Community Policing Pros And Cons

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).

“Community policing is, in essence, a collaboration between the police and the community that identifies and solves community problems” (U.S. Department of Justice, 1994, p. vii). Throughout the years, community policing has become a more popular strategy to help law enforcement officials control and deter crime; however, some areas across the United States has had problems in the past with communities and law enforcement working together to ensure a secure and safe environment. Although it is an officer’s duty to maintain order, keep the peace, and solve problems within the area he or she

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

Under community policing systems there is an emphasis on partnerships, and developing trust between the community and the police officers, with the goal of working together towards common goals such as reducing violent crime and providing safety for the most vulnerable members of the public. (Oliver, 2011). The main advantage of community policing is that it enlists the public as an ally in the goal of reducing crime, instead of having a public that is sceptical or outright hostile towards the police. In practical terms, community policing generates more leads and cooperation from the public, since the public views the police officers as a force for good. (Greene,

Without police, the safety of the community is jeopardized. Without community support, police are dispossessed of their legitimacy and robbed of their effectiveness. This three-element definition of police makes it easy to understand why abuse of force by police is of such great concern. First, there is the humanitarian concern that police are capable of inflicting serious, even lethal, harm on the public. Second, there is the philosophical dilemma that in "protecting" the whole of society, some of its constituent parts, meaning its citizens, may be injured. Third, there is the political irony that police, who stand apart from society in terms of authority, law, and responsibility, also are part of society and act on its behalf. Thus, rogue actions by a few police, if condoned by the public, may become perceived as actions of the citizenry. Recent developments in policing have elevated concerns about police use of force beyond ordinarily high levels. In particular, community policing, which is becoming widespread as a result of financial incentives by the Federal Government, and "aggressive" policing, which is becoming widely adopted as a solution to serious crime problems, have come to the fore as perspectives of choice by policing experts. Community policing emphasizes

Community policing builds a positive partnership between law enforcement and the community. It is a public relations strategy developed to create a rapport between the police and the community. Instead of using other tactics and resources, agencies have implemented community policing policies as an effort between law enforcement and the public to identify criminal issues and resolve the issues through active community involvement.

Community policing, therefore, is not merely about police presence in public but more of members of the community coming forward and work with the police in developing shared

There are a number of conditions that are concern and determine the effectiveness of policing practice and community policing. There are both positive and negative impacts of these conditions. Some general conditions according to Casey (2010) revolve around the stability of the community and the co-operation and cohesion of this community. For the concept of community policing to work, there must be a sense of stability within the community, trust with the police, belief of the community that the police are generally interested in the benefit of the community (Ontario Ministry Of Children And Youth Services, 2010), the belief and will of the country and community political commitment to help reform and provide a better form of safety and cohesion of the community for its own benefit. Another concept that is argued again is the resources of the police and government in different countries that allow the functioning of these policing practices being undertaken. For example, in developing countries, there are not usually any resources to apply these policing practices. Therefore also due to these different conditions within this country such as South Africa for example, there won’t be a positive effect of community based policing strategy; because of culture and other impacts on the type of communities and the running of the

Community policing was first recognized after the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement act of 1991 which authorized 100,000 community policing officers. Community policing is defined as a philosophy that empowers the community in the solution of the problem rather than the dictation of the solution by law enforcement. It is also seen as a belief that by working together, people and police will be able to improve the quality of life in the community. The police living in the community will see themselves as a part of the community instead of the watchdog for that community. Community policing consists of two primary components; the first being community partnerships, which involves engagement by the police with the community to resolve community problems cooperatively. The second being problem solving, which is an attempt to deal with the conditions that cause crime and negatively affect the quality of life in the community. The core concepts of community policing are: Board police functions and community focus, Community input, Concern for the people, developing trust, Sharing power,

The article presents interest crucial views on the legitimacy of community policing. The police have the responsibility of maintaining law and order in the society. For a long time, the task of ensuring law and order was left to the law enforcement department which had to rise to the occasion and prevent crime from occurring. However, as the crime rates and social disorders began to increase steadily, the local municipal leaders and other policymakers had to go to the drawing and devise new strategies that would improve the public safety management. Subsequently, this led to the community policing initiative being set. It is essential to note that community policing is a paradigm shift that emphasizes community cooperation in creating a secure and safe environment. In this arrangement, the people take active roles in the policing affairs and as such police are not seen as strangers who portray danger, but as a partner in maintaining law and order in the society. Even though there

Community policing has been described in various ways, but there is a basic underlining element that defines the idea of it as a solidarity that is established at the foundation and built up from there between the people of the community and the officers that serve that community. While many agencies might pursue various ways to implement community policing within their sector, the idea that the people of that community are their customers more so than their enemies and vice versa, so that there is unity built between the two. For some officers this may not be so easily performed as they may view themselves as the arrestee not the mediator or community advocate (Clear, Hamilton, Jr., & Cadora, 2011). However, there are substantial arguments

Police officers must also work with the communities to form relationships. Community policing is defined as a contemporary approach to policing that actively involves the community in a working partnership to control and reduce crime (Bohm & Haley, 2014). Basically, community policing is a method in which police officers work directly with the people of the community to try and create a positive relationship to find a common ground which in return, would hopefully decrease the amount of criminal activity altogether. Community policing not only helps prevent and reduce crime, but it also helps citizens to see police officers in a different light. Sometimes the only encounter an individual has with an officer is when receiving a ticket or when an arrest is made, which can carry a negative connotation.

Approaches of both community policing and traditional policing models differ in a variety of ways. The characteristics of the policing models are quite different from each other, and community based policing was considered laughable when suggested for the new approach in the early 1970s. Due to community policing’s new operating beliefs, new and unfamiliar expected officer behaviors, and that officers were being held legally responsible for their actions and inactions; the idea and implementation wasn’t widely accepted until 1980’s. Traditional policing was primarily dominated by rampant corruption and lawlessness that affected all levels of the police administration; therefore citizens had little trust if any, in the police officers of the time.

Departments are reaching to explore community policing, due to the failures of traditional polices within our society. To help bridge the gaps of the

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.