Continuously, the law enforcement agencies have been striving to preserve a safe, active and moral image of their sector to the citizens that they made an oath to protect and serve. Each day, thousands of the personnel in the United States do conscientious police duties, but the irreversible damage may occur to the whole profession from any story of corruption or misconduct. Thus, the department’s management of the Internal Affairs issues, its interaction with its citizens, and its accessibility to the community, are overall vital to the profession. Therefore, it is for this purpose that building and maintaining trust in the community becomes a hallmark of any effective police-community relations. Therefore, this paper analyzes the community policing in San Diego Police Department by looking at its importance, the community programs, and the units handling the programs, the program’s uniqueness, and how these programs build community trust.
Police-Community Relations in San Diego Police Department
Police-community relations is not just important but essential. It provides an opportunity for an exceptionally high standard of integrity, honesty, equity, as well as professionalism (Building trust, 2009). The law enforcement executives can also bear the responsibility for indicating an appropriate behavior to the public, informing them about the department’s role in upholding integrity and honor within the organization, and sustaining trust in a working relationship with them. Besides, it enables a strong focus on relationships, citizen involvement pro-active policing, as well as professional development.
The San Diego Police Department has quite some programs and activities offered to the community. These programs are Crime Stoppers, McGruff the Crime Dog, KIDZWATCH Academy, National Night Out, Neighbourhood Watch, Safety Sam, Speakers Bureau, and SPAR/PAL (Willard & Lansdowne, 2005). The purpose of these programs is to maintain good relationships with the citizens of San Diego, as well as educate them about the community policing and prevention of crime.
Besides, this department has many units, each with different responsibilities that handle the community programs. Examples include neighborhood policing which creates and supports programs that prevent crimes in the community, trains people, facilitates problem-solving meetings, and provides networking for a facilitation of resources at all levels. Another example is crime analysis that offers information and resources for the support of community policing, the department strategic planning efforts and problem-solving.
Just like many cities in California, however, San Diego has also introduced community policing in its department of police. Nevertheless, what makes San Diego’s programs to be unique compared to the other agencies is the unparalleled extent to which the department has made the issue of volunteers an integral component of its policing program. It possesses a volunteer workforce of about 800 people (Willard & Lansdowne, 2005). These citizens have a primary purpose in the vision of the police department so as to engage the people in a partnership where they could solve problems reduce crime and effect in a positive way, the quality of life in every community. As a result, the experience of the city of San Diego has demonstrated the importance of involving its people in the business of law enforcement convincingly. Examples of these benefits include first, a worth of over $1.5 million of the volunteer man hours; second, an addition of other new services. Third, better police-community relations; and lastly, allowing officers to have more time for serious criminal cases (Willard & Lansdowne, 2005).
Furthermore, these programs help build community trust in various ways. Firstly, the police departments adhere to the rules of professionalism and integrity as the cornerstone of building confidence in the community. Being that those police officers have a position of confidence and trust in the communities, and offered impressive authority to perform their duties, and then any abuse of power, excessive use of authority, or failure to carry out their duties as required, can erode trust from the people. Secondly, the programs should have transparent internal affairs processes as a building block in maintaining confidence in the community. The department’s Internal Affairs practices should be part of a larger culture of ethical conduct and integrity (Building trust, 2009). Moreover, the core values and principles should be clear and precise to direct the actions of the agency. Thirdly, it is crucial to have a culture of integrity in the police department. A visibly defined standard that addresses every member of the department ensures a trusting relationship with the community (Building trust, 2009). Therefore, the values and behaviors must be modeled in a culture of integrity both through hiring and community outreach.
Nevertheless, the police-community relations need to be improved. Some of the important ideas to this is that the department requires having a valid membership with an appropriate cross-section, mutual respect, trust and understanding, and the ability to compromise. Besides that, a political and social environment would be favorable to all. It would also be important to note that people are interested in the outcome of the whole process. Therefore, there should be a flexible and adaptable process with a positive outcome. Lastly, resources would also have a big impact on the police-community relations. About this, the meetings should be skilled and unbiased, whereby all members have time to express themselves. Besides, funds must be sufficient for any field work.
In conclusion, police-community relations are an important aspect of any police department. However, it is a responsibility of both the community and the law enforcement agency. This is because both parties are required to reduce crime and solve problems around them. Therefore, San Diego, just like many cities with community relations should work towards improving them for a better problem solving.
References
Building trust between the police and the citizens they serve: An internal affairs promising practices guide for local law enforcement. (2009). Washington, DC: Department of Justice.
Willard, S., & Lansdowne, W. (2005). San Diego Police Department. Charleston, SC: Arcadia.
