Community Policing: Did It Change the Basic Functions of Policing in the 1990's? A National Follow-Up Study

• NCJ Number: 203806
• Journal: Justice Quarterly Volume: 20 Issue: 4 Dated: December 2003 Pages: 697-724
• Author(s): Jihong Zhaq; Ni He; Nicholas P. Lovrich
• Date Published: December 2003
• Length: 28 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This article, the third installment in a continuing effort to monitor change in the priorities of police core functions during the 1990's, presents the methodology and findings of a study that examined whether the community-policing concept has changed the priority given to basic functions of policing.

Abstract

Study data were obtained from a longitudinal analysis of municipal police departments that involved a series of surveys in 1993, 1996, and 2000. This involved mail surveys of police chiefs from the same set of 281 municipal police departments in 47 States at approximately 3-year intervals since 1978. The dependent variables included the level of priority assigned to core-area police functions that reflected the crime-control, order-maintenance, and service-provision functions of policing. Five independent variables were used to test for the effects of a number of potentially important environmental and organizational variables believed to be associated with the prioritization of police functions. One of the independent variables was the extent of adoption of community-oriented policing programs. A fundamental objective of community policing is to increase the importance of the order-maintenance and service function in maintaining public safety. The statistical analysis used the pooled cross-sectional time-series (or panel data) method. The analysis concluded that the extent of implementation of community-oriented policing was a statistically significant predictor of all core functions of policing. The authors argue that community-oriented policing can be characterized as a comprehensive effort by local police to mount a balanced effort in the basic policing functions of controlling crime, reducing social disorder, and providing services to the citizenry. Future research is suggested to determine whether a long-term pursuit of community-oriented policing leads to a genuine reordering of priorities among the core functions of American policing. 2 tables, 75 references, and appended summary of indexes created, the survey instrument, a list of community-oriented policing programs and strategies, characteristics of participating city/agencies, and crime rate per 100,000 population