Introduction
In the history of criminal justice and policing, the concept of community policing is relatively new, though it has been tried in one form or another in the last few decades. Community policing is a policing practice that seeks to reduce an area’s crime rate by fostering trust and cooperation between police and citizens. A greater need to implement aspects of community policing has been felt with the rising level of crime in American society. A police department acts as a value system in which the goal is to work with citizen groups and individuals, as well as private and public organizations, to solve matters that can affect the livability of areas, neighborhoods, or a city.
In this case, it is recognized that many issues cannot be dealt with by the police alone and that citizens share a mutual responsibility to solve them. Prevention, timely intervention, and early identification are stressed before a matter becomes serious or unwieldy, and each individual officer functions as a practitioner of this policing practice and becomes a means of bringing together private resources and state authority to resolve issues. For this purpose, officers are required to spend time within communities in order to foster personal relationships with businesses, citizens, community organizations, or schools. In December 2014, President Obama convened a ‘Task Force on 21st Century Policing’ in response to growing sentiment against police and law enforcement. Its purpose was to reduce crime by introducing community-policing strategies. Police departments were directed to improve community relations by introducing community-oriented policing strategies and solving crimes through a more holistic approach. According to President Obama, this would help fortify bonds between communities and police officers. The question that arises is whether community policing is an effective practice today, whether increasing community policing reduces street violence and street crime within a community, and whether it reduces confrontations between police and people.
Literature Review
Community policing as a concept has been studied from multiple perspectives. In a study by Morabito (2008), community policing was analyzed in the wake of the widespread media attention and government funding it received in the 1990s. A large majority of police agencies surveyed were reported to have been using a mixture of different community-policing strategies and activities that served populations greater than 25,000 people. The study found that, despite reporting this, most of the agencies did not, in fact, properly adopt elements that were central to the method.
The findings also suggested that the method seemed to be difficult for different police departments to put into practice, as evidence of uneven adoption was found (Morabito, 2008). Furthermore, where it is implemented, it can present new challenges related to accountability and governance. Terpstra (2011) conducted research in which it was found that community police officers were often caught between demands flowing from central or managerial government bodies and demands for accountability from the local community. The study noted that police accountability can be threatened by organizational decentralization, hierarchical perspectives, increased discretion, and growing intimacy between police and citizens. This can lead to policing that depends more on community consent and participation.
In the Netherlands, an ethnographic study that compared results from urban and rural areas examined the extent and nature of tensions and the coping measures used by police officers and departments (Terpstra, 2011). It found that police strategies or priorities were not based on local community voices and that there were competing managerial forces that restricted democratic control of the police. Therefore, despite having community policing in practice, distance between citizens and police officers remained.
Further research in this area by Lee (2010) investigated homeland-security planning and its consequences for community-oriented policing among U.S. police departments. The study obtained sample data from 281 municipal police departments in 47 states, each serving a population of over 25,000. The study sought to answer which aspects of homeland security are associated with primary police functions and whether prioritizing homeland security correlates with a decrease in community policing. The study found that both community policing and homeland security can work together because homeland-security terrorism-prevention measures can also include anti-fear campaigns, hazard mitigation, and disaster prevention through emergency community-response teams (Lee, 2010).
A community-policing approach, according to the study, could serve this purpose through a collaborative problem-solving approach rather than the traditional model. Another study was conducted in a Midwestern city to understand the perceptions of 500 officers regarding themselves, their police department, fellow officers, neighborhood organizations, and their overall relations with the community in connection with community policing (Mark A. Glaser, 2010). The findings showed that officers participating in the program believed officers could rise above their own self-interest more than citizens could and that there was a need to prevent neighborhoods from becoming isolated. The broader community and the neighborhoods should have a unified purpose. Among the surveyed officers, those who felt that their police department successfully balanced community and organizational concerns in community-oriented policing were more likely to display greater commitment to the community they served.
