The Advantages, Disadvantages, And Response To The Issue

What is a good policing strategy without its successes and failure? Chicago Alternative Policing Strategy (CAPS) was created around the 1990’s as an strategy to improve a society that have failed towards the prevention of crimes and it relations with citizens. This program involves a wide department transformation in the way citizens perceive police officers working towards stopping crime.The program is Reforming a decision making and involving new strategies to combat the wrong. The question is what implementations have worked with this program? Have been the policy of the program a success or a failure? The answer is the ties between policing and citizens.

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.

Due to these apparent successes, the problem-focused approach has been used to address a diverse array of problems such as gangs, drugs, school crime and the management of police call for service in urban, suburban and even rural communities. The exploration of possible responses to a problem is handled by police officers. Once a problem is identified, officers are expected to work closely with the community members to develop a solution, which can include a wide range of alternatives to arrest. These may focus on the offender, the community, the environment, outside agencies, or the need for some kind of mediation. Problem-oriented policing grew out of twenty years of research into police practices, and differs from traditional policing strategies in many significant ways. For example, problem-oriented policing enables police agencies to be more effective. Currently, police agencies commit most of their time to responding to calls for service. Problem-oriented policing offers a more effective strategy by addressing the

Since the 70’s police departments like Spokane Washington, I believe have proved that police visibility or presence in the community along with transparency working hand in hand with the community, have had a positive effect on preventing crime and providing communities with a sense of security (The Kansas City Preventive Patrol Experiment. (n.d.).

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

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.

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

Problem-oriented policing presents an alternative approach to policing that has gained attention in recent years among many police agencies. Problem-oriented policing grew out of twenty years of research into police practices, and differs from traditional policing strategies in four significant ways.

The Broken Windows theory predicts that police can most effectively fight crime by focusing their efforts on targeting disorder, minor crimes and nuisance behaviors. The theory has had a positive impact, but has also raised some challenges. The police can play a key role in disrupting this process. If they focus in on disorder and less serious crime in neighborhoods that have not yet been overtaken by serious crime, they can help reduce fear and resident withdrawal.

The first stage of the SARA model is scanning. Scanning means to identify the problem. “A problem is a set of harmful event in a community that people expect the police to address”. (Clark & Eck, 2014). Before we can develop a solution, first they need to have a problem to solve. Therefore when working on scanning, it is important for the police to find out the consequences of the problem and also how often this problem does happens. “There are six required elements of a problem in a community”. (Clark & Eck, 2014). The six elements include

This paper will cover two policing styles known as the “broken windows” theory and community policing. The paper will end with a small analysis of which style would be more practical long-term. This paper will start with an explanation as to what the “broken windows” theory is. Furthermore, this paper will cover some of advantages and disadvantages of that theory when put into practical application. Additionally, this essay will explain what “community policing” as defined by the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS). This is followed by a brief discussion some advantages and challenges that are unique to that approach. Lastly, this paper covers which one would be more viable policing in the long-term.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze and discuss the three different policing strategies known as, broken windows, zero tolerance, and problem oriented policing. Each of these strategies have both their pros and cons throughout this paper I will be describing each of these strategies along with discussing a few articles in relation to these strategies. In light of the recent tension between law enforcement and the community, specifically minorities ill also be discussing how these strategies have either helped or hurt communities.

There have been several studies conducted on problem oriented policing which provide evidence that this method produces positive results. One example is the Jersey City Drug Market Analysis Experiment. In this experiment, Vice Police Officers were assigned to target areas (the variable) and control areas of high drug activity. Arrests were made in these areas and a follow-up was done with the landlords, local government regulatory agencies, and site-specific enforcement was recommended. After a week of follow up and monitoring the areas, the target area had a reduction in criminal activity, and it was found that this area fared better in reference to crime and deviant behavior compared to the control group (Weisburb et al., 2010).

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.

These issues represent a minor illustration of perceived misgivings of community policing. The fact remains that there is no long-term study data available that indicating the community policing approach is superior. As such it would be wise to consider continual analysis of its effectiveness as an approach while not abandoning all other law enforcement strategies based on the preliminary beliefs suggesting the benefits of community policing. The best strategy would be to maintain an open mind and continue to build upon the increased community collaboration created through community policing efforts. At the same time, agencies should be prepared to situationally use alternative strategies to combat crime when it appears community policing may not be the optimal choice using data to demonstrate why other options may be better