Community policing refers to the collaborative and combined efforts between the community and the police which mainly focuses on the elimination of criminal and social disorders. This is done through the police service delivery including aspects such as traditional enforcement of laws, and combating, avoiding, problem solving and community engagement. Therefore, community policing must involve a partnership between the police department and the community members.
The models of community policing must balance reactive actions and responses to the community’s calls for policing services, accompanied by immediate and effective problem solving. All these efforts should be made with the sole objective of preventing, stopping and solving the causes and effects of crime and law disorder.
Introduction
Community policing can be described as a collaborated effort between society and the police which identifies disorder and crime and includes every element of the community in seeking the best solutions to all these problems. Community policing could also be expounded and be defined as a forged partnership between the community and the police as they work hand in hand to solve crimes as well as identifying the problems that result into or encourage cases of crime. They then focus on working together on the solutions they find so as to overcome the problems that they have identified to promote and enhance a better and high quality life for the community as a whole.
Unlike the traditional policing, community policing is a proactive approach to combating crimes and dealing with the many problems that arise due to crime. Traditional policing mainly focused on just investigating and dealing with the criminal problem only after a crime has been committed. Therefore, community policing is a section of community relations that focuses on the relationship between the community and the police with the common objective of stemming criminal activities and creation and enhancement of a better and secure society.
Community policing presents a very appropriate opportunity to enhance policing services. This is even more essential in those communities that have a high desire to work hand in hand with the police in their efforts to combat cases of crime. Such societies which prohibit criminal related activities and enhance information sharing are the ones that have well established community policing structures. Those communities with anti police prejudice and attitude are very unlikely to succeed in their efforts to have community policing. This is because of the misunderstanding, lack of cooperation as well as information asymmetry that is propagated by the majority of the community members.
Elements of community policing
Community policing is made up three main elements which are all included in the definition of community policing. These elements are in fact the components that when used altogether form community policing. Each element of community policing has its own objectives and procedures of achieving these objectives. Similarly, each element must involve the combined effort between the community and the police force department in order to realize the targets. The tree elements of community policing are:
1. Problem solving
This is the combined effort between the police and the whole community to find solutions to dealing with crime, causes of crime and effects of crime. The problems facing that particular community are first identified. The community individuals are then given the opportunity to give their opinions on the most appropriate solutions to the problems at hand. The process of problem solving and its effect is supposed to be assessed at every stage of the process of problem solving.
The general approach of problem solving includes four stages of problem solving. This is the most suitable procedure that the efforts of community policing should follow to attain desirable results. First, the problems are scanned by the responsible individuals or committee to assess their adversity, the magnitude of its effects on the society. The problems vary from one community to another. Some communities are faced with murder, others theft, traffic offences, assaults and even disputes like land or property ownership disputes. Therefore, each problem will be assessed in a different manner but using the same procedure.
After scanning, the next stage of problem assessment is the analysis stage. At this stage, the problem is analyzed comprehensively by those in charge of this process. The problem’s cause is identified, the criminals are identified and the statistics concerning the crime such as frequency of the crime, time of crimes, suspects and the specific group of people in the community who fall victim to that crime. This stage is meant to identify every detail of the crime.
Response is the third stage of problem assessment. At this stage, the problem has been identified and its details well specified. This stage is meant to identify the range of solutions that are available to help solve the problem. Every potential solution is identified, its effectiveness assessed. The final stage of problem solving is the assessment stage. This is probably the most important of the other stages. Every problem is analyzed comprehensively; its causes and effects identified earlier are also assessed. The probable solutions are then assessed on the basis of costs, effectiveness and its effects on the community welfare and police working presently and in future. The problem solving solution that is chosen must be one with very few costs of implementing must be effective in dealing with crime and must not affect the police or the community negatively in future.
The individuals who are involved in the problem solving process must have special skills in handling crime related problems. These could be criminal investigation officers or just normal police but they must have experience in combining efforts with the community to find the best solution to every criminal problem. The community members should also undergo training in the basic procedures of dealing with crimes. This will make the cooperation between police and community members easy and effective.
2 Community Partnerships
This is the second element of community policing. It mainly focuses on the cordial collaboration between the individuals, the law enforcement agencies and the serving organizations which attend to and provide services to every member of the community. The partnerships that are in existence bring about appropriate commitment levels and resources to activities of community policing. Law enforcement agencies have many disciplinary partnerships with indicated partners in the community such as community and nonprofit groups, government agencies, the media, businesses and individuals. At each interaction level between the agency of law enforcement and the community partners, there must be frequent and efficient coordination, communication and collaboration.
3 Organizational Transformations
This is a very important element of community policing that focuses on the way the agencies, organizations and people are supposed to adapt to community policing. The four main organizational components are agency management, organizational structures, personnel and technology or information systems.
a. Agency management
The agency management is the management of the police force. The leadership of the police should be well defined so that it functions efficiently. A well defined leadership structure of the police force will facilitate good decision making. Planning and policy formulation will help in transforming the organization to suit the appropriate community policing structures.
