Running head: jeffery lloyd1
jeffery lloyd8
Community Policing
Jeffery Jerome Lloyd Jr
American InterContinental University
Community Policing
Introduction
There are various public safety issues in every community and community policing involves recognizing that the police are not able to solve these issues on their own and hence there is a need to collaborate with the community and form partnerships to help keep the community safe. Communities and other organizations in the community work together in community policing to see that crimes are prevented, and the communities are safeguarded. The safety of communities is enhanced by the community policing efforts and there are three main elements of community policing. Community policing elements include community partnerships, organizational transformation and problem solving.
Community partnerships
Community partnerships refer to the collaboration between the law enforcement agencies and individuals in a community and organizations to help in developing solutions to the problems in the community and increase the trust which the community have towards the police. There is a wide range of possible partnerships which can be formed. One, the law enforcement agency can partner with the community members and groups (Kappeler et al., 2020). The community members can be engaged in the achievement of specific community goals during town hall meetings, and neighborhood meetings.
Law enforcement agencies can also partner with other government agencies to identify the safety concerns in a community and offer alternative solutions to the concerns. Some of the government agencies which the law enforcement agencies can partner with are schools, child support services, public work departments and legislative bodies (Williams et al., 2018). The nonprofit making organizations and service providers are also very ideal for the community policing efforts. Partnerships formed with the non-profits and service providers can be utilized in advocacy on behalf of the community members. Advocacy helps come up with better policies for the community members.
Profit making businesses also have a large role to play in the safety of the community. These businesses are great partners since they bring in considerable resources which can help in the addressing of community problems. Some of the resources which private businesses can bring in are security technologies to help keep watch in the community and enhance safety (Skogan & Hartnett, 2019). The media is also a good partner and provides a channel through which the community problems can be made public along with potential solutions to the problems.
Organizational transformation
Organizational transformation involves the change of the criminal justice system and law enforcement agencies towards helping push community policing. One of the ways in which the law enforcement agencies can shift towards community policing is through personnel recruitment and hiring. Law enforcement agencies need to ensure that the process of hiring is thorough so that only qualified personnel are put into law enforcement (Braga et al., 2018). The information systems should also be transformed to enhance communication with communities and ensure that accurate data is transmitted between the community and the law enforcement agencies.
The management of the law enforcement agencies is also a determinant of how successful organizations are at community policing. The agency management should be improved through proper leadership, strategic planning, and transparency in the management of the agency. Another feature of the transformation of the agencies is the change in the organizational structure to have long term assignment of officers to specific areas which are highly risky than other regions. There is need of de-specialization among the officers so that they can take up multiple responsibilities and have a team approach towards problem solving.
Problem solving
This element entails the process of taking part in proactive and systematic evaluation of the identified problems in the community to come up with and evaluate the effective responses to the problems. In community policing proactive response is highly encouraged instead of responding to crime when it has already happened. The process of problem solving is a four-step process and the first stage is scanning where the community problems are identified and prioritized.
After scanning the next step should be analysis where research is conducted to establish what is known about the identified community problems. Once analysis is completed the next step is response where the law enforcement agencies and the partnerships formed come up with solutions which will help in solving the problems on a long term (Braga et al., 2019). Once the responses are implemented, assessment is done where the success of the responses is assessed.
Conclusion
Community policing is very instrumental towards solving inherent security problems in the community and the various partnerships help advocate for the community safety and come up with alternative solutions to the identified problems. For community safety, there is need for transformation in the management of the law enforcement agencies and their organizational structure. Problem solving through community policing involves various steps and the final step is assessment where the various responses will need to be evaluated for effectiveness.
References
Braga, A. A., Brunson, R. K., & Drakulich, K. M. (2019). Race, place, and effective
policing. Annual review of sociology, 45, 535-555.
Braga, A. A., Weisburd, D., & Turchan, B. (2018). Focused deterrence strategies and crime
control: An updated systematic review and meta‐analysis of the empirical evidence. Criminology & Public Policy, 17(1), 205-250.
Kappeler, V. E., Gaines, L. K., & Schaefer, B. P. (2020). Community policing: A contemporary
perspective. Routledge.
Skogan, W. G., & Hartnett, S. M. (2019). Community policing. Police innovation: Contrasting
perspectives, 27-44.
Williams, C. B., Fedorowicz, J., Kavanaugh, A., Mentzer, K., Thatcher, J. B., & Xu, J. (2018).
Leveraging social media to achieve a community policing agenda. Government Information Quarterly, 35(2), 210-222.