Community Policing

Community policing is an organizational strategy and a management approach where the police and the community collaborate in solving the community problems. Police do not act as sole guardians of law but all community members play role in enhancing the safety. Community policing has a very great influence in that through a constructive partnership, the police as well the community members promote public safety and solves neighborhood problems (IACP, 2018).  Community policing has three central components;

 Community Partnerships- this component means that in community policing, there should be interactive partnerships between the police and the community. The role of the partnership is to create interrelated goals based on identifying community problems, develop solutions and improve public trust (IACP, 2018). According to own opinion, the community partnership component is important for law enforcement organizations in that for the police and the community to prevent crime, there should be a cooperative relationship. The latter will motivate the stakeholders to set a common goal and strategies needed to address crime.  In planning for community policing initiative, community partnership is a very important component as it will increase accountability, establish performance measure, use coordinated efforts, build trust and strengthen the organization by solving the problem (IACP, 2018).

Problem Solving- the goal of a community policing is to build a coordinated approach to identifying problems and creating an effective response. The community policing stakeholders should not deal with crimes as they occur but they should develop a proactive approach. The latter means that they should focus on eliminating problems by identifying the underlying conditions. They should solve the problem in three ways; scanning-identify the problem, analysis- examine the problem, response- develop solution and, assessment- evaluate whether the response to the problems is successful (IACP, 2018). The problem-solving component is important in that for community policing to be effective, the stakeholders should follow the named processes. Each process is important as it ensures public safety and crime reduction by identifying the problem, understanding the problem, offering response and evaluating the effectiveness of the response.

Organizational Features- In community policing, organizational features, management, and structure play a great role in supporting community partnerships.  For the police and the community members to stop crime and promote public safety, the organization should be well organized and managed. For example, there should be formal organizational changes such as climate and culture change in order to support the agencies of community policing (IACP, 2018).  Leadership is also an important feature that the law enforcement agency should consider since it is the role of leaders to set vision, values, and mission. Organization features is an important component to consider in planning the community policing initiatives in that for the police and community to build a coordinated approach to preventing crime and promoting public safety, significant changes are needed (IACP, 2018). For example, police and community require human and financial resources, training, technology, strategic planning and more. Thus, law enforcement should ensure that the organization management, personnel, technology, culture, and climate are effective to allow the stakeholders of community policing achieve their goals.

 Police departments may find it difficult to patrol residential areas and for this reason, they use trained citizen volunteers who help in lowering crime. Citizen volunteers in the police service play a significant role in reducing crime in partnership with the police. They are a valuable asset who fulfill civil responsibility and address community problem (Grand Prairie, 2019). In order to achieve the departmental goal, I will set possible volunteer opportunities or in other words, the citizens on patrol should have a desire to volunteer and have skills in effective communication and ability to recognize and report suspicious acts. Secondly, a volunteer should complete the training process and have the capability to provide foot and vehicle patrol (Grand Prairie, 2019). These requirements will help achieve the departmental goals in that having the willingness to asset the police department and having the necessary skills makes one suitable to become a citizen on patrol.

 

 

Reference

 International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP). (2018). Discover Policing. Retrieved from: https://www.discoverpolicing.org/explore-the-field/what-is-community-policing/

Grand Prairie (2019). Citizens on Patrol. Retrieved from: https://www.gptx.org/city-government/city-departments/police-department/field-operations-bureau/community-services-division/citizens-on-patrol