NCJ Number
160214
Date Published
1996
Length
11 pages
Annotation
This chapter examines the new trend in community policing, as it addresses issues of problemsolving, consultation, partnership, and police accountability.
Abstract
The new emphasis on police structures and tasks that foster increased police-community cooperation and interaction is due to citizen disenchantment with police services, research in the 1970's that showed current police patterns of patrol and rapid response to be ineffective, and frustration with the traditional role of the police officer. Optimism about the new strategy of community policing stems from citizen response to the new strategy, ongoing research on police effectiveness, past experiences police have had with innovation, and the values of the new generation of police leaders. Some questions that still remain about community policing are whether it wastes police resources by focusing on the wrong priorities, whether it can be implemented in departments as they are currently organized, and whether it will increase the potential for police corruption or other inappropriate behavior by line officers. There is some fear that community policing will sacrifice the values of traditional policing. The public as well as police and community leaders wish policing to retain the old values of integrity, equitable distribution of police resources throughout a community, and police efficiency. The challenge of contemporary community policing is to redefine these concepts in the context of the resurgence of neighborhood vitality, consumerism, and more realistic assessments of the institutional capacity of police. Questions for discussion and suggested student applications of the chapter material