However, a study by Muller (2010) contrasts with the previous findings by suggesting that community policing may not work the same way everywhere and that local context, political factionalism, clientelism, and police corruption can be important factors that reduce the legitimacy and accountability of community policing. An empirical fieldwork survey was conducted to draw conclusions in Mexico City (Müller, 2010). The findings supported some uncertainty regarding the community-policing method and its alleged democratic potential, which, according to Muller (2010), was often ignored by the program’s promoters. The study concluded that many analyses evaluating community-policing programs are based on uncritical liberalism and are characterized by a lack of nuance when seeking global application. Another interesting study in this regard compared police officers’ confidence in a community-policing program with their performance (Ling Ren, 2005).
According to Ling Ren (2005), a shift to community policing led to broader measures of police performance, and officers’ confidence levels could be used by police management as indicators of effectiveness. The findings showed that informal collective security led to better confidence in the police, with volunteers also showing higher confidence in the police department, whereas more traffic tickets or a sense of victimization reduced that confidence. When contact with the police increases, it correlates with increased confidence in them. However, the strongest predictor of confidence in the police was the effect of informal collective-security measures (Ling Ren, 2005).
Discussion
Based on the literature review, it can be concluded that community policing had positive impacts on both the police and the public in some places. However, its effectiveness depended on a series of complex factors, because of which it did not always produce fruitful results, as pointed out by Müller (2010). Furthermore, security dynamics have evolved since 9/11 with advances in communications technology and social media. Communities are not isolated, and any unfavorable incidents may receive widespread coverage that can lead to unrest and outbreaks in different parts of the world and reinforce or produce grievances, distrust, and distance between the police and the public. Therefore, what worked in the 1970s, when the concept of community policing was introduced, may not work as effectively today.
Community-oriented crime prevention fundamentally seeks to be a proactive method of reducing crime by increasing awareness among members and organizations of the community that may be potential targets. It also seeks to broaden communication and contact between the community and the police. The police facilitate most community crime-prevention programs with the support of local communities, which need to participate in those programs for them to be successful and effective. The question that arises is whether community policing is an effective practice in light of the given circumstances, whether increasing community policing leads to a visible reduction in street violence and/or street crime within the community, and whether it reduces confrontations between law enforcement and citizens.
To study this, indicators of community policing will be used in two different areas over a two-year period. Both areas will be known to have high crime rates. Agency records from the police department will be collected and used to analyze crime and public perceptions of street crime and street violence as dependent variables, comparing the intervention area with another area where community-policing strategies will not be implemented.
Methodology And Analysis
The research will have three main components relating to the research design, procedure, and participants. The primary objective of the research will be to evaluate the efficacy of the community-policing program and to observe any reductions in street crime. A community-policing program will be implemented in one area with a population greater than 25,000, and its effect will be observed over a period of 24 months. There will be two groups of people, one of which will be living in the area where the community-policing program will be implemented. Any adjacent city or area that has a relatively high crime rate can be chosen for the purpose. Citizens of all ages, genders, races, or ethnicities will be included in the study population. The police department assigned to the area will implement the new policing program, which will also involve police officers of different ranks, including both female and male officers.
The research will study both groups to demonstrate how effective a community-oriented policing program can be by measuring reductions in street crime and police-citizen confrontations over 24 months. To implement the program, the department will assign officers to patrol particular neighborhoods during their shifts and to develop contacts and community relations within them. The variables of success will be evaluated by assessing crime rates against community-policing indicators, first by collecting statistics regarding the initial crime rates in the given area. Although general crime indicators such as robberies, murders, larcenies, homicides, rape, or assaults will be measured, street crime and violence will be given higher priority as part of this experiment. How well a community-policing program in an area is working will be measured according to the number of officers on patrol and their contacts and interactions with communities and citizens within their jurisdiction.
