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The objective of this essay is to examine one of the six pillars of the President’s Task Force on 21st century policing. Of the six pillars, pillar four’s target is the importance of community policing and crime reduction. The definition of community policing is the use of partnership and problem-solving methods to address public safety issues, such as crime, fear of crime and social disorders. The highlight of community policing is that it partners with residents in the community to implement public safety. Some background into how community policing came to be was in the 1960s and 70s, civil rights protest were in effect. For example San Diego’s police department conducted a study with community policing. “Officers were expected to become …show more content…
For instance, programs such as Coffee with a cop, were citizens can meet with an officer at a neutral location to talk. This benefits both group as a result of, being able to determine certain goals, build trust and ultimately get to know each other. “This program is currently being exercised in all 50 states and 9 countries, which began in March of 2011” (Jahangeer, 2017, p.1). Another program that aids community policing is community cleanup. Pinellas County Sheriff's, in Florida, started a program with the community to focus on cleanup efforts. This program is called Take a Bite out of Grime. According to the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office, residents, officers, community members spent three hours cleaning up around the Pinellas Safe Harbor facility and ended up collecting why over 6,000 pounds of trash. This project gained national media attention with the NFL and AFL, celebrities, and local businesses which would create new partnerships. Furthermore, The National Center for Community Policing was created to perform “some of the earliest conceptual development and research on community policing. In addition, the center provided some of the first training and technical assistance on community policing” …show more content…
This approach is described as being neighborhoods that are seen as run down, will attract more crime if nothing is done to restore them. The theory started in Newark, New Jersey, where footpatrol was reestablished in effort to reduce crime. As a result of this citizens felt safer and trusted the police more. Even though it was reported that it did not effect the decrease in crime, officers themselves expressed a greater satisfaction with their work. As what was stated before the theory did not affect the rate of crime but made the citizens feel safer because “fear of crime was reduced, that is fear of being bothered by disorderly people: drunks, panhandlers, addicts, prostitutes, gangs, and rowdy teens” (Lombardo, Lough, 2007, p.123) The Broken Window theory was tested by Wesley Skogan who wrote a book on this called Disorder and Decline. According to Skogan he analyzed physical disorder which is described as “the presence of junk and trash in vacant lots, boarded-up buildings, vandalism, graffiti, and stripped and abandoned cars; and social disorder, which includes the presence of gangs, prostitutes, panhandlers, drunks, and open gambling and drug use” (Lombardo, Lough, 2007,
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.
The broken windows theory, was proposed by James Q. Wilson and George Kelling (1982). This used broken windows to describe disorder within neighbourhoods.Their theory links disorder and unsociable behavior within a community leading to serious crime. Prior to theories such as broken windows, law enforcement and police tended to focus on the serious crime. However, Wilson and Kelling took a different view from this. They saw serious crime as the final result of a chain of events, which emerged from disorder. If we eliminated disorder, then serious crimes would not occur as mentioned by Mckee
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
James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling as social scientist developed a criminology theory called Broken Window. Based on experiments done with interactions by police officers and civilians to study the effects of policing vandalism, crime, and anti-social behavior. Believing that if police were to control public drinking, small infractions of the law, and vandalism, public behavior would change for the positive. A study where a car had a broken window left parked idle, would of be subject to vandalism rapidly, oppose to an intact car. The same concept was done for empty buildings where looters had easy access and would create much unwanted debris and fires, attracting yet more looters. Resulting in the city decay for the high rates of crime
Unfocused and indiscriminate enforcement actions will produce poor relationships between the police and community members residing in areas. Law enforcement should adopt alternative approaches to controlling problem areas, tracking hot persons, and preventing crime in problem regions. Arresting criminal offenders is the main police function and one of the most valuable tools in an array of responses to crime plagued areas, however hot spots policing programs infused with community and problem oriented policing procedures hold great promise in improving police and community relations in areas suffering from crime and disorder problems and developing a law enforcement service prepared to protect its nation from an act of
Traditionally, policing has proven to have its limits. The arrests did not deter criminals, there was no impact on the crime rate, and policing was a very reactive practise. Obviously, something needed to change. With policing a modern society, there are a number of different techniques that can be displayed, and prove to be beneficial. However; in this essay I will attempt to showcase two very important, and alike styles; Problem oriented policing, and community policing. Each have very important aspects, require some sort of community involvement, and will keep police agencies accountable.
Kelling, George L. and Wilson, James Q. (1982) "Broken Windows: The Police and Neighborhood Safety." Published in the Atlantic Monthly.
Community-oriented policing, also known as COP, combines the traditional aspects of law enforcement with prevention measures, problem solving, community engagement, and community partnerships (Community and Problem-Oriented). The United States law enforcement relied on a professional policing model, which was based on hierarchical structures, efficient response times, standardization, and the use of motorized patrol cars. Community-oriented policing began when critics charged that police and the communities they served were alienated from each other. The key element for community policing is the emphasis on the prevention of crime (Community and Problem-Oriented).
Since September 11, 2001, the role of law enforcement officers around the country has evolved into something new and complex. Policing has always been amorphous, but both new officers and veterans must now learn how to incorporate counterterrorism measures into the traditional police role; “in addition to their traditional responsibilities, police are expected to serve as the ‘eyes and ears’ of federal agencies” (Pelfrey 2014). Furthermore, they must do so with limited funds and resources. Local law enforcement agencies are in a unique position that federal agencies are not: they are deeply embedded in communities. As such, they can use the information they have about their particular community to detect and divert potential terrorist behavior. According to Jose Docobo, “the community policing model serves as a solid framework for the development of an effective prevention strategy for homeland security by local law enforcement
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).
An important value police need to uphold if they want to seem legitimate in the community is protecting individual 's constitutional rights. Community 's policing officers had violated more constitutional rights of people than the other officers (Gould & Mastrofski, 2004). Why do they commit more of these violations? One reason might be because they are highly committed to the community and will do anything to protect it from crime or they might have had less training and education on the rights of the people and more in community policing values.
There are many different ways of policing in the 21st century and all address and apply different theories and ideas to try and control the crime this day in age. One of these methods is called community policing and many law enforcement agencies around our country and the world use it as a model for policing and interacting with communities. Community policing is based on the belief that policing agencies should partner with communities with the goals to prevent or reduce the amount of crime in those areas (Pollock, 2012 p. 99). There are 3 main aspects of community policing that I will talk about in this paper and they are community partnerships, organizational transformation, and problem solving. After hearing about the
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
Federal law enforcement does not participate in community policing, but they still can get the benefit of what local law enforcement do in community policing. Since there has been an improvement in communication between federal, state, and local law enforcement with sharing information (Johnson, B. R., & Dorn, S. 2008) and the use of fusion-centers the information community police officers get can go all the way to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) or the FBI. The lack of shared information some argue is a key reason why 9-11 was not prevented (Best Jr, 2007).
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.