Community Policing

Community Policing

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Community Policing

Community policing is a strategy that determines how police engage with the general public. The police establish ties and work as closely as possible with the members of the community so that they can address public safety concerns. This is aimed at creating partnerships and techniques of solving any problem that could threaten the community such as social disorder. This implies that the police are now part of the community unlike before when they saw themselves as a different entity. They get to assume new responsibilities; they not only enforce law but also act as advisors and to support and lead new initiatives in the community (Peak & Glensor, 1999). As such, community policing can be said to be made up of three key components: partnership from the community members, organizational transformation and solving problems.

Examples of community policing in my community include:

Community assessment and engagement:

The Minnesota Police Department introduced door- to- door survey of the citizens. The residents are also given “citizen Comment Cards” in traffic contacts. As for engagement, the Texas police have developed “Police Involving Parents Program,” where the young, the parents and the police come together to create an appropriate parent-enforced punishment in response an infraction. The police department also take part in community events as well as partner with both the public and private organizations and sponsor training activities. Consequently, communication is enhanced between the community leadership and the public safety department.

Educating the community

This has helped in ensuring that the residents gained knowledge of how to prevent crimes so that they become better in partnering with the police to prevent crimes. The elderly have also been targeted in this kind of education as they can easily become victims of crime and also because of the high concentrations of elderly people in the urban areas.

Partnership with the community

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) partnered with the residents and the local government agencies to point out, remove and destroy any unlicensed vehicles, called “runabout” vehicles which means cars stolen for a joy ride or older cars that are not registered.

Reference

Peak, K. J., & Glensor, R. W. (1999). Community policing and problem solving: Strategies and practices. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.