NCJ Number
198432
Date Published
December 2000
Length
0 pages
Annotation
This videotape discusses the shared experiences, as well as successes and challenges, at a Community Policing Partnership symposium in Washington, DC in November 1999.
Abstract
The symposium brought together leaders from 20 successful police-community partnerships from across the country. They shared their strategies and insights for supporting and maintaining viable partnerships. Community partnerships are a 50/50 partnership of law-abiding citizens and law enforcement agencies. It is proactive, solution-based, and community driven. Community policing is designed to accomplish four goals: arrest offenders, prevent crime, solve ongoing problems, and improve the quality of life. Partnerships usually start with one major problem, such as drugs or youth crime. A program is designed to address this problem. The community is mobilized because they have this problem in common. Sometimes community involvement cuts across race and class lines. Racism is an issue that needs to be addressed. The partnership essentials are the formation of a partnership, representation of stakeholders, collaborative decision making, building trust, and sustaining of partnerships. Three themes emerged from the symposium proceedings as being essential to strong partnerships: leadership, communication, and problem solving. In building and sustaining police-community relationships, the issue that resonated as the one underlying theme was the issue of trust between the police and the community. Police recruiting practices need to be designed to attract a different kind of officer -- one that reaches out to the community.