Issues of The Concept of Policing - Essay Example

POLICING Traditionally, the concept of policing has concerned itself mainly with the prevention and solving of crimes such as theft, burglary, robbery, among others. It is noteworthy that these are crimes that pose immediate and visible effect on the local community and impact on the citizen’s quality of life. In this regard, almost all police departments have for long grappled with the idea of solving these crimes in the most effective manner. In the wake of rising crimes levels, such as the threat of terrorism that faces many governments across the world. Law enforcement agencies have been forced to review their existing policing strategies (Clarke & Newman 14-16). In order to address these issues, the concept of community policing has become a strategy of choice for most police departments in many countries, including the United States. For many years, law enforcement agencies have tried to address the causes of crime in societies by creating effective partnerships with the communities and other public and private sectors. The partnerships have often revolved around the application of problem-solving strategies, as well as the transformation of agency organization and culture. For instance, in the dawn of heightened terrorist attacks, many law enforcement agencies have found themselves grappling to identify their responsibilities and define their future function in efforts of combating terrorism. Many governments have acknowledged that the most precise policing model should resolve the problem of intelligence, crime deterrence, and effective evidence sharing. Even though these tasks are not novel to law administration agencies, security at the resident will need a change. However, this will be so when policing function and the law enforcers are to safeguard the security and wellbeing of individuals and communities (Docobo). There has been increasing advocacy for the expansion of the concept of community policing and its integration into counter-crime policing (Innes, 225-229). This concept has been heralded to pose less damage to the community than other covert security models. Indeed, the model has been shown to have the capacity of leveraging large numbers of local law enforcers into the security effort. It is plausible that the model of community policing holds an avalanche of benefits that are essential for effective policing and law enforcement. However, the implementation of the model and its integration into traditional policing models has presented governments and police departments with numerous challenges. These challenges range from social issues, legal issues, as well as the problems of financing the implementation. Furthermore, there are problems of internal departmental issues that need to be addressed in order to ensure maximum benefits can be derived from community policing. Social Issues One of the utmost fundamental components of any form of public policing is the dependence on the community itself. Most police departments have realized that the improvement of policing services is meant to become an uphill task in the absence of active participation by the community itself. The communal and cultural pressures that arise in cluster crime are some of the cases of the range to which the underlying problems in the community hinder the implementation of community policing (Friedmann). For purposes of getting a better understanding of community issues in policing, it is paramount for police departments to increase their knowledge regarding the social fabric of the community. In this regard, there is a need to conduct improved mapping of criminality, outlining of communal population groups, issues, requirements, and the accessible funds (Friedmann). Furthermore, effective integration of community policing into contemporary policing models must take into account the involvement of communal institutions such as schools, religious institutions, and civil associations. It is such reliance on communal institutions that the police departments can make criminal activities less acceptable in the society. Many governments have realized the need for increased pro-active planning, as well as an environment that supports a wide-based coordination of community-centered activities (Chapman & Scheider 3-5). One key challenge in the implementation of community policing has been the involvement of community crime committees to bring the effect to the tenets of community involvement. The composition and sustenance of such committees pose fundamental problems, especially in areas with palpable social polarization. Furthermore, police departments have acknowledge that such groups may simply present a platform for co-opting sections of minority populations to an apparent consensus. In some jurisdictions, police officers are concerned with the size of the area that they are assigned as part of community policing. Unlike traditional police work, in which officers are rotated in and out of certain areas in a pre-arranged schedule, community policing tends to establish the police’s relationship with the community in which the officers are assigned. This apparent permanent assignment to a single geographical area may at times become counter-productive, especially in cases where the police develop rapport with the local criminal groups, such as drug traffickers. In such instances, community policing becomes a major challenge in that it may result in detrimental effects in overall law enforcement. It is important to note that community policing introduces a new role for the police officers. This entails a role that requires a new outlook coupled with a new set of skills and expertise. The scope or extent in the conversion of the officers’ undeveloped job specification, and thus their work-related identity, has at times caused struggle to community policing amongst regular guard officers. Legal Issues During the implementation of community policing models, policy-making at local, state, and federal levels of government can affect the policies and procedures of police departments. Policy-making can affect the relationship between the police department and the community by dictating, through laws, the activities and tasks that police departments may be hindered to undertake. Therefore, policy-making can pose positive effect on police agencies and their interaction with various sections of the c community. On the other hand, it can introduce negative implications when it comes to defining the extent of the relationship between the police and the community in law enforcement. It is noteworthy that lack of political guidance on pressing issues can become troublesome and confusing for local police departments. Many law enforcement analysts have expressed concerns regarding the role of local law enforcement in community policing models. For instance, there are concerns about the effects that local policies may have on the police department’s relationship with immigrant communities. In this regard, many police chiefs have expressed concern pertaining to policies that can herald mistrust and fear for the police when interacting with immigrant communities. Police departments are worried that such policies could precipitate a greater unwillingness among citizens’ to report crime activities. Furthermore, there are concerns that many communities do not understand the difference between local police department and the local community policing groups. This has often resulted in breach of the law in cases where the community policing groups arrest and apprehend criminals instead of alerting the local police. Thus, police departments have