Community Policing Within The United States Department Of Justice

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.

Community policing has evolved to be the most used strategy for policing. “It is an approach to crime detection and prevention that provides police officers and supervisors with new tools for addressing recurrent problems that plague communities and consume a majority of police agency time and resources” (Peak, 2012, 65). It has been defined by various people differently. But all the definitions have similar principles (Chappell, 2009). They focus on proactive problem solving and create relationships with the community to address any issue that may arise. Community policing is a combination of client-oriented and problem-oriented policing.

Community policing could possibly be called the new orthodoxy of law enforcement in the United States. It has become an increasingly popular alternative to what many police administrators recognized as the failure of traditional policing to deal effectively with street crime, especially crimes of

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).

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

Community policing techniques may vary from suburban communities and inner cities because of the demographics of the regions. Community policing in suburban communities can certainly contribute to a greater decrease in crime because of the close quarters police officers have with the members of the community. Community policing is designed as a proactive approach in reducing crime in the community. A collaborative relationship between law enforcement and individuals only strengthens the trust with the police. Indeed this relationship is embedded in suburban areas because policer officers are constantly personalizing their response calls. In addition, Law enforcement agencies in suburban community may rely on more financial base resources in contributing to the infrastructure of neighborhoods. For example, policies are implemented in renovating after school programs for the better of the community. Many police officers

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

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

How effective is community policing? Community policing has several different definitions. In this paper I will prove that community policing is effective by defining, community policing as the police and citizens coming together to create a safe community, stop crime and resolve problems and also urgently responding to the community. Throughout many years, the people’s view of community policing have remained the same. There are some valid causes as to why law enforcement leaders consider that it is time to change the way policing labors so that they are effectively helping the community. The way that community policing was trained in the past is not necessarily efficient in today’s society. For example, catastrophes in our communities continue to increase the need for security, citizens loose the feeling of protection and wellbeing, and this can be fixed by presenting advanced policing strategies. Law enforcement leaders are beginning to recognize that they must accept the responsibility for the safety of their communities. Community policing is as a law enforcement tactic enforced to progress a stronger connection between the police and the community.

     First, Community policing aims to broaden the function of the police. According to Gaines and Kappeler (2003), the police must move away from their traditional role as crime fighters. They should incorporate a much broader role that uses fear reduction and order maintenance. Gaines and Kappeler (2003) identify prior research that has shown that crime as a product of social conditions. These social conditions can be manipulated and changed by the quality of life and social conditions in an area. So in affect, the police cannot actually fight crime, they can really only fight the conditions that cause crime by maintaining order, and therefore “bettering” the social conditions in a community. As for the concept of fear reduction, Gaines and Kappeler (2003) point out the fact that fear has a far worse effect on a community than does a crime rate. The fear of crime causes people to stay in their homes, takes away commerce in an area, and causes psychological affects on people. Gaines and Kappeler further their finding here by identifying a little known fact-more often than not, people’s fear of crime is not related to the crime rate in their area. Many programs that promote fear reduction also lead to the second step of community

Crime in the United States has been an important debate and continues to increase from year to year. Television show such as America’s Most Wanted, First 48, and CSI are a few that show Americans that crime is real and running ramped. The fear of crime has become a noticeable characteristic of today’s society and has led to government officials, practitioners, and the community to search for ways to effectively prevent and reduce the problems identified. So how do we attack crime and lower the fear of crime in our communities when traditional policing efforts aren’t working? How do we do this with a financial budget? Community-oriented policing is the answer that many cities across the United States and in other countries have turned to.

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

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

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 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.