Community Based Policing
There has always been a love-hate relationship between the public and the police. When called upon to help, they can be something sent from God, but when they are writing tickets, or taking a friend to jail, the view changes from a savior to a presence that is unwanted and often hated. An effort to improve the public view of law enforcement is being attempted by many departments. Using different styles of policing techniques, mainly community based policing, has proved to be the best way to improve the image of law enforcement.
Community based policing can best be defined as, 'a collaborative effort between the police and the community that identifies problems of crime and disorder and involves
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The idea behind this is to show the public that the police are not someone to fear, but more someone who can help.
There are two main benefits of community based policing. The first is the improved image of law enforcement. By having a more active part in the community, law enforcement changes itself from being the enforcer, to being the preventer. This is a shift in the view of the public that make life easier for the officer, and safer for the community. The second benefit of community based policing, is the safer community that it creates. With involvement from both the police and the public, crime in communities can be greatly reduced.
Community based policing requires the public support in order to succeed. Through meetings between communities and the police, areas of crime or concern can be address and some sort of action taken, ?Community policing attempts to actively involve the community with the police in the task of crime control by creating an effective working partnership between the community and the police? (Sparrow). Without public support, community based policing would fail. This would lead the fear of crime in communities, and the hatred of the police. Essentially it would be a step backwards in time.
?Police departments throughout the country continue to join the community policing bandwagon? (Schmalleger). Almost all departments are making some sort of attempt with community based policing. The biggest
Community policing broadens the nature and number of police functions compared with traditional policing. It emphasizes organizational change, active problem solving, and external partnerships to address issues that concern both the police and citizens. Community policing shifts the focus of policing by placing equal emphasis on crime control, order maintenance, and service. By providing better training for police officers with the issues of police profiling will make the police officers more aware of police profiling.
Community policing is explained as a collaboration of community and the police working together to help identify and solve criminal activities. Additionally, the whole concept behind it is to promote public safety and to enhance the quality of life within the neighborhoods in which we reside in. Community policing is composed of two major components which are community partnership and problem solving. Community policing is a program that was initially started in the 1940’s. All of the support that was released for this program was materialized actually in the 1980’s. One of the main goals if not the most important goal was to bring in the law enforcement closer to their local public to help
The Community Policing era has been one of the contemporary police activities in the last 30 years. It is more of a decentralized approach to reducing crime by involving the same officer in the same community on a long term basis, so residents will develop trust and then provide information and assistance to the officer. Community Policing does not replace motorized patrol or other police tactics but instead compliments them with community partnership and problem solving (Bailey, 2011).
The basic premise is to create a relationship between the police and the community. Some aspects to the community policing approach are empowering residents to share responsibility and authority for the quality of life in the neighborhood and applying problem-solving approaches. Services to the public
Community oriented policing is a policing strategy based on the notion that community interaction and support can help control crime and reduce fear, with community members helping to identify suspects, detain vandals and bring problems to the attention of police. It is a philosophy that combines traditional aspects of law enforcement with prevention measures, problem-solving, community engagement, and community partnerships (Ref. 1).
Law Enforcement officers have one of the most critical jobs in the United States. Their lives are always on the line and they are of high regards. This means they cannot fail! The results of their jobs do not only depend on their actions but also on the people. What this means is the community has a huge role when it comes to solving crime. Though many people may not believe it, they are the key to a successful crime prevention community. The people of the United States don’t really understand both the positive and negative effects that community policing actually brings. Some may say it is very dangerous based on their experiences. Others may say it’s the best way to do away with crime. Today the two will be compared and put to test by true officers serving our country. The facts will be stated and questions will be answered. Let’s take a look at what community policing is really all about!
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
For example; many citizens may fear law enforcement officers because of police brutality so having law enforcement officers showing the community that they are caring, here to help as well as trying to keep the community safe may reduce the fear of law enforcement officers because the citizens know that law enforcements officers are only here to help and therefore may help the citizens feel safe and secure without fearing the police. This will also help the citizens to reach out to a police officer if trouble ever happens. Another example is that law enforcement
Community policing is a philosophy. It uses organizational strategies that support the use of partnerships and problem solving techniques to address issues of public safety.Community-oriented policing is collaboration between the community, organizations within the community, and the police that identify and solve community problems. Police officers work with the community to help solve problems related to crime, fear of crime, social and physical disorder, and neighborhood conditions. They do this to enhance the safety and quality of neighborhoods. Officers spend time in these neighborhoods getting to know the residents and business owners by talking to them about the problems that the community is facing or individuals who are causing problems. They are responsible for reducing crime in their beats.
Community Policing is a value system which infuses a police department, in which the main organizational goal is working helpfully with individual citizens, groups of citizens, and both public and private organizations to identify and resolve issues which possibly effect the livability of specific neighborhoods, areas, or the city as a whole. Community policing can be beneficial to communities. Community policing can help prevent crimes from occurring. As officers get to know a community, they also get to know what is right and wrong with it. Typically, officers remain entitled to an area where crime happens often and as such they are left with fighting it as it is going or after it happened. In community policing neighborhoods, the officers are able to tell what might happen and as
of professional policing in the USA” (p. 574). In order to better understand on how community
Community policing is a policy and a strategy aimed at achieving more effective and efficient crime control, reduced fear of crime, improved quality of life, improved police services and police legitimacy, through a proactive reliance on community resources that seeks to change crime causing conditions. This assumes a need for greater accountability of police, greater public share in decision-making and greater concern for civil rights and liberties.
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
There is a perception of distrust between law enforcement and the community. This distrust stems directly from the dangerous words police use when communicating with the community. (Willis, 2015, p.) Simply choosing better words can help build relationships between law enforcement and the community. It is necessary for law enforcement to have trust with their community. There are many things that hinge on the police-community relationships, the ability of law enforcement to perform their duties, are the most important. Law enforcement must be willing to rely on the public to observe the law. They must always demonstrate absolute impartiality to the law.
Traditional policing models had very little input from the community they were supposed to serve; the shift of the officer tended to be quite repetitive in nature. Traditional policing was reporting to work, loading up in the patrol car, driving around for hours awaiting a call for service needed and then filing a report or arresting an alleged criminal. Typically just waiting for a call that a crime had possibly occurred is wholly reactive to crime control. That is a gritty summation of traditional policing which was the norm for police departments for many decades. Community policing is considered more proactive than traditional policing; and at its’ core, community policing should be an interactive collaboration of all