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The role of a police officer
Traditional policing with community policing
What is the significance of professionalism in policing
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Vollmer believed training and education are two of the critical ingredients of professionalism in policing. He also felt that the police should stay out of politics and that politics should stay out of policing. Vollmer thought that the primary function of the police was fighting crime, and he saw great promise in professionalizing law enforcement by emphasizing that role (Bohm & Haley, 2012).
• Narrowing of the police function from social service and the maintenance of order to law enforcement only.
• Centralization of authority, with the power of precinct captains and commanders checked.
• Creation of specialized centrally based crime-fighting units, as for burglary.
• A shift from neighborhood foot patrol to motorized patrol.
• Implementation
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If the police show they care about the minor problems associated with community disorder, two positive changes are likely to occur: Firstly, citizen’s will develop better relations with the police as they turn to them for solutions to the chaos. And secondly, criminals will see that residents and the police commit to keeping all crime out of the neighborhood.
This style of policing hold true to Vollmer list for professionalism. Community policing would compare with the law enforcement techniques and patrol to bring the community in to assist in the problem area to solve the problems. Community Policing is trying to do this by patrolling their neighborhoods on foot, on bikes or horseback. This practice allows police officers to become familiar with all aspects of the community, even up to the point of knowing community residents by name (Inman, 1994).
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(4) Diligently evaluate the results and adjust the plan as necessary.
Crime analysts who collect data, analyze it and then map it to show trends or trouble spots identify problems. Armed with this information, precinct commanders are responsible for formulating a response and solving the problem.
This style of enforcement focuses on Centralization of authority, with the power of precinct captains and commanders to check the data and create specialized units to combat criminal activity in known areas of concern.
Some police academies teach recruits the duties of a police officer through the use of the acronym PEPPAS:
P—Protect life and property (patrol a business district at night, keep citizens from a fire scene, or recover and return lost property) (Bohm & Haley, 2012).
E—Enforce the law (enforce traffic laws, make out criminal complaints, or seize illegal weapons) (Bohm & Haley, 2012).
P—Prevent crime (give home security advice, patrol high crime areas or work as a D.A.R.E. officer in schools) (Bohm & Haley, 2012).
P—Preserve the peace (disband disorderly groups, have a visible presence at sporting events, or intervene in neighbor conflicts) (Bohm & Haley,
The professionalization of law enforcement gained prominence from the 1940’s through the 1970’s. It came out of a necessity to improve the capabilities of police. It was believed that the improvement of organizations through better quality personnel, upgraded equipment, and standardized procedures would lead to better departments and that would lead to safer cities. Numerous research studies showed that the move to professionalize law enforcement through a higher standard of efficiency led to a detachment of police from the communities they served. Many departments began to focus on response times and quantities of arrests, etc. This led to a diminished effectiveness of police in meeting the expectations of the communities they
The police are usually charged with the great responsibility of ensuring that citizens are living quality lives that are free of crime and fear. In order to perform this duty effectively, the police need accurate and deeper knowledge of the citizens and issues they encounter in their daily lives. This knowledge will not be easy to come by if the police work independently from the citizens. Over the last several decades, police agencies have been working to gain the respect and the cooperation of the communities they serve. Community Oriented Policing was introduced to bring a closer working relationship between the citizens and the police.
What works in this era of policing is the relationship built with the community. In the community era of policing, officers engage in their jobs by building a rapport with the members of the community. By building relationships with members of the community, officers can effectively policing while also not making the citizens afraid. Furthermore, officers look to prevent crime by preventive patrol and rapid response to calls for service. What does not work in this era of policing is officer safety. Officers in this era put themselves in vulnerable positions by trying to develop a rapport with community members. If an officer wants to develop a natural rapport with a citizen without appearing fearsome to that individual, the officer has to let
The need for the police and the public to work together was recognized as far back as the 19th century. In 1829, the Metropolitan Police of London was established by Sir Robert Peel. Peel worked in many areas of government during his career striving to pass legislation to reform child labor laws and other statutes to help protect working Londoners. However, he is recalled by many as the “Founder of Modern Policing” (Jones, 2004). During his time as British Home Secretary, Peel took on lowering London’s rising crime rate, in addition to reforming the criminal code of the time. Peel’s police force was uniformed and its members were taken from the people it served. He believed this, along with strict discipline, was a key to keeping law and order in the streets of London (Jones, 2004).
Community policing stresses the entire cooperation between members of the police force and the community. It necessitates that everyone in the police force, including both civilian officers and sworn personnel, understands that the focus is on resolving community problems, and in doing so, may challenge the everyday policing norms.
