NCJ Number
174785
Journal
Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology Volume: 12 Issue: 1 Dated: Spring 1997 Pages: 1-6
Date Published
1997
Length
6 pages
Annotation
Structured interviews with 20 police patrol sergeants in the Austin, Tex., Police Department gathered information regarding the change strategies that helped or hindered the implementation of community policing.
Abstract
The participants were selected to represent a cross-section of both positive and negative attitudes toward community policing. They provided information on practical approaches that they believed had helped make the community policing program successful, as well as practices or policies that had created resistance or confusion. A separate variance t-test was used to compare supervisors' attitudes with their age, length of service as supervisors, and length of career. Practices that helped promote community policing included officers' freedom to choose projects, working in teams, tailoring projects to fit officers' styles, the use of familiar accepted police traditions, working personally with citizens, reducing paperwork to a minimum, publicly recognizing officers' efforts and successes. Practices that hurt community policing included rotating shifts, reinforcement of citizens to be dependent, sporadic verbal support from command staff, excessive bureaucracy, and inadequate training of line supervisors. Age was the only factor significantly related to the supervisor's attitudes toward community policing. The average age of the 13 supervisors with positive attitudes was 39 years, compared to nearly 45 years for the 7 supervisors with negative attitudes. Tables and 9 references (Author abstract modified)