Community_and_Problem_Solving_Policing

BY Nina Tubbs In 1988, the National Institute of Justice and Harvard produced a series of monographs. These monographs discussed community policing, problem-oriented policing, police values, and corporate strategies of policing. Corporate strategies for policing are presently guiding U.S. policing in strategic policing, community policing, and problem-solving policing. Strategic policing involves a continued reliance on traditional police operations, but with an increased emphasis on crimes that are not generally well controlled by traditional policing. Strategic policing also represents an advanced stage of traditional policing using innovative enforcement techniques. Community policing is an attempt to involve the community as an active partner with the police in addressing crime problems in the community. Community policing mandates that the police work with the community, not against it, to be effective. The most important benefits of community policing are more realistic acknowledgment of police functions with recognition of the interrelationships among police functions. The acknowledgment of the limited capacity of the police to accomplish their jobs on their own and of the importance of an alliance between the police and the public and less dependence on the criminal justice system and more emphasis on new problem-solving methods. Community policing greatly increased use of the knowledge gained by the police of their assigned areas with more effective use of personnel with the increased awareness of community problems as a basis for designing more effective police response. Community policing seeks to replace our traditional methods of police patrol with joint community and police efforts to find proactive, innovative solutions to crime and disorder on our streets. Problem- solving policing forces the police to focus on the problems that cause the incidents. The problem-oriented policing strategy consists of four distinct parts: scanning, analysis, response, and assessment this is also known as SARA. In the scanning process, groups of officers discus incidents as “problems” instead of as specific incidents and criminal law concepts. After defining the problem, officers begin analysis. They collect information from a variety of sources then officers then use the information to discover the underlying nature of the problem, its causes, and options for solutions. After scanning and analysis, the police begin response. They work with citizens, business owners, and public and private agencies to prepare a program of action suitable to the specifics of the particular problem. After the police make their response to the problem they evaluate the effectiveness of the response. They may use the results to revise the response, collect more data, or even to redefine the problem. Problem-oriented policing involves officers’ thinking, not just responding to yet another call for duty. It involves officers dealing with the underlying causes of incidents to prevent those incidents from happening again, and it involves officers’ using all sources, not only police department sources, to deal with problems. The concepts of community policing and problem-solving policing have merged in the past decade and can generally be looked at as one philosophy. Community policing is based on the notion that citizens should be empowered to prevent crime or the problems that lead to crime. Establishing and maintaining mutual trust is therefore the central goal of community policing, as it allows wide law enforcement access to valuable community information leading potentially to the prevention and resolution of crimes. The partnerships formed in support of community crime prevention efforts can also provide a framework for engaging citizens to help police identify possible terrorist threats and infrastructure vulnerabilities. Effective community policing involves not only developing partnerships between law enforcement and citizens, however, but also intergovernmental and interagency collaborations with state and federal agencies. These partnerships are essential for the collection and exchange of intelligence, the identification of threats and vulnerabilities, and the sharing of resources in the event of an attack. As reports of overall crime rate decreases hit the presses in the mid- and late 1990s, some police officials associated this decrease to closer relationships with their communities through community policing, as well as the addition of new community policing officers. The main focus of this type of organizational structure is on efficiency, rationality, and a belief that the organization should be primarily concerned with law enforcement. The increasing popularity of community oriented policing during the 1990s appeared to represent a threat to the traditional police department. During the period of the 1990s, community policing was the recipient of much federal funding and was touted as being the solution to combating a growing disconnect between police departments and the communities they serve. However, recent national events such as the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and the war in Iraq have led the federal government to shift its funding from community policing towards homeland security. Some of the policing programs that are used to are very effective like the neighborhood watch the goals is to increase public awareness and vigilance in fight against crime specifically residence and business burglaries and robberies. The strategy is that the Police department selected and recruited community groups, then produced a presentation and film, literature, and a newspaper ad (Ten Point Burglary Prevention Measures) and it also includes a Tactical Squad of police officers volunteers to patrol in plain clothes and in unmarked vehicles. This is very effective in neighborhood with high crime rates to reduce crimes from happen because everyone is sticking together to make their community safe. Another effective program is the Stop and Talk the goals is to encourage police-citizen communication. This strategy is a requirement in some states to have each officer is to spend ten minutes of each hour on patrol talking with residents, businessmen, and students, concerning their views on the city's crime problems. In conclusion there are so many different types of community policing programs and each state has their own community policing program and they all have one thing in common which is to prevent crime from happen and to have an understanding between citizens and police officers. Community policing programs are continuously changing to make sure they stay effective and prevent crimes for happen. Policing is a very important part of our daily lives whether it is just as a neighborhood watch or being a part of a police force without policing and community policing we would live in a world that was unsafe. We are very lucky to live in a world that looks out for our safety. Works Cited Ferreira, B. R. (1996). THE USE AND EFFECTIVENESS OF COMMUNITY POLICING IN A DEMOCRACY. Robert C. Trojanowicz, B. P. (1986). COMMUNITY POLICING PROGRAMS. Michigan. Wadsworth. (2005). Community Policing:The Debate Continues.