Community Policing
Community policing could arguably be called the new orthodoxy of law enforcement in the United States. It has become an increasingly popular alternative to what many police administrators perceive as the failure of traditional policing to deal effectively with street crime, especially crimes of violence and drug trafficking. Although the concept is defined in varying ways and its and its ability to meet its goals remains largely untested, community policing has gained widespread acceptance. Community policing promotes mutual trust and cooperation between people and the police, at the same time it helps empower neighborhoods in danger of being overwhelmed by crime, drugs, and the poisonous mix of apathy despair and unrest. Many people would argue that the focus of Neighborhood Policing is simple problem solving. Instead, community policing allows law enforcement to get back to the principles upon which it was founded, to integrate itself once again into the fabric of the community so that the people come to the police for counsel and help before a serious problem arises, not after the fact. People will still respond to emergencies and other calls. However, many calls to the police are not police related and are more effecti
2. Effective crime control depends on an effective working partnership between the police and citizens in the communities they serve. 6. The police are routinely held accountable for the fairness and economy with which they use force and authority, as well as money. Neighborhood watch operates in two basic ways: The citizens involved carefully watch and observe their neighborhood immediately notifying the police any if any suspicious or criminal activity has been seen and members utilize crime prevention measures to make it much more difficult for criminals to operate within their community. Community policing is a pro-active strategy that emphasizes community partnerships and focuses more on prevention of crime than on cleaning it up. Community policing brings new opportunities for success. Less crime, better living conditions and improved social harmony have been achieved through a community approach. If the police are truly interested in controlling crime, there is little question of the proper course to pursue. Community policing holds the key to more effective policing. If the police are to adopt a new strategy, the rank-and-file must perceive some benefit for change. Community policing can fill this need. Community policing not only better serves the community, it also better serves the police (Woods). The skeptic may ask what makes community policing so great. For starters officers speak to neighborhood groups and teach them how to be safer in crime prevention. The officers also participate in business and civic events, consult with special agencies and take part in education programs for school children. Foot, bike and horse patrols bring police closer to the community. Before this people only saw the police from patrol cars and thought the only time they would see an officer is if they called to report a crime. Now community members can see them on a day to day basis and become friends with them. One of the problem solving tools used by trained officers involves identification of a problem-affecting people in the community, fact-finding missions to determine the extent and cause of the problem, action steps and review to determine success. Many police agencies refer to these steps as "SARA," which stands for Scanning, Analysis, Response, and Assessment (San Diego PD). Scanning in this context means problem identification. As a first step, officers should identify problems on their beats. A problem is different from an isolated event. An isolated event is something police are called to or happen to come upon that is unrelated to other incidents in the community. The purpose of analysis is to learn as much as possible about a problem to identify what is causing it. First, the officer needs to understand the actions and the interactions of the offenders, victims, and the environment. Generally three elements are required to constitute a crime in the community: an No single agency can solve complex social problems alone. A combined community-police effort restores the safety of our neighborhoods and business districts. Some things that the police stations try to encourage in their community officers is to act as the catalyst in confronting not only crime, but fear of crime and neighborhood decay and disorder. This decentralized and personalized form of policing breaks down the anonymity that plagues traditional police efforts (Trojanowicz). In a community policing beat people know their officer
Some common words found in the essay are:
PD Scanning, Diego PD, Neighborhood Watch, Darrel Stephens, BJA Potential, , Network Center, Robert Peel, Force Academy, Glothian-Taylor Community, community policing, neighborhood watch, law enforcement, police community, police agencies, people police, controlling crime, question proper course, criminal activity, community serves, sara model, crime little question, proper course pursue, little question proper, law enforcement help,
Approximate Word count = 2337
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)
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