Advantages and Disadvantages Community Policing Strategies - Coursework Example

Community Policing Outline Introduction Advantages and Disadvantages of community policing Community policing strategies Conditions impacting community policing Conclusion Introduction The term community policing can be defined in many ways, but it refers to a strategy whereby the police work together with the people in a local community in combating crime. With the increased levels of crime and the need for a safer society, police forces in different countries had to adopt efficient methods and activities in policing thus the concept of developing partnerships with communities in which they work led to community policing. Police activities in many countries operate under different environments and as a result they are used to serving the ideologies of their governments (Gutierrez 2003). The important roles the police play in the society make them interact with citizens in the community; recently there have been increased calls for the police to reform their operations due to general disappointment in the way they operate. Community policing in spirit is the alliance between the community and the police in identifying and solving social problems such as crime and security. For the strategy to work it requires a high level of trust between the police and the community, also community policing requires the support of all stakeholders in the society with main support coming from the government and the citizens (Wisler 2009). Advantages and Disadvantages of community policing One of the advantages of community policing is its collaboration with the local community and hence making the law enforcement process much simpler and efficient. The interaction of the police with the community makes flow of useful information easy and thus fighting crime relatively easier. The major weakness of this system comes when the police officer in a particular community are forced to that work where they are not welcome by the residents. Corrupt recruitment process also has negative impact on community policing (Brogden 2005). Community policing strategies The implementation of police procedures differs with countries and societies; this is due to the dynamics of different societies and the makeup of different governments (Brogden 2005). Different police procedures have been used in the implementation of community policing but the concept of community policing has been recognized as the best practice in the implementation of police reforms. Factors which have had a positive impact on the policing concepts used in community policing include, the existence of trust between the police and the community. Trust is essential in building a community policing strategy since trust ensures the police are aware that they have the support of the community and the community recognizes the efforts of the police as genuine and to the interest of the community (Wisler 2009). Working conditions of the police has an effect on the implementation of community policing in that the police must be motivated and be paid good salaries for them to implement community policing, this will make them more committed to their duties as law enforcers. The factor of political will and commitment to change is important in the implementation of community policing, this due to the fact that political strategy determines the kind of leadership the police will adopt. Government support is very important since they ensure the police implement reforms such as accountability which is the cornerstone of community policing. Other factors that will impact on police procedures include political stability and non-interference of the work of the police force; this is because the police need to operate independently in democratic societies for them to be able to undertake community policing strategies. Although there has been relative success in the implementation of community policing, some conditions affect the implementation of community policing include lack of resources, lack of political good will and poor implementation of the community policing strategy. As stated by Palmiotto (2001) there is an ideological belief that the police are meant to serve the purposes of a few, this ideology has also been a hindrance in the uplifting police activities during the implementation of community policing. Lack of commitment from senior government officials in different countries has mired the efforts of the police in implementing community policing strategies, government support is critical in ensuring the police force have confidence in implementing their programs. Conditions such as lack of stability in a country or an authoritarian government are negative factors which impact on implementation of community policing. In authoritarian governments the police force is used for purposes of serving the leadership and thus they are not able to come up with community policing strategies. Poor planning strategies of community policing could affect the procedures meant to implement community policing, some conditions include copy and paste techniques whereby the developed world impose on the developing nations to implement some policing strategies (McCulloch 2001). Such techniques have failed and have impaired community policing strategies. Finally a condition like discrimination could impair police procedures in implementing community policing, in that incase there is discrimination in recruitment process the local community might not be interested in participating in community policing because of the negative public opinion. An example of such a society is South Africa, where during the apartheid years, the police force was made up of a majority of white people and thus the local community of blacks could not partner with the police in undertaking community policing strategies. Conditions impacting community policing There are a lot of conditions that impact on the implementation of community policing, most of these conditions emanate from the community of environment in which the police operate