Community Policing

4 Pages 1026 Words

The movement toward community policing has gained a lot of strength in recent years. Police and community leaders search for more effective ways to increase the extent of awareness of public safety and the quality of life in their communities. We have accepted community policing in one police department after another, and agree community policing provides hope for the future of law enforcement. We can trace community policing back to Sir Robert Peel, the father of the modern police system, who said, "the police is the public and the public are the police"(Braiden). Community policing is the philosophy of policing supported by a number of principles to find the combination of agreement and accord where people live and work. It is this philosophy that attempts to refocus the essence of policing to a “Law Enforcement philosophy that tries to do two things: first bring police officers and citizens together in neighborhoods and second give the police responsibility for solving problems in the community” (Wilson). Community policing involves three elements; community partnership, problem solving and police culture. This pursuit can take many forms such as preventing and reducing crime and the fear of crime. Community policing encourages residents as well as police officers to get involved in the task of making the community safer. By making this effort the community has a greater chance to resist crime, reduce fear and attain a peaceful and secure place to live together.
The first element of community policing is community partnership. Police must form partnerships with the residents, the private sector and government officials. Community partnership means adopting a police perspective that is above the normal emphasis on law enforcement. This may include individuals as well as organizations or agencies that share a common goal; shares responsibility, resources, rewards and risks and includes citizens of the local community and re...