Community Oriented Policing - Coursework Example

POLICING This report is concerned with the topic of Community Oriented Policing (COP), and some of the challenges faced by this type of policing in the present recessionary economy of the US. There are also many opportunities to consider in this method of policing, because during tough times, police departments need to form better relationships with the communities they serve. COP is basically about opening the lines of communication. This report looks at the issue of COP from a cost effective standpoint in the background of the current US economy, which has been in a prolonged recession since 2007. Introduction Especially in today’s economic environment, attention must be paid to the cost effective value of Community Oriented Policing, to give the public the perception that although times may be tough, law enforcement is actively engaged with them in their communities and is a visible contributor in this regard. Community Oriented Policing, or COP, is a way of policing that has been expanding functionally and organizationally since its first inception and popularization during the mid-twentieth century. During this era, interaction between the community and the police force was seen to be improved by community programs which focused on expanding a positive relationship between the community and the police that had previously been tarnished. Lines of communication were opened and police organizational structures began to change to support a more involved approach in terms of community relations. “Goldstein believed that in recognition of the reality of American policing… line officers (would be given) the freedom to develop creative solutions to community problems beyond simply making arrests or doing nothing” (Kane, 2000). Patrol methods changed as community policing became more popular, and officers were paired in teams and sometimes asked to patrol geographically smaller beats that heightened this sense of community relationship and communication in terms of reducing the community’s fear of crime and forming a positive dialogue with police officers. Since, COP has grown to include any number of operations and scenarios which are seen to improve the relationship between the police and the community, which is just what is needed in today’s trying times. “Much of the growing literature on community policing tends to be qualitative in nature. That is, success stories are told, but they are accompanied by very little empirical proof” (McKee, 2001). This paper examines various perspectives on COP, from a studies that attempt to relate the new way of policing to the reduction of the nation’s violent crime rates, to studies that examine the challenges of change in police bureaucratic systems and review the interactions between officers and citizens. Background—the economy Today, the economic situation is fairly negative. America is experiencing a crisis that is, at the current writing, on the inside edge of a major recession, and since 2007, the government has made efforts to curb the crisis by first raising and then lowering interest rates, and then setting up a semi-nationalized banking system and the so called bailout funds. The technical definition of a recession has perhaps been just barely met according to the GDP; however, this is still a significant worry for the future, especially if inflation continues, in terms of keeping COP programs cost-effective. At the current state of writing, it is a very delicate balance upon which a lot of commentators have flung their various predictions about the future of US economic policy, based on events since 2007. It must be noted, however, that however much financial acumen or experience a person or commentator has, they do not have a crystal ball that is one hundred percent accurate. And, as shown in the news, proximity to certain markets such as housing or junk bonds tends to bias the reportage of some commentators towards an over-emphasis on these sectors above all others. So overall it is important to take secondary reportage, whether it is optimistic or pessimistic, with a grain of salt. “This task is a costly prospect if an outside source is contracted to develop the survey. It can be a perilous chore if attempted by in-house staff who are not well-versed in survey methodology. Many small departments and agencies with budgetary constraints simply cannot resort to such a costly option” (McKee, 2001). Another important economic theme and issue that affects many law enforcement officers in the present is the aging of the baby boom generation. The future is never set in stone, but present demographic indicators can give commentators some idea of what is going to happen in terms of fiscal policy. One of the issues that is represented by this concern is that of aging Americans, especially those who are members of the baby boom generation, facing a Social Security crisis as their numbers increase significantly in the early twenty-first century. There are many ways of looking at this potential crisis, both in terms of what it means to politics presently and in terms of what it means to younger generations who may be facing a tapped-out system. Although many see the crisis part of the equation happening to those in middle adulthood, it is more likely that this will be the drain phase, if demographic indicators are correct, that doesn’t leave much for people who are under eighteen now. Therefore, a lot of the monetary policy that one hears about in political speeches addresses this concern. “This funding is in addition to the $1 billion that was recently