in. Availability of resources and finances to undertake community policing is very important, resources enable the police to purchase equipment and finance their efforts in community policing. Since community policing is usually a police initiative there must be government support for the community policing strategy to work (Chappell 2009). In the implementation of the community policing strategy, sometimes the police come across minorities and thus must implement their practices in an orderly manner for them to feel appreciated. In this case the police are supposed to implement anti-discrimination policies; these are laws which are meant to protect against racial discrimination or discrimination of ethnic communities (Thurman 2003). By engaging the involvement of minority communities in the strategy of community policing, their efforts might bring a difference in the community. According to McKone (2008) community policing needs a well equipped and trained police force, thus through provision of training services to the police force, the police force will be equipped to deal with problems concerned with community policing. Internal police controls help in preparing the force for community policing procedures, the police should also deploy their officers to communities that have an understanding with them to avoid conflicts and for them to expect maximum support from these communities. Discrimination has been one of the problems the police have faced in undertaking their procedures for fighting community policing. To fight this vice, the police have come up with many strategies including racial and ethnic balance in the recruitment of police officers. The police efforts of placing recruitment conditions such as increased education conditions enable the force to recruit educated police officers. Such efforts enable recruitment from a wide range of people and consequently aiding in communication with the community in fighting and implementation of community policing (Jones 2007). Police officers should be deployed to the communities in accordance with community policing, studies show that communities which were not manned by the police have high crime rates and abnormal social behavior incidents. In addition to deployment, there must be proper supervision of the activities of the police to ensure that progress is being made in the implementation of community policing. Supervision is also important in that it helps change of strategy in case the current strategy is not working as expected. For successful implementation of community policing, the community should form community groups in which they could partner with the police in the process of community policing (Thacher 2001). These groups could be lead by a leader whom together they come up with a strategy that works in their particular community; such strategies have been implemented in minority communities in the USA where they appoint leaders to partner with the police. The same strategy has also been adopted in Australia where the Aborigines have partnered with local police in community policing. Community policing champions should be rewarded in the performance evaluations conducted by the police and the community, by rewarding police officers who work hard in implementing they get a morale boost which encourages them in improving community policing implementation (Hess 2008). Conclusion Fighting crime in any country or the society is a big challenge to the police and the government. The police have come up with many strategies in fighting crime but the most important strategy used in fighting crime is trough community policing (Trojanowicz 2008). Community policing has managed to reduce crime levels but the success of the strategy has been limited due to poor implementation of community policing. Analysis of community policing has shown that strategies used in one community or country cannot be replicated in the nest, thus every community must come up with a unique strategy in fighting crime through community policing. Community policing has faced quite a number of challenges in a number of countries especially in developing countries, but not withstanding the challenges, community policing is most preferred choice in undertaking police reforms. In the undertaking of community policing, common factors such as trust and partnership should be built between all stakeholders in the process of community policing. References Brogden, M & Nijhar, P 2005, Community policing: National and international models and approaches, Willan publishing, Canberra. Chappell, D, & Wilson, PR 2009, Australian policing: Contemporary issues, the University of Virginia, New York. Gutierrez, RS 2003, Social Equity and the Funding of Community Policing, Scholarly Publishing LLC, New York. Jones, BR 2007, Comment: Virtual Neighborhood Watch: Open Source Software and Community Policing against Cybercrime, Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, Vol. 97, no 3, pp.44-46. Hess, KM., & Orthmann, CH 2008, Introduction to Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice, Cengage Learning, London. McCulloch, J 2001, Blue army: Paramilitary policing in Australia, Melbourne Univ. Publishing, Canberra. McKone, K 2008, Policing Post-Conflict Regions: A New Zealand Initiative: Reports on New Zealand Police Involvement in Community Policing Workshops in a Strife-Torn Part of Indonesia, New Zealand International Review journal, Vol. 33, no. 2, pp. 12-23. Palmiotto, M 2001, Community policing: a policing strategy for the 21st century, Jones & Bartlett Learning, New York. Thacher, D 2001, Conflicting Values in Community Policing, Law & Society Review, Vol. 35, no.pp. 23-34. Thurman, QC & Walker, S 2003, Contemporary Policing: Controversies, Challenges, and Solutions: An Anthology, Oxford University Press, Texas. Trojanowicz, RC & Bucqueroux, B 2008,Community policing: How to get started, PublisherAnderson Pub. Co., New York. Wisler, D, & Onwudiwe, ID 2009, Community Policing: International Patterns and Comparative Perspectives, CRC Press, Canberra. Read More