Making the Police Proactive: An Impossible Task for Improbable Reasons (From Police and Society: Touchstone Readings, P 365-374, 1995, Victor E. Kappeler, ed. - See NCJ- 151401)

• NCJ Number: 151421
• Author(s): F P Williams III; C P Wagoner
• Date Published: 1995
• Length: 10 pages
• Sale Source: Waveland Press, Inc.
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Police Forum, 2 (2) (1992): 1-5. Reprinted with permission of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences.

Annotation

This article discusses the issue of what society can do about crime in the context of police reform and police services.

Abstract

Specifically, the authors critique proactive policing and call for police change. They explore the relationship between crime, proactive policies, and three ideal types of public, referred to here as citizens, interest groups, and elites. Nevertheless, this discussion is a bit misleading, since, in reality, all three types of public act together, with the most powerful wielding the greatest influence. The most probable outcome for police change is that the three variations will combine to some degree, meaning that none of the potential approaches described here will come to fruition. The authors predict that police will retain their current paramilitary form and bureaucratic structure and will fail to become proactive. The only type of agency that can truly affect crime would be one empowered to respond to crime on a larger scale by improving education, health, recreation, and community renovation; in this type of scenario, the police would be assigned the task of reacting to crime as, or after, it is committed. 14 references