Community Policing - Report Example

Community Policing Introduction Ratio of crime activities is increasing day by day, this trend has made people conscious about self-security. Earlier police authorities were considered as the only department responsible for maintaining law and order in the society. Now the situation has changed, people want to solve their problems in cooperation with government authorities. For this purpose, a trend of community policing has been developed which means a cooperative working of police and the government for the eradication of crimes such as theft, murder and other disorders of the society. Crime is an activist: Community policing takes crime as a complex problem born due to inefficiencies of the people dealing with societal problems. Crime is taken as an activist reaction towards things happening around us. Through collective efforts of public and police solution for the better protection of societies can be formulated. Such solutions may be applied to overall country or a specific community depending upon the psychological condition of the people living in different places. Requirement of community policing: Community policing has become very famous in almost all countries, however, it is not easy to implement. A major country such as the United States has paid emphasis over this system to secure its homeland from the criminal activities. As this is an era of great stress, wars are taking place and terrorist activities have made life miserable. In such critical situation, it is very important to protect oneself. This action situation has affected the world very badly. People feel insecure and are full of fears. To give security to the public and to make good strategies regarding security concept of community policing has been introduced. United Sates is also under stress because of the critical situation of the world. As US is fighting against various causes, it has been cautious for its homeland as well. For this reason, U.S had been implementing community policing strategy for past three decades. But the incident of 9/11 made the authorities to reshape their policies. After this incident, focus of policing was to make the country secure internally. It is hard to say that whether community policing and homeland security are the same or not. However, one thing can be made clear which is that both the subjects have great importance for determination of any nation. Why public cooperation required? A question arises in the minds of people i.e. Why the public is required to participate in helping the eradication of crimes? Its answer lies in the following explanation. It is considered that people who commit crime belong from the public. Crime is a social behavior and it occur due to the problems related to social, economical and political happenings of the society. So, there is a need to study crime from the sociological perspective. It enables the observer to find a solution for criminal activities. As, the emergence of crime is due to society factor, so its solution can be devised from the factors affecting the cause. Interaction with public police forces can enlighten the thoughts of the police observer to find the right track towards the solution of the problems. Implementation of community policing: Planning and implementation of policing strategies depends upon the situation of the specific locality and so are difficult to implement. Methods for implementation of community policing vary, as agencies responsible for framing such strategies have their perspective regarding this subject. Educating public about community policing: The united states and other big countries have devised a way of educating people about the community policing. Major topics involved in its syllabus are the main idea of the subject, problem solving efforts, the role of the police department, the role of community and other related topics. It gives an insight about the criminal activities taking place in the society and how to cure them The institute for public safety innovation is famous for provision of community policing education. Major reason for delivering such education is to make the public aware and capable to deal with community oriented issues. This education will increase the willingness of the members of the public to work with the police department. In the past, people were seen to have developed curiosities and suspicion regarding this system of policing. Not only public, even the policemen were not well trained in communicating with the public to solve criminal issues. But education has played a positive role in bringing both the parties i.e. Police and the public together. Community policing consortium: It is considered that collective effort for certain cases is more effective than individual efforts. Therefore, different organizations have joined hands to collectively work out the solution to the problems of the community. A partnership of five leading police organizations in the united states is a very suitable example. All these attempts towards understanding community policing shows how important this system is. Having discussed the importance, requirement of police and public cooperation , there comes a need to discuss on what principles community policing is based. Principles of community policing: Generally speaking the system of community policing is thought to be an attempt of bringing a change in the culture of the police department. So the principles on which this effort is based shall emphasize on bringing useful changes in the police department. These principles are as follows: The system requires decentralization of authority within the department. And it includes re-orientation of police patrol to facilitate direct communication between the public and the police. It means that role of the police need to be re-defined to raise trust among the people. The community policing system should not be limited to one or two issues only, instead it should address problems on a broader scope. It is said that, community policing is meant for the publics so it is formulated according the demands of the citizen. They observe problems prevailing in the society and then grade their priorities accordingly. For the success of this approach, it is important for the police department to interact with the people personally to remove communication hindrance. Community policing assumes that it is their mission to educate the public to handle their problems on their own. If they will be able to decrease their sociological issues then it will surely bring down the ratio of crimes in the country. Conclusion: It is a good approach to find and attack the root cause of any problem. Suppressing problems can never be a solution, as they will revive again. Researchers have developed a good approach for uprooting the basics of any issue. Although it is a time consuming process yet its results are helpful in achieving the expected goal. Community policy uses the same approach to define and uproot the evils of the society. First of all it searches out the reasons giving rise to the criminal acts. So, this research hits upon knowing the public and its problems. Problems may be of any nature i.e. economical, social political or other problems on a personal level. When a person is faced with continuity of sufferings and he or she is unable to handle such crisis then people develop an attitude of antagonism and extremist against the system which may be somewhere responsible of the problem. Cases of suicides, murders and theft are many times found to be the result of the poor psychological condition of mind. These societal problems need to be addressed properly. For this reason, community policing has been defined to highlight the social problems of the public and to make them learn to handle their problems personally. This habit may save a society from various evils. No only this a successful system of policing enables a community to help in solving problems of the neighborhood, which is a sign of a healthy environment. REFRENCES Wesley G. Skorgan. Community Policing in United States. 1995. Web. 29 Nov, 2012. Edward R. Maguire, Stephen D. Mastrofski. Patterns of Community Policing in United States. ND. Web. 29 Nov, 2012. Read More