Community policing is an initiative that has been embraced by the community and law enforcement organizations. Community policing is the idea whereby the members of a community work together with the police/criminal law agencies to help prevent and fight crime. It promotes organizational strategies that support systematic understanding and partnership of the police and the public in solving community-based problems such as crime, drug abuse, and social disorders. It has been embraced because of its effectiveness in building tolerance and cultural understanding between the community and criminal law agencies. Through community policing the public have now gained trust and confidence in the police force for the reason of making the community a safer place to live.
Community policing has many benefits to the community and the criminal law agencies. For instance, through community policing crime rates have reduced in our society. With the policy and the members of the community working together, the crime rates have reduced tremendously. The community-policing program has brought the public on the side of the police, and this has helped in the fight against crime and prevention. Initially, the members of the community were skeptical about helping the police in dealing with crime. However, the police were able to build a relationship with the people through positive interactions with them initiated by community policing programs. According to Miller, Hess, and Orthmann, a positive collaboration with the lawmakers and the community helps in tackling community nuisances like crime (2013). Therefore, community policing is beneficial to the society by helping in curbing crime after building understanding and tolerance with the public. When the people trust the police officers, it becomes easier to serve the community efficiently. Community policing is an operative means of promoting public safety and enhancing the eminence of life in the society.
In addition, community policing has helped reduce drug abuse and addiction in the community. It has been made possible through programs such as DARE (Drug abuse resistance education) where the police work hand in hand with the members of the community to educate the youth on the effects of drug abuse and how to abstain from using them. Through the DARE program, the police inform the youths in the community on the dangers of drug abuse and its consequences (Gill, Weisburd, Telep, Vitter, & Bennett, 2014). Moreover, it gives assistance to the already addicts to stay sober and become clean in their lives. With community policing, the citizens become more acquainted with the police, and this makes it easier for them to work together in curbing the nuisance of substance abuse in the society. The citizens are given more control over what happens in the community, and this makes them transparent when it comes to solving neighborhood problems.
Apart from helping the youth to keep off from drug abuse and crime, community-based policing offers support to victims of domestic violence. Community policing has built tolerance and understanding with the people in the society, and this made it easier for them to offer support to them when they are in need. Through their programs, the police give the public options and the required information to deal with issues affecting them, for instance, domestic violence. The citizens are given more control over what happens in the community, and this makes them transparent when it comes to solving neighborhood problems.
Through community policing, the police have developed a connection and an understanding of the people. As a result, they talk to the people more frequently, and this helps them analyze factors on issues affecting the community and solve them efficiently. Community policing aids in problem-solving whereby the police by interacting the community can solve problems that have remained unsolved for long. After tightening their ties with the community, the police through community policing programs makes the society a safe place to work and live in. Therefore, community policing affords police officers job, self-satisfaction while solving, and fixing problems. The officers can get first-hand information from the public while analyzing and trying to solve cases in the community. Therefore, with community-based policing programs, the lawmakers can deliver quality service thus establishing a good reputation and an excellent working environment. It offers a significant chance to improve policing services to the community in efforts to curb crime and other community problems.
In conclusion, community policing is a program designed to help the community get involved in trusting the police force and other lawmakers. It is based on its objective to promote better police-community relationship sin order to curb crime. Through the community policing, the police interact with the public to make the community a better place to live, a place without crime and other social misfits. Law agencies established community policing to help prevent and fight crime. Therefore, it is apparent that community policing has helped the society by building understanding and tolerance of the people thus helping in curbing crime, drug abuse, and as well as making the community a great place to stay. In essence, community policing is one of the most effective strategies used by lawmakers in law enforcement in serving the community.
References
Miller, L., Hess, K., & Orthmann, C. (2013). Community Policing: Partnerships for Problem Solving. Cengage Learning.
Gill, C., Weisburd, D., Telep, C. W., Vitter, Z., & Bennett, T. (2014). Community-Oriented Policing to Reduce Crime, Disorder and Fear and Increase Satisfaction and Legitimacy Among Citizens: a Systematic Review. Journal of Experimental Criminology, 10(4), 399-428.
