NCJ Number
138801
Date Published
1992
Length
60 pages
Annotation
This essay considers the potential of problem-solving and community policing as a means to reduce and prevent crime, to protect and enhance the quality of life in urban America, to secure and strengthen police acceptance of legal and constitutional values, and to realize heightened accountability of the police to their communities.
Abstract
The few available evaluations of problem-solving and community policing show both promise and hazards for these new concepts. The focus in problem-solving policing is on the problems that lie behind incidents rather than on the incidents only. Community policing emphasizes the creation of working partnerships between police and communities to both reduce crime and enhance security. Successful implementation of either problem-solving or community policing depends on efforts to build an outside constituency and broaden the terms of police accountability. Critical to the process is identifying a set of values that can act as a basic contract to guide the partnership of the police and the community as they work to resolve the problems of crime and fear. Problem- solving and community policing strategies are most likely to be needed for dealing with the problems of drugs and violence. 100 references