Crime has been a part of society since time immemorial. History shows that in almost every single society on the world, the problem of crime has been live and rampant. It is the existence of crime that stimulated the formation of law enforcement as the society realized that there needed to be a special body that could be tasked with dealing with individuals engaging in crime. In the modern day, crime continues to be a persistent form of deviance that threatens to de-stabilize the society. Over the years, law enforcement has evolved in order to deal with the new and emerging trends of crime. The existing law enforcement bodies and institutions have played a huge role in trying to alleviate level and occurrences of crime in the society. However, in order to decrease the amount of crime in the society to even lower levels, more proactive approaches are required. This is where community policing comes in.
One observation that has been made in regards to normal policing or normal law enforcement is that the changing social trends accompanied by ambiguous police reforms has led to situation whereby the police have relatively become isolated from the community (Kappeler and Gaines, 2012). It has led to a situation where the communities sometimes even fears the police the same way that they fear crime. Obviously, the isolation of the police from the community has several disadvantages with one of them being increased difficulty to mitigate and prevent crime. For example, there is no way the crime can be prevented in a society where a police officer virtually knows nothing about.
Simply put, community policing is the collaboration of law enforcement with society to create a better and safer environment. It is a collective effort between the two parties that identifies crime problems and then involves the community in looking for the solutions to these problems (Kappeler and Gaines, 2012). The primary goals of community policing can, therefore, be summed as to reduce crime and fear of crime in the community and to improve the life of the society generally.
Community policing draws from the premise that the community deserves to have an input in policing. It is also drawn from the realization that modern criminal trends necessitate collaborative efforts if criminal deviance is to be significantly reduced or totally eliminated (Kappeler and Gaines, 2012). Collaboration between the community and law enforcement paves way for the creation and innovation of new proactive approaches that can not only deal with incidences of crime but at the can at same time deter crime (Miller, Hess & Orthmann, 2013). The community is the greatest source of solutions to criminal and social disorder problems in the society and, therefore, community policing provides an opportunity for this resource to be exploited. In community policing, the society is essentially at the center of every aspect of policing. It is involved in detaining, prioritizing and finding solutions to problems. In turn, the police responds to all the concerns of the society and use a number methods when it comes to engaging the community (Miller, Hess & Orthmann, 2013).
Community policing has been important stakeholders in the society including scholars, politicians, the general public and the media mainly because of its preventive approach in tackling the issue of crime in the society. It has also been praised for bringing law enforcement and the society together especially given that traditionally, it was unthinkable that the law enforcement could actually collaborate with the public when it came to matters of preventing crime (Kappeler and Gaines, 2012).
As mentioned earlier, the traditionally primary role of law enforcement is to deal with crime that has already taken place. The focus of community policing, on the other hand, is to prevent crime from taking place. One of the most distinctive characteristics of community policing that assists in the preventive approach is its maintenance of support for research and education. Community policing officers do not just sit around and wait for emergency calls or for crime dispatch calls to come through, rather, they spend a majority of their time engaging in social work which includes the formulation of solutions for problems towards crime deviance trends in the society (Miller, Hess & Orthmann, 2013). For instance, community policing officers are involved in organizing youth activities that are meant to deter them from criminal activities. This includes setting of local clubs and support centers. It can also the formulation of community self-help groups and organizations that are meant to keep the society, especially the youth who are the worst culprits when it comes to criminal activities.
In his book “Policing in the 21st Century: Communist Policing”, Dr. Lee Brown (2012) explores how the philosophy of community policing is being effected in America in the 21ST Century. According to Brown (2012), community policing essentially encourages police officers or law enforcement officers in general to co-operate with those individuals who they have been sworn to serve in addressing issues related to crime, societal development and community growth. For community policing to succeed. Brown (2012) suggests that deep understanding and mutual respect must be maintained between the two parties involved in community policing, that is the police officers and the community. Mutual respect and understand will pave way for the two to come up with effective solutions for deterring social disorder and crime in the society
Community policing has many promises for the future. First of all, it will lead to the strengthening of community’s capacity to both resist and at the same time prevent social disorder and crime. It will also lead to a more harmonized relationship between law enforcement and the public which will in turn yield great benefits for both parties (Greene, 2000). Community policing will also facilitate a restructuring of service delivery by the police by linking it with several other municipal services. Community policing holds the key to the reformation of the entire police model that has over the years been accused of being too rigid. It will also lead to the creation of complex and larger roles for individual law enforcement officer (Greene, 2000).
In addition, it is believed that increased community policing will also lead to the production of empowered and more committed officers who also exhibit exemplary analytic skills. Traditionally, police agencies have been accused of being too hierarchical and through community policing, these police hierarchies that sometime interfere with police functioning such as the prevention of crime will be flattened out (Greene, 2000). It is said that community policing will also lead to the opening of the locally administered justice process especially to those individuals in the society who are often subjected to justice decision-making (Greene, 2000). In a nutshell, community policing promises to bring about a shift in overall policing whereby crime prevention rather than crime suppression is the focus.
References
Greene, J. R. (2000). Community policing in America: Changing the nature, structure, and function of the police. Criminal justice, 3, 299-370.
Miller, L., Hess, K., & Orthmann, C. (2013). Community policing: Partnerships for problem solving. Cengage Learning.
Kappeler, V. E., & Gaines, L. K. (2012). Community policing: A contemporary perspective. Elsevier.
Brown, L. P. (2012). Policing in the 21st century: community policing. Bloomington, IN: Authorhouse.