appropriated for the COPS Hiring Recovery Program (CHRP) under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. In total, COPS received $550 million for FY 2009” (Grants, 2009). Community Oriented Policing today In the face of economic and social uncertainties, it is more important than ever for law enforcement to have strong ties with the community. Therefore, COP presentations need to be reviewed. Kane (2000) does find that the programs have distinctive merits in terms of opening lines of communication between communities and police departments, but cannot definitively state that a link exists between COP policies and the decrease in the general crime rate across the nation. Proactive arrest strategies had much more to do with declining crime-rates than Community Oriented Policing, but the strategy being used by the individual officer to combat the individual violent crime differs so greatly that statisticians can come up with any number of arguable causal relationships. “Some law enforcement officers believe that citizens will tolerate if not support aggressive and legally questionable crime fighting tactics in order to quell the rising tide of violent crime. Police departments also increasingly emphasize community oriented policing (COP)” (Kane, 2000). Officers who are used to this system may find it difficult to change to a system in which they are asked to patrol a smaller area in which they have more extensive contact with the local community, with which they are asked to communicate, respond to, and make suggestions in within a new capacity of creativity and free thinking. “Community oriented policing evolved as a means to resolve these underlying problems. Involved citizens, businesses, political figures, and other social service organizations jointly must address issues handled by law enforcement officers” (Dwyer and Dwyer, 2004). Tracing this reluctance back to the bureaucratic structure of many police departments which is often the center of change, rather than the officer on the street being the center of change. In this example, the system proved to be inefficient because too much attention was being paid to organization and too little attention was being paid to execution. There are many attributions that can be made between community policing and the idea of the community era. There are many examples as well, of how training procedures do or don’t evince law enforcement procedures of community orienting. For example, during training in defensive tactics, the law enforcement defensive tactics instructor at academy will take the student through a routine drill in which the instructor played the part of a citizen. In many cases the trainee pats down his/her instructor as s/he was told, and then is shocked to see the instructor turn around and shoot at them with a starting pistol which he had concealed in a back pocket, or do some other such lesson, which is put forth to the trainee as: trust no-one. At this point, the trainee may feel the real danger, and see talking with average citizens from a tactical stance only, rather than a community stance. We can see in this example how important it is to stress how the organizational culture of police departments cannot be separated from police departments themselves, a topic that is significantly addressed. Police departments have been asked to change organizational structures several times over the epochs of law enforcement from the nineteenth century (when the paradigm was political) onward. The difficulties in responding to these changes are basically bureaucratic in nature, as layers of authority that stress crime control over effective methods of communication are seen to be an impediment to the process of COP development. One should not focus on the impediments to COP exclusively, as several successful cases of Community Oriented Policing have been observed, and that successful implementation of this method is both possible and wanted. COP has grown to include any number of operations and scenarios which are seen to improve the relationship between the police and the community, including many social skills programs geared towards reaching out to community youth such as D.A.R.E. and G.R.E.A.T, which are programs that stress positive ideals in the relation of the police and community. There are two sides to every story: we have seen above how COP can be very valuable. However, there is also something to be said for traditional policing: it has been proven to work. This cannot always be said in a similar way in reference to COP, which is still growing and is even misunderstood by many departments, as the definitions of true COP policy are often very hard to pinpoint exactly. The effectiveness of traditional policing is shown by the fact that, “Much of the growing literature on community policing tends to be qualitative in nature. That is, success stories are told, but they are accompanied by very little empirical proof” (Kane, 2000). Tried and true methods appeal to many officers when approaching the subject of how to effectively police a community, and these tried and true methods are especially die-hard when there is little significant quantitative evidence that new methods, which are less traditional, are effective in fighting crime and lowering crime rates. In looking at this issue and how it is related to the economic situation of today, it is variable on the individual. Some officers, for example, may make distinctions between the media and the public, seeing the media as being obsessed with pointing out police misconduct, and the public as being less caring, as long as