The researchers, who were based at George Mason University, Arizona State University, Hebrew University and the University of South Wales, sought to better understand the effects of community-oriented policing on crime, disorder, fear, and citizen satisfaction with and trust in the
“The police are the people and the people are the police” those words, said by Sir Robert Peel, the father of community policing, describe how a well ran city and police department should be. The people of the community should feel comfortable enough with its own police department to act as the police department’s eyes. A police department can only afford to pay so many police officers, that it is virtually impossible to bring justice to all the wrong doings in the community. That is where the community comes into play, by acting as the eyes of the police force. In order for this to happen the community needs to feel comfortable and at home with the police force. This means that a police department has to
Community policing is a strategy used by various departments in order to create and maintain a relationship between the law enforcement agency and the community being patrolled. Community policing is composed of three critical components, community partnerships, organizational transformation, and problem solving (Gardiner, 154, 2016). Community partnerships are pivotal in community policing since they increase public trust and create am improved relationship in law enforcement agencies better serving the community (Gardiner, 87, 2016). These partnerships not only offer public input but also encourage the public to cooperate with law enforcement agencies in order to minimize crime within the community (Gardiner, 88, 2016). Unlike, the traditional strategies of policing, community orientated policing has been adopted by two-thirds of agencies in order to improve public safety and control crime. (Gardiner, 148, 2016).
Community based policing can best be defined as, 'a collaborative effort between the police and the community that identifies problems of crime and disorder and involves all elements of the community in the search for solutions to these problems' (Sykes). Community based policing is the idea that the role of the police is not that of catching 'bad guys,' but more that of serving the public. In order for community based policing to have an effect, the presence of crime isn?t needed, in fact it?s often more effective without the involvement of crime, ?Modern police departments are frequently called upon to help citizens resolve a vast array of personal problems--many of which involve no law-breaking activity? (Schmalleger). The role of the police officer in community based policing, is to have an active part in the community. This can be something as simple as stopping in at a school just to talk to the kids, or...
Community oriented policing has been around for over 30 years, and promotes and supports organizational strategies to address the causes, and reduce the fear of crime and social disorder through problem solving tactics. The way community policing works is it requires the police and citizens to work together to increase safety for the public. Each community policing program is different depending on the needs of the community. There have been five consistent key elements of an effective community oriented policing program: Adopting community service as the overarching philosophy of the organization, making an institutional commitment to community policing that is internalized throughout the command structure, emphasizing geographically decentralized models of policing that stress services tailored to the needs of individual communities rather than a one-size-fits-all approach for the entire jurisdiction, empowering citizens to act in partnership with the police on issues of crime and more broadly defined social problems, for example, quality-of-life issues, and using problem-oriented or problem-solving approaches involving police personnel working with community members. Community oriented policing has improved the public’s perception of the police in a huge way. Community policing builds more relationships with the
From this Community Police Consortium, the BJA put together a report titled Understanding Community Policing, A Framework for Action, which focused on developing a conceptual framework for community policing and assisting agencies in implementing community policing. The basis for this consortium was much more direct than the previous efforts set forth by Presidential Commissions during the 1960’s and 1970’s, and led to what became known as the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS, Title 1 of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994). The core components outlined in the BJA report listed the two complementary core components to community policing: community partnership and problem solving. The report further stated that effective community policing depends on positive contact between patrol officers and community members, establishing and maintaining mutual trust as the primary goal of a community partnership, and police and community must join together to encourage and preserve peace and prosperity. While these are just a few of the recommendations listed in the report, there were many more that set forth the framework for community policing, but these were the core components.
The key aspects to community policing involve having officers working in permanent neighborhoods, the involvement of citizens to identify problems and have potential solutions, and the reliance on agencies to help locate issues. The cornerstone of the program is the citizen interaction with the police. It is reported that communities that receive community policing funds have reduced levels of violent and property crimes, also has a greater number of arrests. Successful partnership helps with the reduction of gang and drug activities, area crime rate, and the improvement of the relationship between law enforcement and
The key characteristics of community policing are as follows: Police officers are usually called upon to be particularly thoughtful, creative problem solvers. They are asked to listen to the concerns of community members, to logically reason out the roots of problems, to identify and research potential answers, to implement solutions, and to assess results. Police officers work in partnership with concerned citizens. The second characteristic is that police officers are visible and accessible component of the community and work with youths and other community members top address delinquency problems. On the third characteristic, police officers patrol a limited number of jurisdictions on foot. The so-called foot patrol officers are believed to be more approachable and offer a comforting presence to citizens. The fourth and last characteristic that will be mentioned on this paper is that the community policing have decentralized operations, which allows officers to develop greater familiarity with the needs of various constituencies in the community and to adapt procedures to accommodate those needs.
(Berlin, Michael M. "Encyclopedia of Community Policing and Problem Solving.") At the same time, aggressive patrol tactics adopted in response to rising crime and civil disobedience increased the likelihood of hostile confrontations between police and citizens and contributed to increasing complaints against the police (Berlin, Michael M. "Encyclopedia of Community Policing and Problem Solving.") The community policing literature strongly suggests that community policing could improve communication and trust between police and citizens, reverse the growing distance and isolation of the police from the public, and reduce citizen complaints of brutality and indifference (Berlin, Michael M. "Encyclopedia of Community Policing and Problem
Community crime prevention programs play a vital role across the world in regards to the “community” style of police service. These types of programs heavily involve participating members of the community along with the police to achieve community and police oriented goals to improve the quality of life for all members of the community.