What is Community Policing?

Community policing has been described as "a philosphy which recognizes the cooperation between the police and citizens as the key to effective crime prevention". It has it's roots in efforts police departments made during and after the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960's and 1970's. Communities all across America were protesting the Vietnam War, and demonstrating for equal rights. Police departments began to pursue the goal of integration and seriously examined their methods for dealing with civil disobedience on a large scale. Courts increased efforts to treat minority-group members more fairly.

Traditional police departments are reactive and responds to calls for service: these are primarily enforcement - file a report, make an arrest, issue a summons, and so forth according to Dennis P. Rosenbaum in his book "The Challenge of Community Policing". Reactive policing, with it's focus on arrests, is not a deterrent for crime and does nothing but backlog the court system with criminal cases.

Another major problem with traditional reactive policing is that police departments become isolated from the community. Police departments are very military-like in structure. Line officers are armed, uniformed and adhere to a strict code of conduct. A defined chain-of-command based upon rank is strictly followed. By being a member of a militaristic institution, the professional police officer seldom becomes close to the public.

In "Taking Back Our Streets", then LAPD chief Willie Williams said "that officers still see themselves and the department....as separate and apart from the community...and the department was too militarisitic in structure and failed to embrace the community because it was too inwardly focused".

Inward focus is often a result of a centralized power structure. In traditional police departments the orders come down from the top. Middle managers and line officers do not participate in any decision making process. Policymaking is the job of the chief. Inward focus results in a police organization not being too friendly witht he public, but encourages separatism from outside agencies and decreased interaction between different units within the department.

Many of us have seen reactive policing demonstrated on television shows and will remember this classic line, "The facts, Ma'am, just the facts".

Many citizens derive their knowledge of reactive policing from the media, specifically prime-time television. Often, police officers are depicted as a rogue cop outside the law, or as an uniformed thug. Newspaper accounts that stand out are those dealing with corruption.

Some of the major problems with reactive policing are isolation from other agencies, isolation from community, a top heavy power structure and too much focus on arrests (means) versus addressing the underlying problems that create crime.

Community policing developed because it became increasingly clear that reactive policing was ineffective. A proactive approach allows the defining of problem areas to occur and this process involves both the police and the community at large.

Increased positive contacts between officers and the public will foster increased trust between them. Increased trust would lead to a partnership where both the police, the community, and other city services if required, can come together to craft a workable solution to stopping or deterring crime.

Under community policing, officers are assigned beats or areas of patrol. Those officers, time allowing, are to familiarize with the people and businesses on their beat. This gives officers the opportunity to observe for themselves when incidents become problematic. When citizens in a particular patrol area become familiar with their officers, this concept theorizes that trust in those officers will increase over time. Increased trust will create willingness on the part of the citizens to inform their officers when new problems arise. Getting to know one another is crucial; the closer the understanding, the greater the trust, and the more productive the partnership.

Community policing is largely made up of three components: Partnerships (where trust is built between the department and the community), Problem Solving (where problems are indentified and resolved), and Organizational Change (participatory management style).

Commentary on the Community Policing Concept:

People are the first line of defense against crime; the community policing concept empowers us as citizens to help police officers make our streets safe. Creating partnerships and allowing citizens to participate in the process, gives them a vested interest in the outcome. With that vested interest comes the responsibility to not only look out for yourself, but to look out for your neighbor as well. It means as citizens we need to be involved. We need to report problems. We need to report crime. We need to be willing to stand up and take our streets back. The police cannot do this alone. Community Policing creates an environment where officers and citizens can engage each other, and develop trust.