the officer is using the potential misconduct situation to fight or deter crime that could cause the public harm. It is also important to explore COP in the context of the local department, which most often does have a COP program in effect currently. Many critics link COP and misconduct because COP tends to give more power of discretion to the individual officer and their relation to the community than the rulebook and its relation to the officer. But others may argue that COP actually may decrease ethical violations and misconduct, because it focuses on establishing and keeping positive ties with the community, which may be adversely effected by instances of officers’ misconduct. Community Oriented Policing in today’s modern environment must be met with a cost-proactive attitude. Just because the economy is bad, does not mean that law enforcement should sever COP programs and ties with the community. training in ethics, to many commentators, may be compared to some arguments about training in art—some argue that one either has artistic talent or doesn’t, and if one doesn’t, no amount of art classes are going to make them talented. On the other side of the argument, some assume that by focusing on draftsmanship and craftsmanship, one can be made an artist through rigorous training. The same basic argument is present in ethics—some people believe that a person is either ethical or is unethical naturally, and no amount of training can effectively teach someone to be an ethical person. “Answering difficult social problems requires not only collaboration with other social agencies and the public but creative and critical thinking. Many view the community police officer as a critical social scientist--someone who solves social, economic, or political problems through socially active change” (Intelligence, 2008). Community Oriented Policing also means that the law enforcement officer needs to be able to get out and among high risk populations, in order to proceed with preventative community interaction. In many cases, this involves reassessing police roles in terms of making more open communication patterns with typically at risk groups, such as young males, their interactions with authority, and how the police communicate and interact with them. For example, if an officer sees a group of young men loitering around talking closely to each other, the officer can approach them and strike up a conversation, or they can view the situation from a purely tactical stance and assume that the teenagers are all armed. It is a matter of perspective. Conclusion In summary, this report has looked at COP in the background of the current US economy, which has been in a recession since 2007. Nonetheless, police departments need to take advantage of COP even during tough cost effective times, because it is more important now than ever to establish strong links of communication with the community. No matter how it is used, the bottom line is that COP is about law enforcement ethics, and making ethical decisions. “The push for more accountable, or more professional, police practices has a long history, including attempts to elevate the educational requirements of officers to continuing training programs (such as) the introduction of administrative guidelines to define misconduct as it relates to officers’ interactions with civilians” (McKee, 2001). It has been the assumption of this research that simply defining COP may be an approach to the issue that is geared more towards pointing out problems than finding solutions in today’s troubling economic times, so one must go beyond simple definitions to face the challenge of the future, and search for effective programmatic directions amidst economic chaos. This means looking at both community oriented policing (COP) training alternatives and ethical training programs in the context of the local department and its training remaining cost-effective and also efficient. 2 sources most used: Kane and McKee REFERENCE Dwyer, D and L Dwyer (2004). The need for change. FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2194/is_11_73/ai_n9522612?tag=content;col1 Kane, Roert J. (2000). Permanent beat assignments in association with community policing: Assessing the impact on police officers’ field activity. Justice Quarterly. McKee, Adam J. (2001). The community policing evaluation survey: Reliability, validity, and structure. American Journal of Criminal Justice. Grants and resources—COPS (2009). http://www.cops.usdoj.gov/ Intelligence and crime analysis (2008). FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2194/is_11_77/ai_n31041606?tag=content;col1 KANE Permanent beat assignments in association with community policing: Assessing the impact on police officers field activity Robert J Kane. Justice Quarterly : JQ. Highland Heights: Jun 2000. Vol. 17, Iss. 2; pg. 259, 22 pgs Abstract (Summary) Although the permanent assignment of police officers to their beats has long been an important goal in community policing, its utility has not been assessed empirically. Using a multiple time-series quasi-experimental design, the present study reports on an impact assessment of permanent beat assignment in conjunction with a community policing program implemented in the Philadelphia Housing Authority Police Department.  »  Jump to indexing (document details) Full Text (7967  words) Copyright Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences Jun 2000 [Headnote] PERMANENT BEAT ASSIGNMENTS IN ASSOCIATION WITH COMMUNITY POLICING: ASSESSING THE IMPACT ON POLICE OFFICERS FIELD ACTIVITY* [Headnote] Although the permanent assignment of police officers to their beats has long been an important goal in community policing, its utility has not been assessed empirically. Using a multiple time-series quasi-experimental design, the present study reports on an impact assessment of permanent beat assignment in conjunction with a community policing program implemented in the Philadelphia Housing Authority Police Department. Permanent beat assignment in the treatment sites led to increases in officerinitiated investigative activity (indicating greater responsibility for beats), while no such changes were observed in the comparison sites. Implications for public policy and for conducting police research in public housing are discussed; future research directions are suggested. Permanent beat assignment in association with community policing appears to be widely accepted (Boydstun and Sherry 1975; Reiss 1985; Schwartz and Clarren 1977; Weisel and Eck 1994), even though its perceived utility has not been assessed empirically. Rather, permanent beat assignment is often included as a component of community-oriented policing (COP) on the theoretical assumption that such a condition will facilitate beat "ownership" and responsibility among officers. Yet, the condition is rarely, if ever, related to any measured outcomes. Moreover, even though permanent beat assignment is often linked to residents perception of community policing activity (see Skogan and Hartnett 1997), little is known about its ability to actually alter street-level policing as measured by objective indicators. This issue is important because it is often quite difficult to establish permanent assignments, especially in police agencies that have not traditionally followed such a deployment scheme (Sherman, Milton, and Kelly 1973; Skogan and Hartnett 1997). Moreover, the establishment of permanent assignments merely represents the initial effort; holding the agency to the programmatic commitment can be a challenge in itself. In the present study we assess whether permanently assigning community police of ficers to their beat areas increases responsibility for an area, as measured by officers levels of self initiated field activity. LITERATURE REVIEW Community Policing in Theory Goldstein (1979) argued that traditional efforts to "improve" policing during periods of reform generally centered around correcting deficiencies in the police organization. Such bureaucratic adjustments often led to what Goldstein (1979:236) called the "`means over ends syndrome," in which police administrators tended to place more importance on police efficiency in fighting crime than on effectiveness. This organizational emphasis ignores the fact that police may be deployed by administrators as officers of law enforcement, but they are mobilized by the public as problem solvers (Goldstein 1979). Goldstein believed that in recognition of this reality of American policing, police administrators would be required to give line officers the freedom to develop creative solutions to community problems beyond simply making arrests or doing nothing. In general, the term community policing is used to describe police agencies efforts to develop more cooperative relationships with citizens in an attempt to move beyond incident-driven policing (Skolnick and Bayley 1986). In taking this approach, officers are encouraged to consider not only the immediate problem when (for example) responding to a call for service, but also the history of the situation so that a solution may be developed, which solves the problem for the future (Eck and Spelman 1987; Goldstein 1990). It has even been suggested that COP efforts allow police to "reinforce the informal control mechanisms of the community itself (Wilson and Kelling 1982:34) by creating a reciprocal relationship whereby police and residents cooperatively identify and address community problems and concerns (e.g., Skolnick and Bayley 1986). Through these efforts, the desired ends of this philosophy often include reduction of citizens fear, deterrence and prevention of crime, police visibility in the community, and accessibility of police to the public (Goldstein 1987). The "means" of community policing include elements at both the organizational and the tactical level. In support of the former, COP theory suggests that police administrators should decentralize their organizations command structures to facilitate greater within-community responsiveness (Kelling and Moore 1988), and to allow line officers more autonomy to develop and implement individualized strategies to address community problems (Greene 1989). Examples of decentralization include the establishment of storefront police substations and the use of participatory management. The primary theoretical premise favoring organizational decentralization is that police services will become more accessible to the public (Sykes 1992). Among the evolving tactical elements, police departments have adopted various deployment strategies such as foot patrols, door-todoor policing, and directed patrol (Cordner and Trojanowicz 1992; Greene and Mastrofski 1988; Reiss 1985). Such strategies have been conceived as alternatives to traditional motorized patrol, and are designed to bring the police into closer and more constructive contact with the public. In addition, some organizations have used 911 call screening to assess the callers needs before sending a uniformed officer to the scene (McEwen, Connors, and Cohen 1986). The theory behind 911 screening is that because many people call the police to report relatively minor or "cold" crimes, such reports may be taken over