policing practices and operations

“Community policing is, in essence, a collaboration between the police and the community that identifies and solves community problems” (U.S. Department of Justice, 1994, p. vii). Throughout the years, community policing has become a more popular strategy to help law enforcement officials control and deter crime; however, some areas across the United States has had problems in the past with communities and law enforcement working together to ensure a secure and safe environment. Although it is an officer’s duty to maintain order, keep the peace, and solve problems within the area he or she

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.

Law Enforcement officers have one of the most critical jobs in the United States. Their lives are always on the line and they are of high regards. This means they cannot fail! The results of their jobs do not only depend on their actions but also on the people. What this means is the community has a huge role when it comes to solving crime. Though many people may not believe it, they are the key to a successful crime prevention community. The people of the United States don’t really understand both the positive and negative effects that community policing actually brings. Some may say it is very dangerous based on their experiences. Others may say it’s the best way to do away with crime. Today the two will be compared and put to test by true officers serving our country. The facts will be stated and questions will be answered. Let’s take a look at what community policing is really all about!

Effective tactics and Strategies of enforcement that focus on visible street crime or “quality of Life” crimes.

Throughout the years executives from the police department has been trying to find strategies to improve policing in our society. According to the history there are three eras of policing; the political era, the reform era and lastly the problem solving era in which we are in today. The political era began in the early 19th century (1840’s – 1900’s) and was dominated by the local political leaders which opened the door of corruption through politics. During this time the community along with politicians demanded foot patrol as a method to control disorder. In the late 19th and 20th century the reform era took place, the prohibition had a major impact during this era because it led to the organized crime and revolutionary groups to arise and

First, community policing can be identified or known in numerous ways, one being the broken windows theory. An overview of broken windows theory through policing is known that because of “lack of social order” or policing neighborhoods are unkempt and vandalized. As a result, with the help of community policing, programs are evaluated, crime patterns are analyzed, and information is shared with organizations and other municipal agencies and with the community to help build stronger bonds with the community(Reisig,

Reactive patrols and proactive patrols are mainstays of American police agencies. Reactive patrols provide the required rapid law enforcement response to citizen requests for assistance and other emergencies. Meanwhile, proactive patrols provide the necessary planning and allocation of police resources to effectively respond to specific, ongoing problems such as "white collar crime" and the "victimless crimes" of drug transactions behind closed doors. Careful examinations of each patrol type and the effects of using exclusively reactive patrols or exclusively proactive patrols show that a balanced approach using both types of patrols gives the best law enforcement response to the needs of the community.

“The ultimate goal is to improve order in these specific areas to create broad crime-reduction results across the greater area. (Office of Justice Programs, 2011).” Each agency has a different set of procedures and components they use for hot spots policing for example, some agencies focus only on reducing crime in certain locations that have extremely high levels of crime. Although other agencies use several different techniques such as using three different approaches. The three approaches used are increasing misdemeanor arrests, situational prevention strategies, and social service actions. Another procedure used by other agencies includes working within the communities to become available for new information on planned crimes.

In light of recent events that have caused rifts in relations between local law enforcement and communities have caused problems that needs to be addressed. To address this issue, the NYPD issued an executive order to establish a new unit called COP- Community Oriented Policing. The NYPD currently has Community Affairs division Bureau established to foster a positive police-community relations. However, it lacks the structure, staff and functions needed to work with community leaders and others to improve the community and relationship. The COP unit under the NYPD section is needed to create a viable community policing as well as working together for crime reduction in communities.

The community policing practice that was initiated in this city focused on various measures to solve their neighborhood problems. Apart from foot patrols across the city, the police have also realized the need to have positive relationships with the citizens they serve. One of the studies described a situation whereby citizens came to the aid of a police officer when he was attacked by gang members. The citizens helped subdue members of the gang until the officer was able to call for backup. The implementation of these community policing practices has helped the reduce the crime rate and fostered a sense of safety within the community.

Why exactly do we have a police force and what services should they be expected to deliver on a day to day basis? Community policing, recently, has been used by many organizations as an attempt to answer such questions. For many decades, there has been an ongoing debate over what exactly the appropriate role of policing in society should be, whether it be to fight and prevent crime, render services during non-emergencies and crises, serve justice, or to maintain order. After almost half a century in which emphasized professionalism, crime control, and efficiency, Wilson and Kelling (1982) emphasized the need that there should be a shift in patrol strategy in which focused on order maintenance and community policing. Community policing was first administered during the mid-1970’s after New Jersey had launched a new “Safe and Clean Program” in which focused on the quality of community life across twenty eight cities (Wilson and Kelling, 1982).

Community Partnerships are best described as collaborative partnerships between the law enforcement agency and the individuals and organizations they serve to develop solutions to problems and increase trust in police (Chapman & Scheider, 2012, p.2). In community policing, the police become an integral part of the community culture, and the community assists in defining future priorities and in allocating resources (BOJA, 1994, p.15). Police recognize the need for cooperation with the community, and in order for community policing efforts to be effective, community partnerships are extremely important. There is a wide range of groups that law enforcement agencies can form a partnership with, such as individual residents, local government agencies, business groups, neighborhood associations, tenant councils, faith-based organizations, social service providers, local and private business, nonprofits/service providers, and schools. Each of these potential partners offer a number of qualities that facilitate effective partnerships, including well-developed organizational structures, physical meeting spaces, social, political, and commercial networks, material and human resources, experienced leaders,

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.

Approaches of both community policing and traditional policing models differ in a variety of ways. The characteristics of the policing models are quite different from each other, and community based policing was considered laughable when suggested for the new approach in the early 1970s. Due to community policing’s new operating beliefs, new and unfamiliar expected officer behaviors, and that officers were being held legally responsible for their actions and inactions; the idea and implementation wasn’t widely accepted until 1980’s. Traditional policing was primarily dominated by rampant corruption and lawlessness that affected all levels of the police administration; therefore citizens had little trust if any, in the police officers of the time.