Another aspect of organizational transformation is organizational evaluations. The organization should be able to evaluate itself. The preset goals and policy implementation should be evaluated to assess the progress. The law enforcement agency should be in a position to account for every step of crime management. Accountability is very important because it ensures that the police force is doing an efficient work and in a transparent manner. Transparency will give the community confidence in what the law enforcement agency is doing and will support the community policing idea.
b. Organizational structure
The structure of organizations should be defined in every aspect. The geographic allocation of officers should be elaborated. This will ensure that the officers cover every part of the community. De-specialization is also another aspect of organizational structure. This is where the police officers do not specialize in one particular field. They are supposed to do every aspect of police duties. This will help the community because the police will be in a position to deliver services to the community without cases of shortage in manpower in the police force.
The organizational structure should also be flattened so as to allow efficiency. A flat structure implies that every officer is at the same level and has the same authority and duty as the rest. Such a structure ensures efficiency because there are no delays in following hierarchy. The resources and finances should also be well managed and distributed within the organization. This will ensure that crime is combated and community policing is enhanced.
c. Personnel
This involves recruitment of personnel to help improve the law enforcing organization, hiring and selecting the best qualified individuals to improve the police force. The personnel should also be evaluated frequently to ensure that the individuals remain qualified and competent. Supervision of these individuals is also necessary to ensure they do a good job. Furthermore, training is essential for those who are hired so as to teach them the duties and work ethics that are involved in fighting crime.
d. Information and Technology systems
In any organization, communication and data sharing or access is very important to ensure efficiency and transparency. In an organization where the information systems are well defined, there are high chances of there being accurate and quality data for the organization and to the public. Therefore, information systems in any organization that is involved in community policing should be well developed.
Community policing has different dimensions, each of which gives a different approach to combating crimes through the combined effort of the community and the police. The philosophical dimension of community policing involves citizen input, personal service and broad function. Citizen input is where the police require citizen input to prioritize, formulate policies and deal with the problems of crime. Broad function is the actual enforcement of the law by the police. Personal service ensures that policing functions efficiently when the police know the community dwellers and administer personalized services to every citizen. This is contrary to the ‘stranger’ policing.
The strategic dimension includes re-oriented operations where the police focus on proactive tactics and strategies rather than traditional ones like rapid response, patrols and detective investigations. It also includes prevention emphasis where police emphasize on preventing crime from happening rather than reacting to crimes that have already occurred. Geographical focus is important in that all neighborhoods should be assigned specific officers so as to maximize the efficiency of community policing efforts.
Tactical dimensions are those dimensions of community policing that focus on the tactics that can be used to enhance community policing. The first is positive interaction. The police must have a positive interaction with the residents in the community. This will be essential at a time when there is a negative interaction with criminals. Another tactical dimension is partnerships with strategic groups and individuals that will help deal with crime. Lastly, there is the problem solving tactic where citizens and the police grab every opportunity available to address incident and crime causing conditions in their community.
Finally, the organizational dimension focuses on the organization of crime fighting institutions and structures. The structure of police agencies should be able to support as well as facilitate community policing. Management is also important because it helps the police identify the best way to manage people in order to ensure consistent community policing. Information and information systems should be examined to ensure that they can facilitate and support community policing activities efficiently.
Variations in community policing
Usually, community policing varies from one community to another. This could be in terms of organization, tactics, strategies or dimension. Community policing in a big, metropolitan city, for example, may differ from community policing in a small and rural area. Similarly, community policing has a dynamic nature and it changes as the community changes or develops. Factors that make community policing to vary from community to community are region of the country, environmental and social factors, mobilization of citizens and the rates of criminal incidents.
Problems encountered
Community policing is a very important component of the fight against crime in most countries today. However, this noble approach of dealing with crime faces so many bottle necks. These problems include:
Information asymmetry
This is simply the lack of information between the police and the community. Usually, the police have a lot of information concerning law and order, which not all citizens are aware of. Similarly, the citizens have more information than the police concerning law breakers, criminal plans and other information that the police may need to fight crime. This problem could be solved by holding awareness workshops where the citizens and the police can share information freely to support community policing.
Uncooperativeness by the some community members
Uncooperative behavior by the community members usually stems from the negative attitude towards police officers. People seem to assume that the police have no good intention and will harm every individual that they come across. This can be solved through similar awareness programs where citizens will be taught on the advantages of cooperating with the police to help fight crime.
Conclusion
Community policing has become a very efficient tool of fighting crime. This is something that should be encouraged so as to promote security, law and order throughout the country. Every citizen should be encouraged to cooperate with police officers in their respective residential areas to help curb crime. Community policing is increasingly becoming the answer to curbing crime as opposed to the traditional approaches where the police took charge of everything without involving citizens.
References
Brogden, M., & Nijhar, P. (2010). Community policing: national and international models and approaches (illustrated ed.). Boston: Willan Publishing.
Kappeler, V. E., & Gaines, L. K. (2012). Community Policing: A Contemporary Perspective (6, illustrated ed.). New York: Elsevier.
Miller, L. S., Hess, K. M., & Orthmann, C. H. (2012). Community Policing: Partnerships for Problem Solving (6 ed.). London: Cengage Learning.
Palmiotto, M. (2011). Community Policing: A Police-Citizen Partnership (illustrated ed.). New York: Taylor & Francis.
