Police Policing And Community Policing

Today, many police officers are out performing patrols on foot and on bike, interacting with the public through meet and greets, and participating in community service projects to help make the city a great place to live (Roufta, n.d.). Furthermore, this method of policing also allows the community to get involved with their local law enforcement. Through initiatives such as block watches, police officers can now answer calls from the neighborhood. Overall, today’s policing has created a method of policing known as Community Oriented Policing. Community Oriented Policing is a style of policing that involves police officers partnering with their communities to help solve problems and to attack the core problems that lead to crime in the first place (“Law Enforcement and Community Relations,” (n.d.), para. 24).

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 focus of community-oriented policing is not simply on response, but on preventing crime and resolving community problems. This philosophy rests on the belief that the police and the community must work together as partners to solve the contemporary challenges faced in today 's society. (Community Policing Philosophy)

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

Over the years community policing has become an effective method used by law enforcement to better serve their communities. The concept is to develop a partnership between the police and the

Over time the policing community has faced many different changes to be able to keep up with the new times. The system has adapted many new techniques and a different approach to how they solve problems. Community policing has taken on a number of definition, but put simply it is a working partnership with a community that helps make the area a better environment to subside in. The main goals of community policing is to reduce neighborhood crime, help reduce fear of crime and enhance the quality of life in the community. The United States Department of Justice has defined community policing as a philosophy that “focuses on crime and social disorder through the delivery of police services that includes aspects of traditional law enforcement, as well as prevention, problem-solving, community engagement, and partnerships.” However, community policing can be looked at as not so much a strategy, but a philosophy about how things should be done. According to The Unites States Department of Justice “At its core, community-oriented policing is based on law enforcement and the community joining together to identify and address issues of crime and social disorder.” With new advances and community oriented policing, law enforcement is taking steps in the right direction.

The main components of community policing are Community Partnership, Problem solving, and Change Management ( Bohm and Haley, 2011). Establishing community partnerships are critical for many reasons. Developing trust in citizens assists law enforcement to have access to information that may not be available otherwise. Providing residents information on neighborhood watch groups, how to better secure their homes are just a few opportunities available.

With police not able to tend to every social conflict or crime that happens around the community. Members of the community can step up to help encourage safety in their own communities by giving vital information to officers to better assure the quality of life in that area. Community policing is collaboration between the people of law enforcement and the people of the community to help further solve community problems.

According to COPS and the U.S. Department of Justice, community policing begins with a commitment to building trust and respect between police and communities. Many police department and citizens within the communities collaborate and they more effectively address underlying issues, change negative behavioral patterns, and allocate resources.

To demonstrate other attributes expected a review of the works of other scholars in the field will be studied. Wilson and Kelling (1982) explain how the implementation of community policing with the cooperation between the community and police will improve the quality of life and reduce the fear of crime. Although these perceptions are held by individuals with many variables dependent on many circumstances it is of great concern of the daily lives of the citizens. Although it becomes difficult to measure perceptions they remain genuine concerns.

Community policing as an ideal is seen as a collaborative effort between police officers and the community they serve. Ideally, the police officers develop relationships and rapport with community members so that they can foster a community focused safety and prevention system; where the police are aware of community needs and concerns as they arise so that they can address them and reduce negative impact on the community they serve. The development of community ties to the local police officers allows the police department to provide a sense of security and safety within the community as those community members develop a cooperative relationship in identifying and advocating for community needs, while the officers monitor, assess and enforce the community concerns. Community-oriented policing identified a host of roles for the police beyond crime fighting, including reducing fear, responding to social and physical disorder in the community, and forging positive relationships with residents to enhance police legitimacy, while rejecting law enforcement as the “core function” of police (Mastrofski et al. pg, 543). Community policing has a positive impact by creating positive and interactive relationships with the community, it impacts proximal outcomes like citizen satisfaction and trust, which can create an efficient and effective relationship for problem solving to occur. (Gill, Weisburd, Telep, Vitter and Bennett, pg. 423) In theory the idea of community policing would seem

Policing has come a long way since the institution of the protection of the citizens. Gradually, overtime things are meant to get better. Citizen satisfactory and statistical evidence shows that policing has improved professionally, technologically, and even in affectivity. Being able to compare the timeline from early America to modern day, also displays a positive, growing influence in the society. One of the many solutions to the many early problems is community policing. Today, community policing has been adopted into many law enforcement agencies. Community policing emphasizes crime prevention and partnerships with the community. With its many goals, one of which is reducing crime and the fear of crime.

How does this approach compare to the traditional model of law enforcement? This innovative aspect of policing is allowing the large community to accept policing on a different level by engaging more with the people within the community. Community- oriented policing creates and relies solely one effective partnership within the community and other law enforcement agencies alike, problem-solving tactics and the transformation of police organization and culture to support this philosophical shift. This new initiative will not only get the communities members to be more comfortable by will prevent numerous crimes such as drug trafficking either within a state or country or across the borders. In light of these new

Community policing plays a significant role in a community by trying, and usually succeeding to provide the feeling of safety and togetherness. Community policing starts with the allocating of police officers set to a specific area of duty, so that they become familiar with the inhabitants of the surrounded locals. Successful community policing efforts are based on trust and compassion. I do believe community policing takes on a new leadership and foundation towards the people in a rough area to feel safe and ensured that they are the first priority while a police officer is on duty. As a Hispanic woman I have been confided in by many people like me about them not feeling that they are safe by calling 911 or that they will even be heard. As far as community policing goes most officers in that field make it their priority to make people feel safe and comfortable in their communities. Community care is a fundamental and essential part of our policing system. Bringing peace to a community starts with the respect of the locals, and that is all earned from respect they receive back from our officers. It has been said that it starts with one officer and can really transform a community. Community Policing is made up of three major key components; collaborative partnerships, organizational transformation, and problem solving.

Over the decades, the role of police has been drastically changed from the more traditional philosophy of policing towards agencies adopting the community based policing model. Traditional policing was established to introduced reactive patrols to which they would respond to criminal activity after it occurred rather than trying to prevent the crime before it happened (cite book pg. 181). Furthermore, the introduction of reactive policing establishes a rapid response model to criminal incidents became the basis for evaluating the successfulness of police in regulating crime (cite book pg 181). Traditional policing supports the crime fighting role rather than engaging and getting involved with the community they are policing, this is where the basis of community based policing is established. Community based policing attempts to build trust between the police and the communities to benefits the citizens by gathering information that will in time prevent crime before it occurs. Moreover, building trust and becoming integrated with the communities reducing fears of the police and overall diminishes cynicism towards officers (cite book pg 181). Community based policing better satisfies the needs of citizens within all communities, rather than the traditional approach of the past.