the telephone. Thus the need to dispatch a patrol officer is eliminated; this strategy presumably conserves resources. Finally, several theorists have noted that a primary element of community policing is the permanent assignment of patrol officers to their beats (Goldstein 1979, 1987; Kelling and Moore 1988; Manning 1984) so that they may gain local knowledge and become familiar with community members and their concerns. Permanent Beat Assignment in COP Research Even among the earliest community policing efforts, permanent beat assignment was often an important program goal. For example, in their evaluation of team policing in seven cities, (Dayton, Detroit, Holyoke (MA), Los Angeles, New York City, Richmond (UA), and Syracuse), Sherman et al. (1973) noted that permanent beat assignment was a program component in all study sites and that it was accomplished in every city but New York. Permanent assignment also was included as a component of other early community policing programs such as those in San Diego (Boydstun and Sherry 1975) and Cincinnati (Schwartz and Clarren 1977). More recently, in a multisite assessment of COP, Weisel and Eck (1994) found that in the six cities they evaluated, permanent beat assignment was a primary element. Although the permanent assignment of officers to their beats in implementations of community policing has been considered important by many police agencies and researchers, no researchers have attempted to empirically assess its effects on any objectively measured dependent variables. Weisel and Eck (1994:65), for example, noted that all the evaluation sites in their assessment used permanent assignment to "establish geographic responsibility and accountability" among police officers, but they did not report on any empirical outcomes related to such assignment, nor did they operationalize "responsibility" or "accountability." Most recently, in their comprehensive evaluation of community policing in the Chicago Police Department (CPD), Skogan and Hartnett (1997) reported that in an effort to enable officers to learn about local customs, community members, and problems, officers who participated in the Chicago Alternative Policing Strategy (CAPS) - the community policing program implemented in the CPD - were assigned permanently to their beat areas. Many residents in the experimental police districts reported significantly greater levels of visibility of community policing one year after the implementation of the program, which Skogan and Hartnett (1997:204) interpreted as showing "a real difference in police activity at the street level." The measures employed by the researchers, however, were based on surveys; therefore they represent residents perceptions but not necessarily actual changes in police behavior. Moreover, none of the CAPS outcomes assessed by Skogan and Hartnett was associated empirically with the permanent assignment of officers. CURRENT FOCUS There may be merit in the proposition that permanent beat assignment indeed may lead to greater "geographic responsibility and accountability" (Weisel and Eck 1994). To date, however, empirical validation is lacking. In the present study I attempt to fill this gap by testing whether permanent beat assignment might lead to actual changes in officers field behavior, as measured by increases in self initiated investigative activity. If such increases are observed, we may infer that this element of community policing in fact leads to officers greater responsibility for their beat. Rather than relying on perceived changes in police activity as reported by the police or citizens, the present analysis is based on a more objective indicator of officers activity: self initiated field investigations, measured by radio dispatch transmissions. METHODOLOGY The data for the present analysis were collected as part of a larger program evaluation of a community policing effort conducted in conjunction with the Philadelphia Housing Authority Police Department (PHAPD). The evaluation used a quasi-experimental design in which five housing developments represented the treatment sites (those in which community policing was implemented), and four developments represented comparison sites (those which were monitored, but in which no community policing activities were conducted). The treatment sites are located contiguously in north Philadelphia along the 11th Street Corridor, which runs north and south from Spring Garden Street to Lehigh Avenue on the east side of Broad Street, the major thoroughfare. The comparison sites are located noncontiguously in the same general area of north central Philadelphia, although they are located on the west side of Broad Street. The 11th Street Corridor developments were designated as experimental sites in consultation with PHA administration, and the comparison sites then were matched on key demographic variables. Hereafter I refer to the community policing strategy as the 11th Street Corridor Program. (For a complete description of the program components and data elements collected, see Collins et al. 1999; Piquero et al. 1998.) The Philadelphia Housing Authority administers a total of 30 public housing developments with a population of approximately 48,000 residents. The nine sites included in the current analysis have an aggregate population of approximately 5,600. These developments are a mixture of high-rise and low-rise construction, though most units are low-rise garden-style apartments and row houses. The census tracts containing the developments have a collective poverty rate of 56 percent; 85 percent of the households in these