Why Community Policing Can Affect Low Economic Neighborhoods Essay

How has the policing strategies changed over time in the inner-city urban areas? There are many answers to this question. Police over the years have changed their policies mostly due to the war on crime and drugs. These policies have had a direct impact on the lives of the inner-city residents as the residents start to live their lives based on avoiding the legal system. The shift in policing has affected their day to day living as well as their overall happiness. Goffman describes in her article how the change in policing in these areas has affected every individual living in the inner city.

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.

Policing today consists of three eras. These three eras have adapted and built off one another through history (Parr, 2014). The first era started around 1840 to 1930, and is known as the Political Era. The second Era is known as the Reform Era and lasted from 1930 to 1970. The last era is called the Community-Problem Solving Era and is still being adapted and used today. The Political Era emphasizes on meeting the needs of politicians. The police were given power through the local government and the community had very little say in what happened. The police and politicians worked together to control the city and neighborhoods (Palmiotto, 2000). This was often referred to as a ward. The ward politician controlled all the police in their neighborhood. The police officers tasks included not only crime prevention and order but a lot of social service activities that involved their neighborhoods. The officers resembled the ethnic backgrounds of the neighborhoods they lived and worked in and performed their patrols gaining trust from their community (Palmiotto, 2000). This allowed positive integration of police officers leading to more public service, and the trust of the officers to stop crime when is starts.

The four eras of policing are political era, reform era, community era, and homeland security era. The political era was between 1840s and 1919 where police agencies were underdeveloped, decentralized, and disorganized in their mission, role, and function. Police organizations nationwide were exposed for their inability to maintain order, to control crime, or to fairly provide appropriate services. The reform era occurred between 1920s and 1970s where police was removed from the political arena and established them more as members of a centralized, professional organization formed for the public good. The primary role of police in this era had contributed to the problems crating negative police-community relations. The community era was between

Every aspect of modern society grew into what we know now as civilized. The American Police organization history and evolution can be explained by detailing the 3 eras of American policing. The Political Era, the Reform Era and the Community Integration Era.

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

Crime in the United States has been an important debate and continues to increase from year to year. Television show such as America’s Most Wanted, First 48, and CSI are a few that show Americans that crime is real and running ramped. The fear of crime has become a noticeable characteristic of today’s society and has led to government officials, practitioners, and the community to search for ways to effectively prevent and reduce the problems identified. So how do we attack crime and lower the fear of crime in our communities when traditional policing efforts aren’t working? How do we do this with a financial budget? Community-oriented policing is the answer that many cities across the United States and in other countries have turned to.

It is quite unfortunate that there is still a misconception that police alone can maintain and create safe communities. However, this is not true as police rely heavily on the information they get from the local community. Despite the formation of community policing and other numerous programs promoted by different police administration, there are still security challenges in the many communities around the United States (Ariel, Weinborn, & Sherman, 2016).

Although policing has been around for many decades, law enforcement roles have not changed too significantly. Media, such as television shows and movies, portray law enforcement officers as fearless crime fighters who are in daily high speed chases and shoot outs. While these crimes may be possible, it is not likely on a daily basis. So, just what do police officers respond too then? They deal with many various types of service calls each month and year including little disruptions and civil arguments or disputes. Police officers today need to be in different places for all different types of complaints and issues. Because many agencies do not have the capability or manpower for the growing need, community policing is a fast growing necessity for these agencies. This paper will discuss where community policing originated from, how it effects law enforcement today, and some of the ways we can expand the concept of community policing to benefit everyone for the future.

Have you ever wondered why our communities are struggling, neighbors are fighting and everyone is against one another? This is because as a community not everyone is working on the mission to provide a safe and clean environment. A community includes residents, law enforcers, and government officials all working cohesively to provide better quality of life in our neighborhoods. In today’s society, we are trying to focus on the third era of policing known as community policing where the goal is to improve relationships with the police and the community to provide better environments. The police presence and implementing community policing would help improve this philosophy of community and improve the quality of life in our neighborhoods. Along with community policing youth prevention programs can be effective in helping deter and possibly solve crimes in our communities. Issues have risen about what police should and should not be allowed do. Many people have opposing views of the police and the work that they do. The police force is a combined body of individuals empowered by the state to enforce the law and protect citizens. Throughout the years the question of what is policing, has been asked. How society views policing is important to the police and the citizen input how well they carry out the mission of policing.

In 1994, the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) was created by the government with the objective to assist police agencies in strengthening public relations and safety through community oriented policing, also known as community policing (USDOJ, 2014). COPS defines community policing as, “a philosophy that promotes organizational strategies that support the systematic use of partnerships and problem-solving techniques to proactively address the immediate conditions that give rise to public safety issues such as crime, social disorder, and fear of crime” (USDOJ, 2014). The organization breaks it down into three components: Community Partnerships, Organizational Transformation, and Problem Solving (USDOJ, 2014).

Community policing utilizes problem solving techniques to respond and correct potential weaknesses rather than responding to a crime after the crime takes places. The emphasis shifts from fighting crime to crime prevention. Crime prevention creates safer communities. Accurately defining a community’s borders is essential for successful community policing. Traditional models of police precincts and jurisdiction may not accurately reflect the community as a whole. Persons impacted by crime in a community may not reside within the police precinct that is providing community policing. Long-term crime prevention relies on police involvement in all aspects within of a community, regardless of jurisdictional boundaries. Programs such as Neighborhood Watch aid community policing by joining citizens and law enforcement in the common interest to fight crime. Police are more effective in fighting and preventing crime with information provided by

Community policing helps promote strategies between police officers and community in a systematic approach to addressing public safety issues such as crime and disorder. Crime has dramatically reduced during the late twenty century across New York City. However, some communities have not benefited in the reduction of crime. As law enforcements are concentrated in those specific areas to maintain public safety, all too often the efforts from officers create resentment in the same area the police are striving to protect. As implementation of police interventions are put into place, the focus of building community policing have not been strongly emphasized.

Bureau of Justice Statistics defines community policing as, “A philosophy that promotes organizational strategies, which support the systematic use of partnerships and problem-solving techniques between the police and the community. These situations address the immediate conditions that give rise to public safety issues such as crime, social disorder, and fear of crime.”

What is community policing? Particularly, community policing is a strategy employed by numerous departments in order to establish and cultivate a relationship between the law enforcement agency and the community being patrolled. Moreover, community policing is composed of three analytical components; community partnerships, organizational transformation, and problem solving (Gardiner, 154, 2016). Notably, community partnerships are essential in community policing since they increase public trust and generate an enhanced relationship in law enforcement agencies better serving the community (Gardiner, 87, 2016). These community partnerships offer public input as well as encourage the public to cooperate with their local law enforcement agencies in order to minimize crime within their community (Gardiner, 88, 2016). Different from the traditional strategies of policing, community oriented policing has been adopted by two-thirds of agencies in order to enhance public safety and control crime. (Gardiner, 148, 2016).