Strategies for Community Policing

• NCJ Number: 193280
• Author(s): Elizabeth M. Watson; Alfred R. Stone; Stuart M. DeLuca
• Date Published: 1998
• Length: 198 pages
• Sale Source: Prentice Hall Publishing
• Publication Format: Book (Softbound)
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This book provides law enforcement with information regarding current thinking about community policing and the implementation of community policing within an existing police department.

Abstract

In chapter 1, a general background on the origins of American law enforcement is provided with particular emphasis on the idea that community policing, the partnership between the professional police agency and the citizens, has been apart of the American approach to criminal justice. Chapter 2 provides definitions of community and community policing. There is a great deal of confusion with these terms. The definition of community includes geographical communities, demographic communities, and interest communities. Community policing is a set of ideas about the role of law enforcement in American society. Chapter 3 begins to establish a model of community policing and the way that it can be created in a police agency. There is discussion of the term “police services,” how various communities value those services, and how the features of different communities influence the ability of police to deliver services. Specific steps are then proposed that may be undertaken by police executives to establish a baseline of information and an assessment of community expectations. Chapter 4 then assumes that community needs are determined and that the police executive commits himself to the implementation of community policing in a traditional police agency. Steps are examined in preparation for the transition to a community policing plan. Chapter 5 presents steps in the transition: redefining the expectations of agency personnel at each level, from rookie officer to high-level administrator. The impact of the transition on training, management and on the agency’s relationship with the community is considered. Chapter 6 examines the structural and organizational issues involved in community policing. Chapter 7 offers methods to deepen the base of community knowledge within the police department. And Chapter 8 reviews the methods employed to evaluate a police department, a method that should be used in a department adhering to a community policing philosophy.