tracts earn less than $10,000 annually. The majority of the residents are African-American, and most of the households are female-headed with children. The PHAPD is a separate police agency from the Philadelphia Police Department; its officers have full authority and are licensed by the State of Pennsylvania as peace officers. The public housing police department consists of approximately 240 officers who are responsible for police functions in all housing developments within the Philadelphia Housing Authority. The PHAPD maintains its own fleet of patrol and unmarked vehicles, as well as a central dispatch center. Community Policing in a Public Housing Setting Is field research in public housing developments relevant to municipal police settings? For two reasons, I propose that the results of the present analysis may be as valid as those produced from studies outside public housing. First, public housing developments are ideal experimental settings because they are discrete units with locally identifiable borders. This fact largely overcomes the limitations of prior community policing evaluations, which used ambiguous or arbitrarily imposed boundaries in defining communities (for relevant criticisms, see Greene and Taylor 1988; Kessler and Duncan 1996). Second, although the department under study is a public housing police agency, strong evidence suggests that public housing police officers serve a function similar to that of their colleagues in municipal police departments. In an analysis of officers workload, which used the same data on calls-for-service as modeled here, Kane (1998) found that officers of the Philadelphia Housing Authority Police Department responded to crime and order maintenance events in about the same proportions as officers who previously had been studied in several municipal settings (see Bercal 1970; Greene and Klockars 1991; Mastrofski 1983; ONeill and Bloom 1972). The two types of police appear to diverge in service-related requests (Kane 1998): public housing residents generally make greater demands on police than do municipal residents (Vitella 1992; Weisel 1990). Service requests, however, are not part of the present analysis and thus should not influence the generalizability of the results. Despite these arguments, there is still some concern that the findings produced here may be an artifact of the research setting. For exactly the reason mentioned above, that public housing developments are largely self contained areal units, public housing police officers may become more familiar with the people and places of the developments than do officers in general municipal settings. This may be both the greatest advantage and the greatest disadvantage of conducting research in public housing. Therefore, although the present study attempts an impact analysis that I hope is relevant to general service police agencies, for interpretive purposes I place the findings in the context of research in a public housing police department. Experimental Intervention One of the primary components of the community policing program was the permanent assignment of the 11th Street Corridor officers to the treatment sites. This was done in an attempt to facilitate higher levels of beat responsibility among officers - a condition predicted by community policing theory. Moreover, because officers who are assigned permanently to their beats may gain greater local knowledge of the people and places associated with those areas, they should be able to recognize suspicious conditions even when the indicators are subtle (Greene and Taylor 1988). Recognition of these indicators may lead officers to engage in more self initiated field activity, a theory that leads to the following hypothesis: When 11th Street Corridor officers are assigned permanently to their beats, a significant increase in the number of officer-initiated field investigative activities should be observed, which indicates an increase in beat responsibility. MCKEE The community policing evaluation survey: Reliability, validity, and structure Adam J McKee. American Journal of Criminal Justice : AJCJ. Louisville: Spring 2001. Vol. 25, Iss. 2; pg. 199, 11 pgs Abstract (Summary) This paper describes the reliability, validity, and structure of a scale designed to evaluate community-policing programs. The Community Policing Evaluation Survey (CPES) is designed in such a way that local police agencies can implement it without the assistance of professional researchers.  »  Jump to indexing (document details) Full Text (2849  words) Copyright Southern Criminal Justice Association Spring 2001 [Headnote] ABSTRACT: This paper describes the reliability, validity, and structure of a scale designed to evaluate community-policing programs. The Community Policing Evaluation Survey (CPES) is designed in such a way that local police agencies can implement it without the assistance of professional researchers. The scale consists of four subscales which measure (1) Quality of Contact with Police, (2) Perceptions of Crime and Disorder, (3) Personal Fear, and (4) Community Cohesion. INTRODUCTION Much of the growing literature on community policing tends to be qualitative in nature. That is, success stories are told, but they are accompanied by very little empirical proof (e.g., Kelling & Coles, 1996). Some researchers have tried to measure the success of community policing with scientific and statistical rigor. These well-known studies have depended on large federal grants, complex designs, and the knowledge of professional social scientists (e.g., Annan & Skogan, 1993; Pate & Annan, 1989; Skogan, 