NCJ Number
160129
Date Published
1996
Length
234 pages
Annotation
Focusing on policing at the city and county levels, this volume explores major issues in contemporary policing and police community relations in the United States.
Abstract
An introductory chapter examines three closely related concepts central to the analysis of police community relations: human relations, public relations, and community relations. Next, the text presents a historical perspective of police community relations, discusses the changing role of the police in contemporary society, and considers the relationship between police discretion and police community relations. An analysis of human relations and the police focuses on routine police-citizen interactions, characteristics and experiences that affect police encounters with other citizens, and human relations programs and policies. Police public relations are discussed in terms of policies and practices, techniques and strategies, and media relations. Further chapters examine issues related to police interactions with adolescents and juvenile gangs; crowds, protests, demonstrations, and civil disorders; community policing in both urban and rural areas; and police relations with racial and ethnic minorities. Additional chapters examine current issues related to police employment criteria, female police, black police officers, police training for community relations, police-sponsored community relations programs targeted at specific groups such as the elderly and juveniles, and the role of the community in police community relations. Tables, photographs, reprints of media articles, chapter discussion questions and reference notes, lists of suggested readings, index, and appended police-media relations policy from one police agency