NCJ Number
121349
Journal
Police Chief Volume: 57 Issue: 1 Dated: (January 1990) Pages: 34-36,53
Date Published
1990
Length
4 pages
Annotation
The most important problems to be faced by law enforcement in the first 5 years of the 1990's are drugs/violence; police burnout; police organizational structure; finances; social unrest, terrorism, and crime; and the challenge of community policing.
Abstract
Drug trafficking and abuse, together with drug-related violence, will continue at unacceptable rates in the next 5 years; however, if communities are persistent in reducing both supply and demand, there should be evidence that the "war on drugs" is being won in the second half of the decade. Working the streets as a patrol officer, narcotics officer, or homicide detective in drug-infested cities inevitably produces the burnout syndrome. Police supervisors must be trained to recognize, accept the normalcy of, and develop measures to combat this syndrome. Law enforcement's capacity to react swiftly to problems of social disorder in times of rapid change must be enhanced by organizational changes that reduce bureaucratic inertia. The next 5 years should be economically difficult for most police agencies, as the demand for services will increase while resources decrease. Although general crime rates are likely to fall over the next 5 years, international crime will continue to increase, requiring increased international cooperation among law enforcement agencies. Community-based policing, which involves increased police-citizen cooperation in preventing and addressing crime, should be the police strategy for the immediate future.