The Effectiveness of Community Policing Strategy - Literature review Example

Community policing Customer Inserts His/Her Name Customer Inserts Grade Course Customer Inserts Tutor’s Name 15, 08, 2011 Introduction Comprehending the need of community policing strategy is fundamental in appreciating its significance in different regions and a country as a whole. With developing new policing challenges fostered by development of communication and technology advancements. The need for new policing strategies is inevitable, the 21st century digital age has enabled crimes across borders and hence creating additional challenges to police administration that has failed to curtail escalation of traditional crimes such as rape, murder and kidnapping among other social crimes. This paper highlights different issues facing community policing and its advancement in different regions. The rationale for this essay is therefore to bring out both the positive and negative issues that the policing communities face in different regions. Noting the substantial development in the community policing process, challenges in terms of regional distinction and vastness are also pointed out as major stumbling block of the advancement of community policing process. Community policing According to Tillman (2000, p. 4) community policing can be referred to as a deliberate act of bringing police and the community/citizens together in order to prevent crime and provide possible solution for challenges facing the community. It is thus a proactive measure of preventing crimes before happening rather waiting for the crime to happen before acting on it. It was instituted in the 1990’s in order to enhance better relationships between the police and the community. As stated by Casey (2010) community policing has two core components which are problem solving and community partnership. In order to initiate community partnership, police must advocate for positive relationship with the citizens/community. This implies that they must incorporate the community in their quest for viable crime prevention and control. It should also be able to pool their resources and together with the community in order to address urgent needs of the community. Problem solving basically involves the means in which specific issues of the communities are indentified and better remedies of abating these issues are formulated. The concept of community policing does not however eliminate the authority of the police but rather foster better cooperation with the community in order to relive the police of some burdens. The core functions of a community policing is therefore to mitigate crimes through a thorough analysis of the problems facing the community and applying better problem solving techniques to abate the problems. Conditions impacting on procedures of implementing community policing strategy There are a number of factors that impact both positively and negatively to the implementation of the community policing strategy. These issues are outlined in order to shade more light on the relevance of community policing strategy. Positive contributing factors The underlying concept of community policing is the major driving force in the establishment and progress of community policing services. As stated by Casey (2010), the need to study comparative policing around the world is essential in acquiring distinct features of integrating better strategies to the policing system in a country. Based on the fact that the traditional approaches of addressing crimes had significantly failed to fully address the security needs of communities, community policing brings with it a new dimension of the 21st century policing strategy. The need to incorporate the community in the policing process cannot be overemphasised given its immense significance (Newburn 2005). The other positive factor that helps in the development of community policing strategy is because of the effectiveness of the strategy. As compared to the traditional policing strategy, the police officers paid less or no attention to the public while working to reduce crime rates in the society. This poor corporation with the public has been seen as a major loophole in the police force which contributes increased prevalence of crime rates in different regions despite the improved police presence. Logically criminals live within the societal setting and are the community is thus well versed about their whereabouts and their activities. Traditionally minimal important information reached the police because of such barriers. The development of community policing strategy has therefore breached this initial gap and hence promising better policing strategies which have since lead to the reduction of crime rates in different regions (Newburn 2005). As pointed out by Dempsey & Forst (2011, p.356) the availability of technology is facilitating the advancement of community policing factor and hence an added advantage in its implementation process. Different departments are thus taking advantage of computers and the internet to initiate and maximize their outreach to the community. An interactive website creates a successful means of information sharing which includes the policing beliefs, philosophies and practises with corporation with the community. The concept of problem-oriented policing has also come into play after the implementation of community policing in different regions. In the traditional policing strategy, police were reactive rather than proactive. They addressed an incident after its occurrence then move to the next incident