Law Enforcement and Policing
The previous paper chose community policing as the main concept. Community policing describes as a philosophy which has evolved from a traditional police law enforcement agency in which the policing was subject of the government to a modern community based policy (Kappeler and Gaines 2012). As a strategy designed to address the issue crime and insecurity, community policing fulfills its objectives by exploring possible cause of crime and such crimes can be addressed through partnership between the community and law enforcement agencies.
Overall, community policing works on the understanding the community should be allowed to participate in maintain law and order since they are the main stakeholders in the community (Brogden and Nijhar, 2012). The community does not only educate and facilitate creative problem analysis, but also address neighborhood concerns. Community policing is believed to be a proactive approach meant to prevent crime using a number of measures: First, initiating neighborhood and community watch programs in the society second, conducting security surveys within homes and communities; and lastly, community policing encourages people to secure their property (Brown, 2012).
There are two core components of community policing in law enforcement namely: First is the community partnership. This component is based on mutual trust between the police and the community. Therefore, the police or law enforcement agencies appreciate the fact that the community and the police should cooperate in the quest to maintain order and security within the community. As such, law enforcement agencies encourage the community to voluntarily offer relevant information regarding crime. Community partnership further involve the police taking active pat in activities such as educating the public regarding crime, and offer measures on how to address security crisis (Miller, Hess and Orthmann 2011). The second component is problem solving which transcends mere prevention and elimination of crime within the community. From problems solving perspective, crime and disorder within the community can be eliminated by first understanding its nature and finally using relevant recourses to address it (Miller, Hess and Orthmann 2011). Such process offers law enforcement agencies the opportunity to adopt appropriate strategy such as either mediating or manipulating the surrounding in order discourage and eliminate crime and other disorders.
Despite the application of community policing to address crime and disorder in the community, community policing often faces numerous challenges. First is the aspect of the aspect of military model and professionalism. This is a model that officers are required to adhere to eliminate incidences of victimization. However, in cases where the order proposed is not welcome in the community then it will hinder effective admission of community policing. Secondly, the police performance and evaluation is critical for successful admission of community policing. That is, unlike other fields of professionalism, the policing sector is often characterized by non-performers. This affects the policing strategies required to enhance the cooperation between the community and the law enforcement agencies. Therefore a continuous training, evaluation, and rewarding performing should be embraced for successful community policing.
Police organizational structures should be revised to decrease the number of levels of authority, particularly at the bottom of the hierarchy. Community policing envisions the empowerment of law enforcement officers to take independent action to solve problems by cooperating with relevant bodies within the community (Hess, Orthmann and Cho 2012).
Moreover, the police need to expand its training programs to incorporate community policing. Such programs will include basic training for new recruits based on their potential to carry out community policing. As during training, free communication should be encouraged between the citizens, community leaders, ordinary residents, and listen and learn effectively should be encouraged. Secondly, public relations should be encouraged to improve management of crimes and disorder in the society (Chambliss 2011). Lastly techniques such as identification, analysis of problems, and developing effective responses and solutions should be incorporated as a means to solve crimes in disorder in the community (Chambliss 2011).
Geographical information system should be used in community policing to enhance geographic monitoring in proactive policing and informed response (GSI) (Bell, 2004). This process would help the law enforcement agencies by turning various data collected into actionable knowledge. Bell (2004) cites that the system addresses operational awareness, strategic, and tactical planning. However, due to poor funding of the policing sector, the use of GSI in law enforcement is normally encountered.
In conclusion, community policing is an established concept of modem law enforcement doctrine. Whereas there is much experimentation and innovation within the community policing ideology, its benefits are much higher in the governments’ effort to address crime and disorder within the community. Moreover, there is transition from a traditional reactive, incident-driven style of policing to a more contemporary proactive, problem-directed style of community-oriented policing. At the same time the practice of community policing and the implementation planning promote the process of community policing. However, it must recognize the important role of the individual law enforcement officers. Therefore, even though leaders might need quick positive results to this kind of policing, it is always a long term based problem solving strategy. It requires planning, flexibility, cooperation, time, and patience for it to be used effectively in addressing crime and disorders with the community due to variation in the nature of crimes and disorder in communities.
References
Bell, J. (2004). Policing hatred: Law enforcement, civil rights, and hate crime. New York, NY:
Brogden , M., & Nijhar, P. (2013). Community policing. USA: Routledge.
Brown, L. P. (2012). Policing in the 21st century: Community policing. AuthorHouse.
Chambliss, W. J. (2011). Key issues in crime and punishment. Thousand Oaks, Calif: SAGE.
criminal justice. Clifton Park, NY: Delmar/Cengage Learning.
Hess, K. M., Orthmann, C. M. H., & Cho, H. L. (2012). Introduction to law enforcement and
Kappeler, V. E., & Gaines, L. K. (2012). Community policing: A contemporary perspective. Burlington: Elsevier Science.
Miller, L. S., Hess, K. M. & Orthmann, C. M. H. (2011). Community policing: Partnerships for problem solving. Australia: Delmar Cengage Learning.
New York University Press.
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