TAVIS Policing

Gaines, L. K., & Kappeler, V. E. (2014). Policing in america (8th ed.). (S. Decker-Lucke, Ed.) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America: Anderson Publishing. Retrieved January 2017

After watching the documentary on Policing the Police provided by Frontline, I have come to realize that community policing rather and the use of a task force is a better approach when trying to get guns and drugs off the street. Subsequently, I do not believe that officers can realistically get guns and drugs off the streets without violating citizens’ rights. Based on related articles from The New Yorker and PBS, and first hand experiences from the narrator in the documentary I will be able to provide insight into my own opinions and thoughts about the issues at hand. This essay will also provide insight into the pros and cons of using community policing rather than using a task force. Also, this essay will touch on the

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.

Many policing agencies have found this approach to be helpful. Agencies that were involved noted that specific community concerns had been addressed, overall reductions in crime had occurred, or community members had become less fearful as a result of the police interventions. Relevant problems will normally surface as issues brought to the attention of the police.

Community Policing took a different perspective on crime than August Vollmer. It shows that even though police officers are trained and respond to crimes on time, it doesn’t effect the crime rates. In the past foot-patrol was in place but it quickly failed due to poor management and not enough funds for the program (Bohm & Haley, 2014, Pg. 147). Community Policing was an idea to form a bond between the police and the citizens. If the police paid more attention to the minor problems in

Buntin, J. (2017, July). In Extreme Community Policing, Cops Become the Neighbor. Retrieved October 15, 2017, from

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 Oriented Policing was born in the late 1960’s. Between the 1930’s and the 1960’s law enforcement used a professional policing model that was based on hierarchical structures, efficient response times, standardization, and the

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

The Smithville city council assumes that crime persists because the city’s police force has too low a profile, but the memo never cites evidence to support this position. The council could do something as simple yet effective as asking the town librarian to review published studies to see whether a parallel exists between a high police presence and reduced crime rates. It could also hire an independent research

S., & Forst, L. S. (2016). An introduction to policing (8th ed.). Boston, MA, USA: Cengage Learning.

The Philadelphia foot patrol experiment: a randomized controlled trial of police patrol effectiveness in violent crime hotspots is an experiment that had over 200 foot patrol officers during the summer of 2009, in the Philadelphia area (Ratcliffe, 2011). This research covered 60 violent crime hotspots in twelve weeks (Ratcliffe, 2001). There was a noticeable reduction in the violent crimes within those area hotspots. Furthermore, 53% of violent crimes were prevented during the twelve weeks of the experiment (Ratcliffe, 2011). In conjunction the type of patrol that was utilized, was foot patrol in the hotspot areas, which was the independent variable. The dependent variable was the reduction

Brantford, a city in Southwestern Ontario, had a population of 93,650 in 2011 and a population density of 1292.3 persons per square kilometers (City of Brantford, 2011). Because the area’s growth and population base met the provincial guidelines for a CMA designation, the Brantford area was nominated as a Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) in 2006 (Statistics Canada, 2013). City of Brantford was chosen to be the ideal site for this research for three reasons. Firstly, the police-reported violent crime severity index (PRCSI) had increased in Brantford even though there was a decline in volume and severity in the national average between 2012 and 2013 (Statistics Canada, 2013). The crime severity index in Brantford

Policing is a huge contributor to maintaining peace and order in Canada. Without it, there would be huge amounts of violence and chaos in society. Different types of policing has been created and tested such as; reactive, preventive, and proactive policing. Proactive policing has proven to be the most effective type of policing in preventing and deterring crime. “Proactive policing is the practice of deterring criminal activity by showing police presence and engaging the public to learn their concerns, thereby preventing crime from taking place in the first place”(Proactive policing, 2016). This method is better than the other two is because proactive connects with the community and analyze problems instead of random patrols. Although there are many types of proactive policing, the two most effective are; problem oriented and community policing.

In this weekly report, I had experienced my time going on a ride-along with the community policing unit. This week is different because I worked 12 and a half hour shifts throughout a course of three days. In the community policing unit, it had two officers running the unit, officer Zubko and sergeant Swanger. I mainly worked with officer Zubko because he is proactive in community policing to the extent that the department allows him to work with. The jurisdiction that these officers could only work in are the apartment complexes in the west and south side of Lorain that are typically low-income homes and have high volume of crime in the area. The functions that I observed of community policing is primarily engaging the public in conversation and speaking to children with the attempt of making a small difference in their lives. Officer Zubko and I would spend time walking on patrol to speak to children and talk to them more than adults. On the instances that we would engage in conversation with adults, some disrespected the representation of the police department and did not want to speak to us using vulgar language to stay away from them. Others would appreciate the time an officer is checking on their welfare and know when to approach the police for any help necessary. Another function performed was Officer Zubko and I often scanned license plates throughout the areas of the apartment complexes to track down the drug trade that is brought into the apartments along with any other crimes that will decrease the violence in the complexes. The primary apartment complex that had the most issue was west view apartment complex on the west side of Lorain. In the complex, we received most calls of domestic violence, thefts, and crimes committed outside of the apartment homes such as the robbery event at the gas station. The environment of policing seemed it took a long process to go through an investigation, but met every target of what needed to be completed. In addition, I learned multiple variations of filing a report through the computer in a squad car to get a better understand of the process officers take to complete their investigation.