Community policing has been around for decades, however, it is difficult to transition a concern citizens mind, vision, feeling, hurt, and worries as a law enforcement leader’s/ field employees. For years, researchers have conducted studies or received surveys from police departments and other sources to seek and find alternatives solutions to regain and rebuild trust from their local law enforcement departments as well as other government agencies. For instance, a bystander recording a police interaction with a presumed suspect. Take this example a step further, let’s stay the suspect is getting aggressive towards the law enforcement officer and the suspect swings, wanting to strike the officer with an object or hand. As this altercation increase, …show more content…
Law enforcement agencies conducts numerous of community oriented policing such as speaking to the community members via social media outlets, community member meetings, public schools, and other entities. For instance, if a certain school district reports teenage drug abuse problem to a local law enforcement agency; the department can offer drug related aids to the school district and or speak with the youth about drug abuse. In Ohio, the state is connected with an association called Office of Criminal Justice Service and this organization provided various of examples of community policing. The Ohio collaboration community-police advisory broad listed great alternatives for community policing. For example, in Richmond, VA the police department would walk down through their community and meet new residence. This department walks door to door and to attract and spark community attention. This is a great alternative for police officers to acknowledge their community. Here, law enforcement leaders/ officers can build dialogue, regain and restore trust. The Richmond department will also include and involved other entities such as social services and public works in order to assist the Richmond police department with problem solving (OCJS, 2016). This comes to show that involving other entities that are non law enforcement related can help law enforcement officials tackle problematic situations and aid those who are …show more content…
The Spokane Police Department presented with new and improved ways to connect with the public and the youth. The SPD started to diversified with different cultures and build a powerful system to reach out to each individual. For example, the SPD department put out a COPS & kids” where law enforcement personnel and the youth/parents would come together on certain days out of the week to education the audience and enjoy themselves with games, food, and giving out prizes. The police department will also invite local business and ask for donation if possible for their community members. The SPD has other community outreach programs for the youth such L.E.A.D, open house programs, and S.T.A.R.S. to mention a few. The L.E.A.D. also called the leadership, education, and development program focused on eighth and ninth grades to teach them about responsibility, team work, and leadership skills. This program is an academy style like the police department, however, not as intensive. The S.T.A.R.S other wise known as the smart teens responsible & sober program concentrated in speaking with the youth about drugs. The idea behind this program is to educate and present presentations to high school students on being sober (Mangarf, 2000). All of these programs are very useful and impactful for the youth when law enforcement officers are conducting community
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.
In order for the police to successfully prevent crimes, public cooperation is needed. Various community policing programs have been implemented and it is important to discuss the benefits and limitations of these programs. Community policing allows the community to be actively involved and become a partner in promoting safety. This partnership increases trust of police officers and helps citizens understand that the police are on their side and want to improve their quality of life (Ferreira, 1996). The role of the police officers goes beyond that of a “crime fighter” and expands to multiple roles including that of a victim-centered
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
In order to best serve their communities, law enforcement agencies have now begun to focus on the strategy of community policing. This strategy is a philosophy which involves a permanent commitment to the community. Community policing broadens the law enforcement agency beyond crime control. It provides full-service, personalized, and decentralized policing that focuses on problem solving. Community policing attempts to build trust between police officers and citizens and changes each one’s perception of the other. In order to accomplish this trust, police officers need to be fair and responsive through personal contacts on a continuous, prolonged basis.
Community policing allows officers to be actively involved on the streets alongside the community. Their focus is not only to solve crimes but to interact with the people in their neighborhood, establish a rapport with them. This initiative has gained popularity within recent years as the police and leaders of the community pursue more significant ways to promote public safety and to enrich the quality of life of their community members. The police and the citizens often come in contact with each other for a multitude of reasons other than criminal purposes. Police officers often engage in community service by providing an abundance of information for those in need, and they offer educational services at schools and outreach
Community-oriented policing is commonly by used by law enforcement agencies (Kerley and Benson 2000, 46). Community-oriented policing was designed to enhance police service and solve problems through an interactive process with members of the community. This included, preventative measures, problem solving and community partnership (Sciarabba 2009, Kerley and Benson 2000; Mirsky 2009). By including community partnership, it creates open communication between the police and members of the community which in turn, allows the police to be more efficient in developing peace and security in the community (Sciarabba 2009; Kerley and Benson 2000; Mirsky 2009).
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).
There has always been a love-hate relationship between the public and the police. When called upon to help, they can be something sent from God, but when they are writing tickets, or taking a friend to jail, the view changes from a savior to a presence that is unwanted and often hated. An effort to improve the public view of law enforcement is being attempted by many departments. Using different styles of policing techniques, mainly community based policing, has proved to be the best way to improve the image of law enforcement.
In order to have effective policing I believe integrity and ethics play a huge part in helping build trust within communities. Sound conduct by police improves community interactions, enhances communication, and promotes shared responsibility for addressing crime and disorder. There are three ways that police departments can strengthen community relationships just by training officers about procedural justice, bias reduction, and racial reconciliation. If we implement these concepts, we can create an environment in which effective partnerships between the police and citizens can flourish.
Today in 2015, community policing is as relevant as it has ever been in the history of America policing as many law enforcement agencies across the country continue to try and build stronger relationships, and establish partnerships between police officers and the communities they serve, especially minority communities. Since the 1990’s and early 2000’s many police agencies have come to accept the concepts of community oriented policing, and have made great strides towards better community-police relations. Many departments now meet regularly with neighborhood groups, allow citizens to participate in citizen police academies, conduct forums to give citizens a better understanding of the duties of police officers and their actions. Some police departments require and encourage officer to get out of their patrol vehicle and initiate positive contact with the people on their beats (Shusta, Levine, Wong, Olson, & Harris, 2011). All of these efforts are important and relevant to community policing, which helps to remove and diminish negative images of police officers. Citizens are more willing to work hand in hand with police officers who are approachable, engaged, and take ownership in the neighborhoods they serve, which is what community policing is all
Community policing is the philosophy that promotes strategies that support the use of partnerships and problem- solving techniques that are proactively address conditions to rise public safety issues like fear of crime, social disorder, and crime. There are three components to community policing, they are community partnerships, organizational transformation, and problem solving. The four elements of community policing are community involvement, problem solving, a community base, and redefined goals for the police.
To conclude, Community policing represents a major development in the history of American law enforcement, but the extent to which this approach is a success and dominates contemporary policing remains a source of debate. In my point of view, community policing is good for communities. It has challenged the traditional concept of the police as crime-fighters by drawing attention to the complexities of the police role and function. In addition to the police officer hard work; citizens can also make a difference and contribute to make neighborhoods a better place to live. For instance, citizens can hold community meetings to talk about concerns and agree on solutions help organize healthy activities for children in your neighborhood, join or starting a neighborhood crime watch program, and talk to your community police officers and share information and concerns.
Community policing is a law enforcement strategy that encourages interactive partnerships between law enforcement agencies and the people they serve (Berlin, Michael M. "Encyclopedia of Community Policing and Problem Solving.") These partnerships help communities find solutions to problems with collaborative problem solving and improved public trust. Through this model, the public plays a role in prioritizing public safety problems (Berlin, Michael M. "Encyclopedia of Community Policing and Problem Solving.")
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.