Overtown Community Analysis

A “Storefront” is a name given to police centers located in community neighborhoods, close to homes and businesses. Accessibility and visibility in the community is a key aspect of the Storefronts. They are based on the community policing policy in which the police department works with the community in an effort to reduce crime. Storefronts are usually staffed by at least one police officer and many volunteers to assist the community with questions and concerns about their community. Individuals can also report crime and seek information pertaining to domestic violence programs, kids programs and anti-violence programs. It is an idea that has turned into a national trend. The mission is to work with citizens to solve and prevent problems instead

An advocate of Community Oriented Policing (COP), he has been diligent about sharing the message that “policing is a partnership.”

For the past few weeks in this class, we have discussed the strategies of navigating poorer urban neighborhoods and the scholarship that has been done on the populations in those communities. We have discussed gang formation, policing, gendered interactions with gang life and the code of the street. For this paper, I plan to synthesize all of these topics into a cohesive analysis of the importance of these works, especially as it pertains to racial and ethnic tensions. I have selected two pieces to go alongside Streetwise by Elijah Anderson: “Disorderly community partners and broken windows policing” by Ana Muniz and “Dreams Deferred: The Patterns of Punishment in Oakland” by Victor Rios. While the focus will be on these three readings from this class, I will make casual reference to the other readings as they become relevant.

My hometown, Linglestown, Pennsylvania was founded originally in 1765 in Paxton Township. The land was bought by Thomas Lingle to develop a 90-plot living, working, and studying community for newly arriving European settlers. He called his new settlement “The Town of St. Thomas,” after his namesake “St. Thomas,” the disciple. In 1811, when Mr. Lingle passed away, he was buried in Wenrich’s Church Cemetery. The cemetery still remains behind the St. Thomas United Church of Christ at the east end of the Linglestown Square. Soon after, village and area residents started calling the village “Lingle’s town.” The official name changed to Linglestown soon after (Linglestown History, nd).

Chief Brown was raised in a tough neighborhood, but considered it ‘his’ neighborhood, where he had support, mentoring, and made many good friends throughout his childhood. The summer he returned home from college, he noticed the neighborhood began to change – he saw the epidemic of cocaine hit Dallas, kids trying to get hooked, and neighborhood friends were not the same people…He began to think about a career in law enforcement from here on out; instead of just discussing what he saw, Brown wanted to take action about 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

An examination of the patrol officer’s jobs and duties took place. The gathering of information and interviewing a seasoned patrol offer assisted in this examination. The city in which the patrol officer works is also studied. Research of the city of Hueytown’s population and history helped to understand the demographics and crime within the city. While Hueytown’s violent crimes are low, thefts and burglaries rank the highest. Communities, including the city of Hueytown, place patrol officers on the streets in order to protect and serve. Officer Louis Phillips, Jr. gave an interview that takes an in depth look at his journey as a patrol officer.

On a different occasion, the narcotics officers followed a patron from the store to his residence breaching the patron’s right to

The Resident Officer Program of Elgin (ROPE) program is operated out of Elgin, IL (Dempsey & Forst, 2016). The program provides housing to officers in an effort to create safer communities through working as well as living within areas of distress throughout the city. Currently, there are four resident officers assigned to the ROPE program (Elgin Police Department, n.d.). The biography of each officer has a commonality, they each want to help improve their communities through getting to know their neighbors. Programs such as ROPE certainly have an impact on community relations as well as the crime perpetrated within them.

It was activists from the wealthy and poor blocks that organized to reduce crime. These tenant activists involved city agencies and lending organizers to work to create a better a community (Snyder, 2015). The residences formed a relationship with their local police to implement social control that worked this its environment. They identified the need for formal social control as informal social control activism was not enough. The community began to bridge the gap between policy and the neighborhood. Through community activism, Washington Heights continued to see a decline in crime and the start of gentrification. Today, Washington Heights has one of the lowest crime rates in New York City and the borough of Manhattan (NYC Police, 2017). The community’s relationship with the New York City Police Department is not perfect. Areas that are predominantly people of color or lower socioeconomic status do face barriers in working with police. However, this is not an isolated issue as most of the country, especially people of color, have a negative relationship with police members. It seems to be a systemic problem within the police and how social control should be enforced. Washington Heights is an example of how communities and law enforcement can come together to change a neighborhood.

Although he holds the title of being a police deputy chief, he does not view himself as more superior than others. In fact, he is just an ordinary human being helping his fellow residents cope with challenging times. As a resident of Canada, living in Ontario, he feels a sense of belonging in this egalitarianism community, where residents are deemed of equal status, despite their vast differences in race, gender, values or age. Thus, he is interconnected with diverse cultures, languages, food, and arts surrounding him. Specifically, in this profession, he understands the culture of keeping peoples personal privacy is important in order to maintain the rule of law and respect others. This concept introduces contributing to the betterment of society by donating, volunteering and sustaining the pride each community holds in

As I left the patio, I thought about Dad’s friend, Luc. He was a hunter and a fisherman, and I asked him once why he didn’t have the bumper sticker ‘Guns don’t kill. People do.’ He said because it was a lie. Guns gave people the courage to commit crimes or kill. I told Samuel Luc’s story. He thought for a moment and said that’s why Americans fear gun laws. They’re afraid if they lose their guns, they will lose their courage.

According to the Live Career inventory my highest score was in Science, which means that I enjoy working with abstract ideas, scientific equipment, and mathematical logic and reasoning to solve practical or abstract problems. (LiveCareer, 2016) I also scored highly on being Assertive, meaning that I highly prefer working in situations in which it is appropriate to assert authority over other and to direct and monitor their work. Also, my high score on the Administration scale means that I like the financial or day-to-day operations of a business or institution, overseeing the activities of others, planning work schedules, and maintaining records. My lowest interest score was in Food Service, although I do enjoy cooking and good food, I was not interested in work that involved selling or serving.

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.

The culture at GM got hit drastically when it came to investigators finding out that a problem was not fixed immediately within the cars of thousands of people over a period of several years. The case study revolves around how GM has had to change their cultural views, procedure changes, and many other changes within the company to ensure a problem like this never happens again. Mary Barra, CEO of General Motors has created a new path for the company by showing the victims her gratitude and sincere apology when finding reports on the dangerous cars she is just beginning to learn about.