Community-Oriented Policing and Problem-Oriented Policing - Essay Example

Draft Comparison between Community-Oriented Policing and Problem-Oriented Policing Introduction Crime is one of the threats facing the world in the 21st century. It is increasing at an alarming rate with criminals coming up with newer and an undetectable tactics of committing crimes on a daily basis. In order to solve the problem effectively, there is a pressing need for adoption of appropriate and most effective policing methods. There exists numerous method of policing that are being applied in different parts of the world. However, the most applicable and popular policing strategies are community policing and problem oriented policing. The two methods of policing have proven to be effective to both the law enforcers as well as the community in combating and preventing crime. This essay is going to draw clear comparison between these two types of policing by giving out the major similarities and differences between the two. First, the essay will discuss the two policing strategies in order to give a clear understanding about each one of them, before highlighting the key differences and the similarities. Community Policing Community policing is defined as the collaboration between the community and the police officers in identifying and controlling crimes and other forms of disorders in the society. It is also referred to as community-oriented policing in some countries. Under community policing, the role of the police officers is not only to apprehend the bad elements in the society, but rather remain committed in serving the public in all aspects. Police are required to develop ties with members of the public, an element that enables them to work closely with the people they are protecting. Community policing is said to comprise of two major components namely the community partnership and the element of problem solving. This means that police officers are expected to build good relationships with members of the public as one of the ways of making crime detection easy. This also ensures that the resources meant for providing security to the public are effectively utilized in giving the public their most fundamental right; right to security. There are numerous compelling reasons that have made the security departments of most countries to adopt this type of policing. Most of these reasons are grounded on the history of policing, various researches that have been conducted in the security departments, the changing characteristics of crime, the shifting nature of communities as well as the rampant growth of disorders. Crime has been on a regular change for the past few decades especially in the western countries, where by new crimes are evolving at a very high rate. According to studies that have been carried out, it has been noted that there is a pressing need to have a sense of commitment both from the members of the public and the police officers in order to curb crimes of the modern world. Before the introduction of this strategy, it had been noted that the public had completely surrendered the duty of controlling crime. Instead, members of the public had abandoned the duty of providing security to the hands of the police departments whom they expected to work solely. On the other hand, police administrators had been heavily relying on the technology as well as other non-community policing strategies, thereby continuously increasing the gap between the public and the police officers. Before the introduction of community policing, police used to work alone without any help from the public in detecting and controlling crime. These strategies were been mostly adopted as a way of minimizing corruption that was being blamed on the close relationship between the police and the public. As a result, many police departments embraced a militaristic, top down and hierarchical management structures, which made the police personnel more accountable. Some of the advanced non-community strategies that were adopted include motorized patrols, application of swift response systems as well as radio dispatching. These strategies made the officers ignorant of the people hence knowing very little about the problems that the community they were serving. During this era, police patrols were being conducted in mannerisms that could not allow creation of good relations between the police and the public. Police were being required to patrol areas they had been allocated on rotating basis while regularly changing routes as a way of preventing crime. This made it hard for the members of the public to interact with the local police officers whom appeared like strangers all the time or people who were not part of the community. Adoption of the rapid response methods also created a scenario that police were more concerned with arriving at the crime scene rather than handling the issues of the society. This meant that police were fast in attending a crime but in an ineffective way. Another major blow that led poor police –community relations was the regular urban gang violence and riots. This changed the public’s perception towards police and instead of working closely with them; they started viewing them as oppressive individuals who were in power. During this period, police brutality and prejudicial killings became more rampant, a dynamic that completely ruined the image and relationship of the police to the public. The public started viewing police officers as the key perpetrators of creation of discriminative an unjust society. With the public’s confidence over the officers completely ruined, the public became more reluctant to any kind of cooperation with the police and instead some would view the police officers as their major enemies. Only a few people were willing to volunteer to become witnesses or release any information about criminals for fear of setup by the officers as well as victimization. Members of the public could no longer trust police officers. In the process, preventing crime or getting information that may help in combating crime became difficult to a point that crime rate went up drastically. By 1980s and 1990s, the rate of crime in the western countries was extremely high despite the adoption of sophisticated technology, proper training of the police and the high level of professionalisms in the police departments. This led to adoption of a hybrid strategies with community-oriented policing being one of them. Police managers realized that using highly sophisticated technology is not the solution to solving crime as they had envisioned. Therefore, the administrators had to get back to the community and create a good relationship with them. Community oriented policing emphasizes on crime and disorders by delivering services such as law enforcement, prevention and problem solving by focusing on community engagement and partnerships. This type of policing creates a balance between proactive problem solving strategies and the reactive responses to calls asking for police service thereby calling for a partnership between the police and the public in identifying and solving issues facing the community. Police officers under this system help in controlling and managing crime and disorders in the community in a relatively visible way. On the other hand, members of the public are expected to raise security concerns by giving out information to the police officers as well as providing any other support to the police that may help in managing crimes. Once the security concerns are raised, police are required to effectively and swiftly respond to them irrespective of whether they had been raised by an individual or groups of people over the phone or in person. Community policing may have different definitions to various people though practitioners and researchers have an agreed up on certain principles or elements that community policing must include. Among the agreed up on principles states that police officers must work as peace keepers, that they must adopt crucial strategies which must involve public consultation and that they must be proactive and interactive with members of the community. Other elements include the requirement of police to devote their efforts in solving crimes and problems facing the community, helping in improving the quality of life by engaging crime prevention programs, police officer are also required to be generalists and not specialist meaning that they should decentralize the security organization and most importantly remain accountable to the community in general. Problem-oriented policing Problem-oriented policing (POP) is an approach that encompasses identification and investigation of particular crimes and disorders in the society. It involves development of effective strategies that do not involve members of the public in detecting and solving issues related to crime. Under this policing strategy, police are required to be proactive in establishing the underlying problems that can be dealt with, hence significantly reducing the rate of crime. This strategy lays special emphasis on investigating and analyzing crimes by the security firms. 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