NCJ Number
137346
Date Published
1992
Length
91 pages
Annotation
The traditional view of law enforcement as independent, professional crime fighters is giving way to a new vision of police as cooperative partners with the community to preserve the quality of life. This shift to community policing requires substantial changes in both the operation and philosophy of police departments.
Abstract
In the traditional model, police focused their activities on achieving quantifiable outputs such as persons arrested, crimes committed, or calls answered. In the community policing model, police focus attention on often intangible outcomes of their activities such as crimes prevented or problems solved. A key issue in evaluating police effectiveness involves the process used to assess community policing strategies by the year 2001. Subissues concern what services community policing agencies will provide, what services will be evaluated to measure effectiveness, and what criteria will be used to evaluate services. Significant trends are identified that may impact the evaluation of police effectiveness: level of demand for law enforcement services, level of demand for nonenforcement services, and level of public involvement in police policymaking. A strategic plan is developed for the Santa Ana, California Police Department; the department's environmental strengths, weaknesses, threats, and opportunities are analyzed. The study concludes that the process for evaluating the effectiveness of a community policing strategy should parallel that of community policing itself. This process should consist of three basic components: uniqueness to the individual situation, results or outcomes, and cooperative determination by the police and the community. Supplemental information on the study's trend and event analysis is appended. 54 references, 1 table, and 1 illustration