The level of cooperation between citizens and the police will also be measured and evaluated. As an added measure, the costs incurred by the police department after implementing the program will also be taken into account. The number of street crimes and incidents of street violence will then be measured and collected from agency records each month throughout the 24-month study period. Fluctuations, increases, or decreases within each month will be recorded and compared from the commencement of the program until the end to assess any reduction in general crime and especially street violence. The area or neighbourhood where community-policing measures were particularly well implemented will be studied with greater care, as it is understood that not all officers will perform the same way in the role.
If the monthly collected data indicate a reduction in the crime rate, that will mean that the community-policing program has been effective. The costs of implementing the program will also be evaluated to compare actual performance with the amount of resources required to make the program a success. Data from police records, citations, and tickets will be collected from the department, along with financial records during the course of the study. Officer feedback will also be collected to assess how well the program was implemented in the designated areas. A multivariate analysis will be conducted, as the given quantitative data will be plotted to indicate trends and improvements, if any.
Implications
The study conducted will be vital for police departments and municipalities in determining whether community-oriented policing programs can work effectively in their areas and neighborhoods to ensure public safety in a better way than traditional policing programs. Furthermore, departments in other states that are already implementing community-policing programs fully or partially will be able to use the study to evaluate whether they should discontinue or continue their own programs, or how they could improve them. Due to the fact that more officers will be required on patrol, costs are bound to increase as well. The study period is long enough to make a relatively accurate judgment about how different policing practices can lead to a reduction or increase in crime rates and whether the benefits justify the costs. Owing to increased crime, it is well known that law-enforcement authorities are searching for innovative solutions to reduce crime generally, especially street crime, which has long been a problem in many parts of the country.
Since traditional law enforcement uses mainly reactive measures to counter crime, there is little incentive for officers to connect with citizens. If the new community-policing program is shown to be effective, then implementation of the program could lead to better connections between citizens and law enforcement. It will also give citizens and volunteers an opportunity and encouragement to become involved in keeping their areas and neighborhoods safe by cooperating with officers on patrol. This will allow the police to interact with the community on a personal level and get to know its members, while people may view the police more positively and with greater trust. Greater cooperation can then, in turn, provide law enforcement with better possible leads and witness statements. Street crime and other types of crime may possibly decline as criminals see more witnesses and citizens cooperating with law enforcement to help deter crime.
There are, however, some limitations within the research methods. It is possible that not all citizens will engage or cooperate with officers at the same level, or vice versa. If a community itself is reluctant to participate, then the cost of implementing the program may not be feasible. It is also possible that, because the study period is long, transfers could occur within the department, and the officer assigned to a neighborhood may be replaced, with the new officer struggling to connect and cooperate with citizens as well as the previous one did. Therefore, having the same patrolling officer is important for obtaining the maximum benefit from the program. Furthermore, what works in one city, region, or state may not work in another, since community-policing indicators are based on at least some successful aspects in the past. However, the results cannot be expected to be replicated all the time. Finally, a follow-up survey could be used to measure public perceptions after a successful community-policing program and assess the results from the public’s perspective.
References
Lee, J. V. (2010). Policing After 9/11: Community Policing in an Age of Homeland Security. Police Quarterly, 13(4), 347-366.
Ling Ren, L. C. (2005). Linking confidence in the police with the performance of the police: Community policing can make a difference. Journal of Criminal Justice, 33, 55-56.
Müller, M.-M. (2010, April). Community Policing in Latin America: Lessons from Mexico City. European Review of Latin American and Caribbean Studies, 88, 21-37.
Mark A. Glaser, J. D. (2010, May). Community Policing and Community Building: A Case Study of Officer Perceptions. The American Review of Public Administration, 40(3), 309-325.
Morabito, M. S. (2008, March 12). Understanding Community Policing as an Innovation: Patterns of Adoption. Crime & Delinquency.
Terpstra, J. (2011). Governance and accountability in community policing. Crime, Law and Social Change, 55(2-3), 87-104.
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