizens, and how community policing can affect the community and the work of law enforcement in the long run.

The justice department today is spending millions of dollars to better train the police department against bias and examine law enforcement procedures, known as community policing. Community policing has been slowing evolving over the years. The civil rights movement exposed how weak the system was in the 1960’s. The development of the model has been inspired by

Community Policing took a different perspective on crime than August Vollmer. It shows that even though police officers are trained and respond to crimes on time, it doesn’t effect the crime rates. In the past foot-patrol was in place but it quickly failed due to poor management and not enough funds for the program (Bohm & Haley, 2014, Pg. 147). Community Policing was an idea to form a bond between the police and the citizens. If the police paid more attention to the minor problems in

Since the 70’s police departments like Spokane Washington, I believe have proved that police visibility or presence in the community along with transparency working hand in hand with the community, have had a positive effect on preventing crime and providing communities with a sense of security (The Kansas City Preventive Patrol Experiment. (n.d.).

Community Oriented Policing was born in the late 1960’s. Between the 1930’s and the 1960’s law enforcement used a professional policing model that was based on hierarchical structures, efficient response times, standardization, and the

Although many may find community policing and problem-oriented policing to fall in the same category, there is (surprisingly) a difference between the two. For one, community policing has many definitions. For some, it means instituting foot and bicycle patrols and doing acts pertaining to the ideal bond between police officers and their community. While for others it means maintaining order and cleaning up neighborhoods in desperate need of repair (Dunham & Alpert, 2005). However, an idyllic definition of community policing is altering the traditional definition of crime control to community problem-solving and promising to transform the way police do their job. Within the past two decades, there has been much research on community

There is recent controversy over police use of force, especially in minority communities such as in African American communities, Hispanic communities, and other publics with large populations of minorities. Increased levels of force among these communities have created challenges for police departments. These challenges include a lack of trust from the community towards law enforcement officers and an absence of respect creating situations that lead to police use of force. There are already various programs in place that attempt to decrease this challenge by educating the public, respecting one another, and giving those who were on the wrong track second chances. A combination of these solutions and the implementation of more of them would decrease the number of contacts between police and minorities that lead to the use of force (Roberg & Novak, 2014).

Historically New York policing has been an “aggressive” one; with racially focused way of policing, stop and frisk, and three strikes and out are some of the tactics that come to mind. After crimes reached ultimate high at the beginning of 1990’s, the idea of community policing was brought about to bring an alternative way of policing. The mistrust of the black and latino community on the predominantly white police force was one of the main challenges that had to be faced. Since then, the New York police department have observed an improvement of communication between the public and police(J. DAVID GOODMAN). This makes it easier for officers to deal with crimes as they are assigned to small communities, which results in the reduction of crimes. The data collected from the police department of New York gives a historical perspective on the reduction of crimes from 1990 through 2015. Crimes such as, murder, rape, robbery and burglary are collected throughout the years, and we will observe the changes made from 1990-2015. We observe a -81% change in murder, -51.9% change in rape, -80% in robbery and -84.7% in burglary. These percentages are huge and can be affected by multiple factors, but community policing plays a huge role in the reduction of

There are multiple approaches to engaging a police force with the community in order to most effectively prevent and respond to crime, and considering the relative strengths and weakness of each of these strategic models will demonstrate how models can impact the operation of daily policing practices and activities. The model under discussion here is called community oriented policing (COP), and focuses on building relationships and rapport between officers and the community in order to more effectively prevent crime. It is augmented by a model called problem solving policing (PSP), and depends upon rank-and-file officers identifying community problem areas through direct observation and analysis. Each model excels at slightly different things, and in practice most police agencies deploy a mix of models. By examining the Miami-Dade Police Department's handbook for school resource officers, it will be possible to view a COP/PSP policy in action in order to better understand how these models practically affect policing.

Community policing as a concept is mainly about allowing the community a voice in determining the priorities law enforcement. Allen & Sawhney (2015) defines community police as collaborative effort between police and the community they serve to customize the delivery of police services (p. 307). In order to utilize the community policing approach, it is important for agencies to have a strong bond and trust with the community they serve. Without this trust, creative policing innovations fall short. Despite what shortcomings the approach to policing may have for law enforcement, the popularity of community led or community based policing is on the rise in America. American law enforcement as an industry faces a never-ending public relations crisis, especially during the onset of tough on crime approaches prevalent in of the last forty years. Within the two decades, community police strategies based on bringing key stakeholders together to