The Relevance Of Community Policing Essay

This study tested the impact of increased foot patrol on crime in Newark between February 1978 and January 1979. The program included several requirements stipulated by its use of Safe and Clean Neighborhoods Program funds. Foot patrol officers were required to remain in uniform and on foot, except when traveling to and from their posts, or when assisting a motor patrol officer in an emergency or arrest situation. All officers were required to be visible on

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 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

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).

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

Some that I will mention are Santa Cops, Community Watch, Lunch Buddy and National Night Out. All of these programs are designed to bridge the gap between the community and the police. Let’s start by looking at each program.

There are several law enforcement agencies that have incorporated community-oriented policing programs as a part of their philosophy. The key element to community policing is crime prevention. Memphis police department and Pasadena police department have formed partnerships with their communities to help in reducing recidivism. Each of these agencies has several community policing programs that they have established to improve the quality of life for their citizens. Memphis and Pasadena have a program that is targeted for juveniles. Memphis’s is a Community Outreach Program (C.O.P.) that was developed to reduce juvenile violence. Pasadena’s came up with the diversion program,

This is called a crime triangle. Instead of focusing entirely on the origin, the police can work on elements that are within their reach, like decreasing crime and the vulnerability of victims or linking risk with undesirable behavior. The Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) is a squad that increases community policing on the state, local, territory, and tribal level of policing. Community policing gives police officers the advantage stopping crime before it even occurs. This takes out the level of fear that it creates.

Surveys, case studies, and decades of experience from numerous police departments across the country has provided us with useful information that has allowed us to make changes to improve community policing. In addition, the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) has helped state and local law enforcement agencies develop and enhance their effectiveness in advancing public safety through the implementation of community policing strategies. Since its creation in 1994, the COPS Office has awarded more than $14 billion dollars in grants across the Nation to hire more officers, purchase new technology, and support local problem-solving approaches to fighting crime and disorder (Schneider, 2003). In 1997, COPS established the Advancing Community Policing (ACP) Grant Program to help agencies strengthen and institutionalize their community policing programs. The program focused on the process of organizational change. Over the past 24 years, the COPS office has made many accomplishments, including the widespread success of community policing and the vast progress made by the law enforcement field in embracing this philosophy. As of 2013, the COPS office has distributed more than two million topic-specified publications, training curricula, white papers, and resource CDs. By the end of 2013, they had funded approximately 125,000 additional officers for more than 13,000 of the nation’s 18,000 law enforcement agencies across the country. Nearly 700,000 law enforcement personnel, community members, and government leaders have been trained through COPS Office-funded training organizations. Here’s a glimpse into what the COPS office has in store for 2018. In Fiscal Year (FY) 2018, the COPS Office requests a total of $218,000,000; included in that total is $207 million for the COPS Hiring Program (CHP) to assist in hiring additional sworn law enforcement professionals; $10 million for

more with less. Many police departments have had to lay off officers, and some have eliminated

Most importantly, Neighborhood Watch may lead to a reduction in crime through the various mechanisms of social control. Groups may indirectly serve to enhance community cohesion and increase the ability of communities to control crime (Greenberg, Rohe, and Williams, 1985). With most single parent or two parent families working full time or multiple jobs, children may rely on direction from others in their neighborhood who are vested in the community. This may not involve crime or bad behavior. Supervising youth or mentoring is not listed anywhere as a part of the Neighborhood Policing concept, but it is certainly a welcome unintended outcome. Increased collaboration between the members of the community and the police can lead to the prevention of crime through these social interactions and the guidance that may push people away from drug use, bad behavior, and petty

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.

Most neighborhood crime prevention groups are organized around a block or a neighborhood and are started with assistance