struggled with the best ways of ensuring that their community policing models operate in a manner way that upholds local, state, and national constitutions. Economic/Financial Issues The shortage of funding has remained a pivotal challenge to the implementation of community policing initiatives. Many states often experience budget shortfalls, and the police departments are usually among the departments that need to operate on minimum budgets. Reduced budgets have often resulted in fewer officers responding to calls for service, participate in crime-prevention efforts, and maintain partnerships with the surrounding communities. In some areas, police chiefs have indicated that insufficient budgets have led to staff shortages, and this has left the departments with little resources to implement community policing models. It is plausible that community policing skills need to be integrated into the training curriculum for the police officers. Indeed, training in community policing is aimed at supplementing policing techniques with communication and leadership skills that can encourage increased community participation. As a matter of fact, all police personnel need to be trained in problem-solving skills, motivation, and team-building. In most cases, these attributes are not included in police training manuals, and hence, additional resources are required to facilitate further training before implementation of community policing. It is notable that training involves the entire police department and may at times include civilian personnel involved in enlisting participation in community meetings. The need to conduct this necessary training introduces further strain on police budgets and leaves little resources for further crime analysis and prevention strategies (Chapman & Scheider 8-9). Apart from training, other fiscal and human resources issues often play a crucial role in the way police departments perceive community policing. Most police heads have a feeling that their departments are understaffed and overworked, and hence little resources in terms of money and time, to conduct community policing. In fact, police officers often raise concerns regarding the effect of community policing on scarce departmental resources. Apart from a contemporary belief that community policing is less productive than traditional policing models, many junior officers perceive it as time-consuming and requiring more police resources. In departments where community policing has not been implemented, the police chiefs often cite a lack of financial resources as a major reason for delayed implementation. Community outreach and problem-solving have been cited as the major activities that are labor intensive, and the hardest to implement together with the traditional policing models. Internal department issues There is a need to operate a more open system for police divisions to obtain a better relationship with the public. This has significant consequences to the general organization of police departments. Thus, the structure and formation of police departments needs to under major decentralization in order to allow succinct deployment within the community. The re-organization is also necessary to allow effective use of police officers in establishing network relations with the community (Dupont 79-83). Given the concrete nature of police organization and ranking hierarchy, it has become a major challenge for police departments to restructure this organization for purposes of community policing. Community policing has introduced the need to have an additional horizontal rank organization that can permit officers to maintain good presentation without the need to aspire for command positions (Friedmann). Such a flat structure has the potential to improve the quality of officers’ performance in the field. For purposes of community policing, internal communication channels at the police departments need to be re-structured in order to break the complex chain of command and improve information flow. It is a must for police management to improve collaboration at all levels, including the officer-supervisor and officer-community (Friedmann). This is aimed at expanding the spans of responsibility for the officers. Furthermore, community policing entails that officers are accorded superior preference to authorize them in making decisions and encouraging greater tractability in non-legal enforcement circumstances. This improves performance, especially for the officers who are now expected to perform better in a new position of trust, both with the department and the community. For a community policing to be more effective, police deployment needs to be practical, preemptive, and communal-oriented. It also needs to be reactive encompass reactive policing. Thus, internal place departments need to be restructured to ensure that both proactive and reactive policing take place at the same time in a complementary manner (Chappell 4-5). When it comes to recruitment, it has become a major challenge for police departments to acquire people-oriented, service-centered individuals. Currently, many officers join several police forces with a mind adventure and a sense of power due to the traditional muse of force by the police. In the light of community policing, it has become a necessity to integrate a differential recruitment policy that can change this image and enhance the self-selection process in order to improve future police personnel. Community policing has also introduced fears among many police officers that their enforcement powers are likely to be eliminated. In some instances, the absence of an aggressive enforcement component has been reported as the greatest stumbling block that has been introduced by community policing. In order to achieve its objectives, community policing requires an independent environment for it to flourish. This can only take place if the police and the department can form a partnership of equality. Thus, the hierarchical police structure needs to be altered in such a way that police need to trust the community participants and regard them as an essential component of law enforcement. Conclusion It is plausible that community challenging has become a model of choice for police departments as they seek to enhance their policing activities and policies. The involvement of the community in efforts of improving their safety and security is one of the best ways of curbing criminal activities in the 21st century. As police departments seek to implement community policing models, there are numerous challenges that need to be addressed in the most effective manner. To some extent, the idea of public policing has changed the indicators of successful policing. In order to raise the acceptance of community-based policing outcomes, police departments have the challenge of addressing legal, social, financial, and internal department issues that seem to slow down the uptake of community policing. Works Cited Chapman, Rop & Scheider, Mathew. Community Policing: Now More than Ever. Office of Community Oriented Policing, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, D.C., 2002. Print Chappell, Allison. The Philosophical Versus Actual Adoption of Community Policing: A Case Study. Criminal Justice Review, 2009, 34 (1): 5 Clarke, Robert, & Newman, Gerrald. Police and the prevention of terrorism. Policing, 2007, 1(1), 9-20 Dupont, Blarke. Security in the age of networks. Policing and Society, 2009, 14(1), 76-91 Innes, Marvin. Policing uncertainty: countering terror through community intelligence and democratic policing. Annals of the American Academy, 2006, 605, 222-241 Read More