NCJ Number
158678
Journal
Law Enforcement Technology Volume: 22 Issue: 10 Dated: (October 1995) Pages: 42-44,46-48,50-52
Date Published
1995
Length
9 pages
Annotation
This article discusses the ways in which community policing and technology are likely to influence policing in the future, as well as the grants funded by the Department of Justice's Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) under the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994.
Abstract
COPS provides grants to support community policing, which is variously described as a program, a philosophy, and a strategy. COPS emphasizes that the two essential components of community policing are some form of problem- solving and community involvement. The organization most familiar with community policing is the Community Policing Consortium, a consortium now funded by COPS and composed of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the Police Executive Research Forum, the Police Foundation, the National Sheriffs Association, and the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives. The Consortium's immediate focus is training approximately 1,500 of the 7,500 agencies receiving COPS grants. Integration and decentralization are central themes in community policing, as well as in the reinventing government movement. To be effective, they require technology. Although budget shortages have hindered technological advances in police agencies, the COPS MORE (Community Oriented Policing Services Make Officer Redeployment Effective) grants are changing the situation by paying for equipment and technology as well as other supports and services. The police agencies of Buffalo, N.Y. and Los Angeles have received COPS grants to improve their computer technology and computer networking. Photographs