1990; Uchida, Forst, & Annan, 1990; Wycoff & Skogan, 1993). The majority of these studies have shown real benefits from properly implemented community-policing programs. The success of these major studies has given many community-policing agencies the impetus to evaluate their own efforts (Bureau of Justice Assistance, 1993). Most departments that have taken on this arduous task have used custom-designed survey instruments tailored to the specific needs of their jurisdiction. This task is a costly prospect if an outside source is contracted to develop the survey. It can be a perilous chore if attempted by in-house staff who are not well-versed in survey methodology. Many small departments and agencies with budgetary constraints simply cannot resort to such a costly option. Given the large body of literature that currently exists, there is no shortage of adequate survey items. To create new and untested items amounts to a wasteful task. The optimal solution would be to extract a set of items which reliably measure a few constructs of almost universal utility from that existing pool. Thus, a standardized instrument would be of great value to practitioners evaluating community-policing programs. The present work is an attempt to achieve that goal. OBJECTIVES OF THE PROPOSED INSTRUMENT Three objectives guided the construction of the Community Policing Evaluation Survey (CPES). The primary thrust behind the proposed instrument is to provide a great deal of information in a short space. The length of a questionnaire often dictates the final project cost in terms of materials and labor (see Rea & Parker, 1992). In addition, statistical analyses usually require that the sample be a multiple of the number of variables under consideration. A relatively short instrument allows the researcher to utilize many powerful statistical techniques with a reasonable number of participants (see Kraemer & Thiemann [1987] for a concise review of the application of statistical power analysis to sample size). For example, many researchers recommend a minimum sample size of ten times the number of variables under consideration for both factor analysis and regression analysis. Since the current instrument utilizes only 20 items, a study group of 200 respondents would meet the sample size requirement of these statistical techniques. The second objective in the design of this instrument is to ensure that data collection, scoring, and analysis would be simple enough for non-statisticians to complete. This objective is addressed by the simple additive properties of the scales. A third objective is to establish subscales that reflect key components in the evaluation of modern, community-oriented police agencies. The first subscale measures public perceptions of the police. Public perceptions are important to policy-makers because how citizens feel about the police may have a direct impact on the success of partnerships between police and the community (Eck & Rosenbaum, 1994) and may impact citizen compliance with the law (Tyler, 1990). Public perceptions of the police within the scope of community policing are critical. As some observers put it, To build this trust for an effective community partnership, police must treat people with respect and sensitivity. The use of unnecessary force and arrogance, aloofness, or rudeness at any level of the agency will dampen the willingness of community members to ally themselves with the police (Community Policing Consortium, 1994, p. 16). The remaining three subscales are designed to tap central components of community policing and include items derived from various incivilities theses, such as broken windows (Taylor, 2001). The second CPES subscale reflects public perceptions of crime and disorder. Crime and disorder, as perceived by citizens, are thought to affect quality of life radically in communities (Kelling & Coles, 1996; Skogan, 1990). A commonly held view is that disorder, fear, and serious crime form a causal chain that results in a spiral of neighborhood decline (Skogan, 1990). Because fear is thought to be a causal factor in neighborhood decline, its inclusion is vital. The third CPES subscale measures citizen fear of crime in an effort to evaluate the impact of police activities designed to reduce fear. Fear is not, however, thought to operate directly as the cause of crime. Rather, fear weakens community cohesion, and then informal social controls dissipate. One cornerstone of the community-policing philosophy is that informal social processes, not police activities, maintain social order within neighborhoods (Rosenbaum, 1988). If community cohesion is absent, social controls collapse. Thus, community cohesion forms an important link in the casual chain of neighborhood decline and represents the fourth CPES subscale. DEVELOPING THE INSTRUMENT Pate and Annan (1989), funded by a National Institute of Justice grant, investigated the effects of foot patrol on the perceptions of the incidence of crime and community-policing practice in Baltimore. Data collection relied upon an 18-page questionnaire containing 118 questions for the first wave and a 20-page questionnaire consisting of 133 items for the second wave. A total of 921 interviews were completed during the first wave and 636 questionnaires were collected in the second wave. The Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (http://www.icpsr.umich.edu) has made the data publicly available. One particular feature which renders this data set especially attractive to the present project is that the item pool is representative of similar evaluation projects (e.g., Annan & Skogan, 1993; Pate & Annan, 1989; Skogan, 1990; Uchida, Forst, & Annan, 1990; Wycoff & Skogan, 1993). The items used in these surveys are so similar, in fact, that Skogan (1990) was able to merge the data sets into a single file for his neighborhood-level analysis. This synthesis suggests that there is some agreement among researchers as to the important constructs surrounding community-oriented policing strategies. Thus, the Pate and Annan (1989) data were used simply because they represent a larger universe of potentially valuable items. Scalar scores from Pate and Annan (1989) were factor analyzed using principal component analysis. Scree plot analysis suggested that nine factors be extracted from the data. The four factors explaining the most variance (42.3%) were selected for inclusion in the current instrument. The other five factors, with the exception of security measures (installation of dead bolts and security lighting), had too few items to make up a complete subscale. However, the security factor was excluded due to low response rates in the original study. Apparently, the original questions were geared towards homeowner improvements and many of the respondents were renters. The five items with the highest loadings on each factor were retained and entered into another factor analysis solution. As Table 1 shows, four distinct factors emerged. They are labeled Personal Fear, Quality of Police Contact, Crime and Disorder, and Community Cohesion. Every item loaded heavily on one factor and nonsignificantly (.400 or less) on the other factors. The factor loadings suggest a relatively high level of internal consistency among the item scores. This information suggests good reliability and construct validity of the item scores from the Baltimore data. Calculation of alpha statistics to assess reliability was not tenable because of scaling differences on the original instrument. These results suggest it is empirically feasible to proceed with the construction of the CPES. One additional modification was initiated. All the questions were rewritten such that responses were placed on a 5-point Likert scale. The contents of the CPES, along with the scale values for the responses, appear in the Appendix. Scoring the instrument consists of recording the value in response parentheses for each item. Each subscale score has a range of 5 to 25 and the entire scale ranges from 20 to 100 points. Several elements of good scale design, such as alternating the direction of items and mixing the subscale items, are absent. The reason for these omissions is that the scale is designed to be administered and scored by unsophisticated users. ASSESSING THE INSTRUMENT The CPES was assessed in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, at the request of the local police department. This city was advantageous for several reasons. The agency is headed by a progressive chief, which ensured complete cooperation. As a Southern city, the site provides a potentially valuable contrast to most previous studies. Most importantly, Hattiesburg is a small city with a population just under 50,000 inhabitants. Since the data used to develop the CPES came from a large city, using Hattiesburg as the research site would help determine the viability of the instrument in a different environment. The target group consisted of 250 city residents. Half the sample was drawn randomly from the city at large, while the other half represented known crime victims. Victims were included in the sample because police administrators wanted to determine how they viewed the police in comparison to the general population. Telephone contact produced an overall response rate of 62.4% (n = 156). However, victims were more elusive and represented only 31.4% (n = 49) of the participants. For the randomly selected portion of the sample, interviewers asked to speak with the adult in the house having the most recent birthday. Whites and African Americans were adequately represented for statistical purposes. The median household income of respondents was $26,000. The only large departure from population values was the overrepresentation of females (67.3%) in the sample. Table 2 presents the results of the principal component and reliability analyses. The principal component solution indicates the Hattiesburg data have essentially the same structure as the Baltimore data. That is, the 20 items represented in the Hattiesburg data fit a four-component structural model with each item loading heavily only on its respective factor, as did the Baltimore data. This agreement across data sets suggests adequate content validity. The internal consistency analysis indicates the scores for each subscale have a fair to good reliability. In other words, scores for the entire scale are reliable enough to use as an index of general neighborhood health. Table 3 presents the intercorrelations between the four subscales and the entire scale. There are significant linkages between each of the four subscales. As subscribers to the "broken windows theory" would expect, there is a positive relationship between crime and disorder, fear of crime, and community cohesion. DISCUSSION The current study had three objectives which guided the construction of the CPES. The first purpose was to create a relatively short instrument which would provide a great deal of information in a short space. The resulting 20-item instrument is very compact and far more parsimonious than the larger instrument upon which it is based as well as most of the questionnaires used in the previously discussed largescale evaluation projects. Read More