Community policing
Community policing, also known as community-oriented policing, is a collaborative approach where police and community members work together to identify and address crime-related issues. This model challenges the traditional hierarchical view of policing, positioning officers as partners rather than sole enforcers of the law. Central to community policing is the idea that community members actively participate in problem-solving, emphasizing prevention and addressing the root causes of crime rather than merely focusing on arrest statistics. Trust between law enforcement and citizens is vital for this strategy to be effective, leading to innovative patrol methods such as foot, bike, and horse patrols that enhance police visibility and accessibility.
The concept gained traction in the 1960s due to a growing recognition of the disconnect between police and the communities they serve, and it evolved significantly with initiatives like the Neighborhood Watch Program initiated in the U.S. in 1972. The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 further institutionalized community policing, establishing funding and training through the Office of Community Oriented Policing (COPS). While supporters argue that this approach fosters awareness and civic partnership, critics express concerns about potential fragmentation of authority and the challenges faced by lower-income communities in engaging with such programs. Additionally, the adaptability of community policing methods to different cultural contexts remains a topic of debate.
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Community policing
Community policing, often also called community-oriented policing, is a cooperative relationship between the police and the community where they operate in tandem to diagnose and address crime issues. Community policing subverts the traditional hierarchical model, which sees the police as the sole guardians of the law, in favor of a more interactive relationship with the citizens of a given neighborhood. The citizens plays an active part in problem-solving, so that the method’s success is not measured using the traditional standards of number of arrests, quantity of seized drugs, number of stolen items returned to their owners, etc., but rather by how well it prevents problems specific to that neighborhood.
Overview
In the 1960s, the hierarchical model that had long characterized the relationship between police and citizens was increasingly questioned and deemed inadequate for responding to the civil unrest common in that decade. As the gap that separated the police from the communities they served became more apparent, law enforcement officials began to think of how to create an alliance with citizens that would establish meaningful networks to solve problems related to crime and safety.
Community policing emphasizes preventing criminal events in a given community by addressing the underlying causes of crime. Therefore, it is characterized by a preventive approach that assigns specific duties to the community. Trust is an important component and a prerequisite for the success of community policing. The need to make contact with the citizens in the community has fostered new types of patrolling techniques, including foot, bike, and horse patrol. In this way, agents are more accessible to their communities rather than being separated from them inside a patrol car.
In the United States, the Neighborhood Watch Program, launched by the National Sheriffs’ Association (NSA) in 1972, was an important step toward the development of community policing. The program stressed the importance of educating citizens’ groups to spot possible suspects in the neighborhood and report them to the authorities. Groups may also opt to patrol their neighborhoods regularly. The legislative birth of community policing dates back to the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, which provided almost $10 million to implement a more local and community-based law enforcement strategy. The Office of Community Oriented Policing (COPS) was established by the Justice Department to fund and train local agencies to develop community policing.
Community policing has prompted some controversy. Supporters have stressed that it makes communities more aware of crime and how to prevent it. They have also appreciated the civic partnership it fosters between citizens and institutions. However, critics have pointed to a certain fragmentation of authority that results from this approach. They have also pointed out that communities that need this type of policing the most are low-income, in which citizens are often too busy with work and family issues to spend time policing their block. They have also contested exporting the community policing model to non-Western societies where different social conventions may make it less effective.
Bibliography
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