NCJ Number
177420
Journal
Police Chief Volume: 66 Issue: 5 Dated: May 1999 Pages: 18-21
Date Published
1999
Length
4 pages
Annotation
Crime prevention is a major responsibility of police departments, crime prevention must be the basis for each police department's organizational policies and for comprehensive crime prevention initiatives, and the community must be involved.
Abstract
Police departments need to reduce crime and maintain civil order by recognizing potential problems such as civil unrest and domestic terrorism. They also need to break the cycles of drug abuse, domestic violence, gang proliferation, youth violence, dysfunctional families and communities, and decaying neighborhoods and inner cities. Additional responsibilities of police departments are to harness the active participation of community members in crime prevention, to educate and train police officers in crime prevention, to create an organizational environment that nurtures community safety, to develop links between crime prevention and community policing, and to identify elements of effective crime prevention programs that focus on partnerships in community problem solving. Further, police departments need to work with the media to ensure news coverage extends to reporting both crime and crime prevention strategies and to provide active leadership in crime prevention. Factors to consider by police departments in mobilizing the community, and crime prevention efforts in Canada are discussed.