Maintaining the peace and order in the community are two of the most important roles of the police forces. The authorities apply policing strategies that enable better relationship with the community as well as knowing what the community’s problems are. For many years, police agencies have been developing several approaches in order to achieve the full participation of the society when it comes to maintaining the peace and order as well as to gain respect from the members of the communities they are serving. The purpose of this study is to define two policing strategies, such as the community-oriented (COP) and problem-oriented (POP) policing. Examples of each strategies will be discussed in order to understand both the potential pros and cons of both strategies. Although both strategies can be more complex in terms of implementation, the outcomes are essential for achieving the community’s peace, order, and security.
Community-Oriented Policing (COP)
Community-oriented policing is a policing strategy, which aims to improve the police officers’ relationship with the community members. This approach closely works with the community in order to understand the public’s concerns in terms of security and other safety concerns. According to the Bureau of Justice Assiatance (1994), COP is a project that requires police officers to gain more knowledge about the profiling activities, which include understanding the demographics topographics of the community. Police officers who use the COP approach are expected to develop a tailored patrol techniques in order to address the different types of community’s concerns as well as possible crimes, created based on the profiling activities. Additionally, this strategy normally creates a partnership with other law enforcers, non-profit organizations, community members, and the private sectors. In that way, the authorities will be able to gain more knowledge about the community’s needs based on their partnership with different community members.
Pros and Cons of COP
Although COP aims to build better partnership and cooperation with the community, there are some pros and cons that this strategy can create. Ferreira (1996) said that there are many success stories that COP approach has created. One of which is the typical police department’s attitude improvement, which benefited the community as a whole. It was also reported that there was an improvement on the crime statistics across different areas, where COP is being exercised. It also increases the community’s trust towards the police officers due to the improved relationship and cooperation. On the other hand, one of the downsides is that when a certain community had a previous bad experience with police, the relationship between the officers and some members of the community might worsen due to the increased police visibility in the community (apecsec.org). Therefore, the police officers must emphasize that COP aims to provide safety and not harm to the public
Examples of COP
One of the examples of COP in a community is the one that is being exercised in the city of San Diego. There is strengthened Neighborhood Watch program that involves watch coordinators, watch coordinators, and the block captains who work together in achieving common goals (sandiego.gov). There is an improved communication between the police and the citizens when it comes to solving problems and crimes.
Another example of the applied COP is the one being exercised in the town or Rural Hall in North Carolina. The town’s government emphasizes that COP immediately establishes a better rapport with different members of the community (ruralhall.govoffice.com). In fact, COP approach enables the police officers to enter an area, which has a high crime rate and become social agents and not just typical law enforcers.
Problem-Oriented Policing (POP)
Problem-oriented policing or POP is another policing strategy that discrete pieces policing are subject to extensive analysis (Center for Problem-Oriented Policing, 2016). In every process of police business, there is an act that aims to discover new ideas and knowledge about how to deal with every unique problem. This is so that there will be more effective ways in addressing it in the future. Moreover, this strategy provides importance on responses that are deterrent in nature. Thus, it aims to develop new ways to improve the police agencies in terms of knowledge and professionalism.
Pros and Cons of POP
Problem-oriented policing enables the police officers to develop ways in reducing different issues, which affect communities, such as disorder, crime, and even the community members’ fear. The POP approach has the capacity to discover the reasons for a specific problem, which is normally driven by analysis and research. Moreover, it not only aims to solve and prevent crimes, but it also aims to create a knowledge based on the obtained data that can be used in the future problem solving process.
However, there is an inconsistent trend when it comes to the outcomes of POP as it will depend on the type of leadership being applied in the police department. Another downside of the POP approach is the need to increase the number of proficient crime analysts that can help in the research process (Arce, 2015). Then again, these issues will be addressed by the authorities, there is a chance that POP can provide additional better outcomes, such as improved knowledge in terms of crime analysis.
Examples of POP
Besides COP, San Diego also practices POP strategy. Similar to other communities, the POP approach of San Diego also uses SARA method, which stands for Scanning, Analysis, Response, and Assessment (sandiego.gov). One example of the strategy’s application is when the police officers, City Council, and the community work together in preventing gang and drug problems in both Meadowbrook and Skyline communities. Such actions developed an organized community, which reduced the criminal activities in the area. Another example would be the actual implementation of the POP strategy that focuses on areas that have high crime rates or even using nongeographic applications (crimesolutions.gov). This includes gathering information about repeat offenders, the repeat victims as well as the repeat times.
Challenges in COP and POP Implementation
One of the known problems of implementing COP is the community’s cooperation. This will challenge the police officers to achieve their main objective, which is to build a good relationship to each member of the community. It would be challenging to implement the COP strategy without the full cooperation or only just few of the community members believe to what the authorities are aiming for. On the other hand, implementing POP strategy may be challenged if there is a lack of training about crime or problem analysis process. It may lead to inaccurate identification of the problem or in some cases, there could be inadequacy when it comes to analyzing the problem itself. Both strategies can provide positive effects to citizens and to the whole community. However, there are challenges in implementation that must be addressed by the police departments in order to improve the strategies’ application and implementation for the benefit of the public and for the improvement of police officers.
References
Arce, J. (n.d.). Pros and Cons of Problem Oriented Policing. Retrieved from https://prezi.com/deypmo34qahw/pros-and-cons-of-problem-oriented-policing/
Bureau of Justice Asssitance. (1994). Understanding community policing: A framework for action. Retrieved from https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles/commp.pdf
Center for Problem-Oriented Policing | About CPOP. (2016). Retrieved from http://www.popcenter.org/about/?p=whatiscpop
Center for Problem-Oriented Policing | Tool Guides | Implementing Responses to Problems. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.popcenter.org/tools/implementing_responses/print/
Community Oriented Policing | City of San Diego Official Website. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.sandiego.gov/police/about/community
Community Policing - Town of Rural Hall. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.ruralhall.govoffice.com/index.asp?SEC=DAA95C90-AB37-4604-9330-0605CA8B7BD9&Type=B_BASIC
Community Policing Pros and Cons | APECSEC.org. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://apecsec.org/community-policing-pros-and-cons/
Ferreira, B. R. (1996). The use and effectiveness of community policing in a democracy. Retrieved from https://www.ncjrs.gov/policing/use139.htm
Problem Oriented Policing | City of San Diego Official Website. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.sandiego.gov/police/about/problem
Problem-Oriented Policing. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.crimesolutions.gov/PracticeDetails.aspx?ID=32
Question:
Discuss your progress on the paper. What are some of the challenges that you have identified with implementing COP and POP?
Answer:
This paper provided some additional information about the essence of COP and POP implementation in a community. They have respective roles in preventing crimes in the community as well as knowing how to address such problems in the future. However, there were some identified issues when it comes to the implementation of these strategies. COP implementation can be challenged by lack of community support, which can delay the development of better police-citizen relationship within the community. This can happen especially if the community members had a previous bad experience with police. On the other hand, POP implementation can be challenged by lack of trained crime analysts that can help in training other police officers when it comes to crime assessment and prevention. Generally POP implementation is challenged by lack of personnel who can assist in knowledge development of other police officers.