and so forth. However in problem-oriented approach taken by the community policing, the focus is on the possible cause of the problem or incident and not on the incident itself. Negative contributing factors The vastness of regions that community policing operates is one limitation factor not only in Australia but all over the globe where community policing is being implemented. In order for police community strategy to work effectively, the area of coverage should be limited or rather small in size in order to enhance better understanding between the policing officer and the community. A well defined geographical is thus a basic requirement for better operation of the policing strategy. The other reason why a larger geographical area limits the implementation of police community strategy is because of the uniqueness of the social characteristics of diverse regions. Fundamentally, some strategies may work in one area and fail to work in another because of this uniqueness of the social characteristics which exhibit different perceptions of the strategies used by the policing officers (Matthews &Young 2003). According to Mathiesen (2006, p. 25 )Because of the inevitable vastness of regions and thus their uniqueness in terms of community police needs, the cost of implementing effective strategies is largely affected and thus creating a major challenge in terms of deploying better strategies. This is because of the need to create diverse systems for operation in different segment of the selected region. More so, the vastness of the region may lead to overworking of some police officers in order to meet the needs of some areas. This creates exhaustion in the police force and hence compromising their effectiveness in fully accomplishing their mandated tasks. The other major challenge is the diverse community interests which are established on the basis of ethnic, racial, occupational lines, churches and also common history. Because of diversity, needs also vary respectively and hence some needs of one community can clash with the needs of another community and hence creating unharmonious relationship between these communities living in the same neighborhood. This is a major challenge in implementing an effective community policing strategy because of uneven needs of a community which demands a delicate balance of issues in order to ensure sustainability of the strategy (Sutton, Cherney & White 2008). The inability of the policing workforce to comprehend the fundamental necessities for community policing strategy is also another major negative contributing factor. Considering that community policing is still a new strategy of combating crimes in different regions. Most officers do not fully appreciate the need to incorporate the public or the community in their quest to establish a workable strategy for community policing. This is because of the traditional understanding about the primary functions of police and policing as well (Thacher 2001). Other necessary skills that are lacking in most police officers include; unnecessary force, aloofness, arrogance and rudeness, these actions dampen the community willingness to cooperate with the police in ensuring their security. Conclusion As analyzed in this essay, it is clear that the objectives of community policing strategy are to ensure that the community is involved in the policing process. The identified core components of the community policing strategy are thus identified as problem solving and community partnership. While problem solving aims at addressing the needs of the community, community partnership foster the relationship between the citizens and the police force. This essay has also identified both positive and negative implications of community policing strategies. Some of the fundamental positive contributing factors include the contribution of the community to the policing process; the relationship created with the community fosters positive contribution from the community and hence reducing escalation of criminal activities. The other important contributing factor is the development of technology which has seen new collaboration with the community in the quest of reducing crime through creating a website that discusses issues. There are a number of negative contributing factors considered in the essay; some of the notable factors include the vastness of the regions that community policing should monitor. The vastness of regions brings additional challenges because of the different needs, perceptions and social settings of different communities in different regions. This demands unique strategies of addressing unique segments and hence a major stumbling blocks in the implementation of the community policing strategy. References Casey, J 2010, Policing the World, Carolina Academic Press, North Carolina. Dempsey, JS & Forst, FS 2011, An Introduction to Policing, Cengage Learning, Sydney. PP. 356-363. Mathiesen, KE 2006, Epistemic Risk and Community Policing, The Southern Journal of Philosophy, vol. 44, no. 2.pp.23-28. Matthews, R &Young, J 2003, The New Politics of Crime and Punishment, Willan Publishing, Portland, Oregon. Newburn, T 2005, Policing: Key Readings, Willan Publishing, Cullompton. Sutton, A, Cherney, A. & White, R 2008, Crime Prevention: Principles, Perspectives and Practices, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne. Thacher, D 2001, Conflicting Values in Community Policing, Law & Society Review, vol. 35, no. 3. pp.1-6. Tillman, R 2000, The Effectiveness of Community Policing, Eastern Michigan University, Michigan. pp. 1-7. Read More