Community Policing

With community policing and the relationships that they have built, citizens can visualize that the majority of police are here to serve and protect the people and not to unlawfully

The authors also state that the police are now in a reactive role. This means that they respond to crime, rather than preventing it. Police officers stopped foot patrol and began responding to 911 calls. Many people advocate the restoration of foot patrol for all areas. Foot patrolling is called community policing and consists of two elements - community partnership and problem solving. The police must increase positive relationships with citizens to improve crime control and prevention. To be successful, community-policing programs must operate on a neighborhood scale, finding solutions to neighborhood problems. Successful programs recognize that something, which works well in one neighborhood, may be totally inappropriate for another. Problems must be identified and solutions developed one neighborhood at a time. Community Policing does not propose that we stop fighting crime and disorder, but that officers employ new and innovative strategies. We must become pro-active in preventive rather than reactive. Enforcement is very much a part of the concept. Officers are encouraged to give warnings whenever possible; however, they are still required to make traffic stops and arrests. There is still an emphasis on drunken driving, drugs and juvenile crime. The community should not have the mistaken perception that all enforcement has stopped just because the officers are being "friendly".

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).

I define community policing as a chance to involve the community in activities that would help them spot crime and report it promptly. With that level of involvement, it would give communities the sense and want of changing their neighborhoods for the better making their home a safer place. A citizen with that kind of empowerment could potentially carry a torch for others. The empowerment could spread and create a more caring community.

Law Enforcement within the United States is limited as many people may feel that it is a dangerous job. With law enforcement being so limited there is one way the community can and has assisted throughout the years. Community policing is the system of allocating police officers to particular areas so that they become familiar with the local inhabitants. In other words community policing allows law enforcement to be at high profile areas while the community who chooses to be involved is the eyes and ears for law enforcement. In other words were there is crime the community will

Community policing is where police could bike patrol, kobans, storefront policing, and problem-oriented policing. This could reduce the number and the stereotypes both the community and the police have of each other. Although community policing is not perfect, it is still widely used today:

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.

Everyone, residents, school teachers, and business people (Moore and Trojanowicz, 1988, as cited in Goff, 2016). The goal of this method of policing is to help get citizens involved, reduce the fear of crime, all of which can only happen when the police and the public work together to determine community issues, neighbourhood decay, reasons for these issues, and how they can help prevent the issues (Goff, 2016). There are three basic aims to community policing, there must be a formation of community partnerships where the community and the police work together as equals. The second is the organization must change, as they need to change their focus from crime fighting, and prioritize interacting with the community. The third aim is problem solving, the police must understand the reasons for these issues, and figure out how to prevent them (Goff, 2016).

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

Community policing was defined as “police officers working with community members to address the causes of crime and to prevent crimes from occurring, rather than just responding to crimes after they have occurred.” Officers and the community benefitted with improved attitudes

 Community policing is a relatively new model of service delivery that is employed by the majority of police forces across Canada.  Community policing however, is not a “new” approach, it is more correctly a renewal or re-emergence of the old approach developed in Metropolitan London (Leighton & Normandeau, p.21).

Community Policing The criminal justice system has over time tried to implement innovative policies that will lead to the improvement of police departments across the country. One of the strategies that have of late has off late started to make significant advancements in the way police officers relate to the society is community policing. Community policing also known as community-oriented policing is a strategy that consists of different programs whose primary focus is helping the police build ties and work closely with the various sections of the community. Some of these programs include neighborhood watches, foot patrols, and neighborhood newsletters.

Community policing will help officers learn the community crime problems, and to obtain vital information. The use of community policing will help avoid issues such as the following; entrapping innocent citizens, breaking trust, racial profiling, creating a poor list of suspects, using wiretaps and its political and legal backlash, and using pricey surveillance (Newman, & Clarke, 2010). The benefits of community policing include the following; gaining respect, collaboration with businesses, reduce crime and prevention of terrorism, gaining trust and a reputation for openness, better knowledge of communities, and better knowledge of areas that are at risk (Newman, & Clarke,

These problems have often cause issues with community policing and the effectiveness of police work. Community policing can be a way to reduce crime and get to the center of major criminal organizations and operations. There are also some limitations to community policing. Community policing can be helpful if used at the right time and on the correct people. Officers must know their surroundings, interact with people, and actually help whenever a situation occurs. These things will make community policing successful.

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.