What is Community Policing?

June 14, 2015 — Community Policing, cops, DOJ

The term community policing has been tossed around in the media lately by experts and citizens of all kinds. This trending topic has been defined by the US Department of Justice:

Community policing is a philosophy that promotes organizational strategies, which support the systematic use of partnerships and problem-solving techniques, to proactively address the immediate conditions that give rise to public safety issues such as crime, social disorder, and fear of crime. Community policing is composed of three key components:

Partnerships – Collaborative partnerships between the law enforcement agency and the individuals and organizations they serve to develop solutions to problems and increase trust in police.
Organizational Transformation – The alignment of organizational management, structure, personnel, and information systems to support community partnerships and proactive problem solving.
Problem Solving – The process of engaging in the proactive and systematic examination of identified problems to develop and evaluate effective responses.

I hope incorporation of these policies will take place as soon as possible. Within the organizational transformation plan is a geographic approach to assignments.  In other words, provide neighborhood cops who know and interact with a certain area by assigning them to that area.  This is essential in my opinion, and would be helpful where I live.  The advice given is to despecialize the force, creating a more generally skilled team to handle most situations.  Problem solving and cooperation with the public have been missing elements to improving the safety in our city. Obvious ongoing crime would be obvious to any cop who patrolled here all the time.  The force would see what we see, and even become known to the neighbors.  These concepts will improve safety for both officers and the public.