Community_Police

My Experience in Community Policing "Community Oriented Policing (COP) is a developing paradigm for law enforcement that places an emphasis on prevention of crime through a program placing the police and the community in closer contact and making them partners in achieving a reduction in crime. The approach has gone by several different names but is based largely on a proactive view of the role of the police and on making the police more a part of the community and less a last refuge for victims after a crime has been committed. This approach started as Community-Based Policing (which did not lend itself to the sort of descriptive acronym that COP does). Kenney and McNamara (1999) state, "Community-oriented policing emphasizes improved police-community relations in hopes that that will assist in solving many problems in particular neighborhoods. Community policing is defined as any method of policing that includes a police officer assigned to the same area, meeting and working with the residents and business people who live and work in the beat area. The citizens and police work together to identify the problems of the area and to collaborate in workable resolutions of the problems. Moving neighborhoods and communities toward solving their own problems, and encouraging citizens to help and look out for each other. To be successful, community policing requires the total commitment of the police, citizens and subgroups like business, media, political leaders and social service agencies and other institutions of the community. It is proactive, decentralized and personalized. It was just after 2 a.m., Thursday, February 12, 2005. I was on my routine patrol in the area of 27th avenue and 62nd street when I saw a great amount of smoke coming from a residential area. In minutes, I found the source of the smoke; it was the Ashley’s residence and the smoke was pouring from the roof. I quickly called for assistance from Miami Dade Fire Department and other patrol units in the area and, along with assistance from a neighbor who also witnessed the excitement, began knocking on the doors and windows of the residence. Responding officers joined me in my efforts to awaken the Ashley’s. They entered the home that was rapidly filling with smoke from the attic fire and were able to quickly assist the residents to safety. At one point, a family member thought another member was still inside the house, spurring the fire fighters to enter the burning house again. No one else was located inside and, at final count a total of three adults and nine children were evacuated safely. The officers also evacuated another nearby residence that could have been threatened by fire. I grew up in this same neighborhood that I patrol, Mr. and Mrs., Ashley were the neighborhood unofficial mom and pop. On any given day you would find their home full of the neighborhoods kids they didn’t mind since they didn’t have children of their own. Mama Ashley loved us kids and it showed not that our parents didn’t love us just that most parents had to work 2 jobs just to keep a roof over their heads. Just about everyone who responded knew who home it was; they were family, just like all the older residents on the block. We officers can tell you who lives where, when they moved in, and even the ones who took medication and what type of medicines. The neighborhood felt safe because they knew us and trusted us, this is the best form of community policing that I can think of. They trust us not just because we grew up there but the police department make an effort to keep the community updated on what is happening in our community, we hold public meetings, weekend fairs, the K-9 unit put on shows to get the community to understand where funds are going. The department provides training for civilians to train in community policing where they go to class and train in certain areas of police work, report writing, and ride along with the officers to see what an officers day is like, and like most states we have the Police Explorer Program, this is for teenagers who have an interest in being a police officer. This program was created to help keep at risk teens or any teenager that wanted to learn about the law off the streets. I myself was in the program, we learned day-to-day operations in the police department, we clean the graffiti off the walls that the gangs had spray-painted, and we held raffles to make food baskets for the elderly who could not afford the rising cost of inflation to buy food. This is what community policing is about, giving back to the neighborhood whether you grew up there or you police it, it’s your community 24 hours a day, we swore to protect it. Enter to learn, depart to serve. "Therefore, in conventional terms, the responsibly of the police is to maintain law and order and to protect the innocent against the criminal elements. However, the nature of modern society and the complexity of many forms of criminal behavior have created debate, and changes, with regard to the extent and range of modern policing responsibility. This debate centers on new views of policing responsibility and can be summarized by the following question. Should the police be mainly responsible for only the effects and results of crime or should police be more involved with the underlying and root causes of crime' " Community policing has become more popular in recent years as police forces around the country strive to make communities safer, and their officers more trusted and understood. They are looking for ways to get their officers out there into the community and get the citizens used to seeing police officers patrolling the streets in the hopes that not only will crime go down, but citizen comfort around police officers will go up, making citizens much more likely to report a criminal that they are aware of. If they feel safe and protected by the police, they will likely turn to them in times of need instead of just assuming that the neighborhood criminal is not their problem as long as he or she leaves them and their family and belongings alone in favor of someone else's. Some people are not comfortable talking to a policeman that they have never seen before, but they are all right in dealing with the policeman who is always on patrol during a certain time each day in their neighborhood. I value community policing because, I can give back to the community even if I didn’t grow up it that area, I can see the children and how they are in their own environment (home, park, school) I can get to met and greet the adults of the community and let them know that I’m there if they should need me. Many people as mention above feel comfortable knowing and seeing the same officer(s) in the neighborhood. Community policing encourages partnership development, less frequent use of arrest, and more creative responses to particular problems. Since its implementation in 1995, the sheriff's community policing officers (COPS) unit has gained national recognition and has received the International Association of Chiefs of Police Community Policing Award. It won in the largest category -- police agencies serving populations of more than 250,000 people. "We got it because of how we police," said the Director of Police James Loftus, citing officers' commitment to helping citizens in whatever they need, especially cleaning up neighborhoods. "It was through identification of intensive care neighborhoods." Prostitution and drug dealing crimes are down, streets are cleaner and residents are no longer afraid to walk the streets. "It's getting better," said Terry Atkins, president of the neighborhood association. "This neighborhood has come a long way”, “But it couldn't have happened without the Sheriff's Office community policing program, designed to put officers back in touch with citizens”, Atkins said as I spoke with him about community p-policing. This allowed them flexibility to not only treat the symptoms but also determine the cause of problems and get citizens involved in problem solving.