By Haidar (NOA)

The Core Functions of Police in 21st Century

Law Enforcement Functions
■ Identifying criminal suspects
■ Investigating crimes
■ Apprehending offenders and participating in their trials
■ Deterring crime through patrol
Order Maintenance Functions
■ Resolving conflict and keeping the peace
■ Maintaining a sense of community security
■ Keeping vehicular and pedestrian movement efficient
■ Promoting civil order
Service Functions
■ Aiding individuals in danger or in need of assistance
■ Providing emergency medical services
■ Public education and outreach
■ Maintaining and administering police services
■ Recruiting and training new police officers

Community-Oriented Policing (COP)

In a highly regarded article, “Broken Windows: The Police and Neighborhood Safety,” criminologists James Q.
Wilson and George Kelling called for a return to a nineteenth century style of community-oriented policing (COP)
in which police maintained a presence in the community, walked beats, got to know citizens, and inspired feelings
of public safety. They used the term broken windows to signify that a community with empty lots, garbage-strewn
streets, and deteriorated homes—that is, with broken windows—isa magnet for crime. Wilson and Kelling asked
police administrators to get their officers out of depersonalizing patrol cars. Instead of deploying police on the
basis of crime rates or in areas where citizens make the most calls for help, police administrators should station
their officers where they can do the most to promote public confidence and elicit citizen cooperation. Community
preservation, public safety, and order maintenance—not crime fighting—should become the primary focus of
police. Implied in the Wilson and Kelling model was a proactive police role. Instead of merely responding to calls
for help (known as reactive policing), police should play an active role in the community, identify neighborhood
problems and needs, and set a course of action for an effective response. Wilson and Kelling conclude: Just as
physicians now recognize the importance of fostering health rather than simply treating illness, so the police—and
the rest of us—ought to recognize the importance of maintaining intact communities without broken windows.

Community Partnerships

Collaborative partnerships between the law enforcement agency and the individuals and organizations they serve
to develop solutions to problems and increase trust in police.
■ Other government agencies
■ Community members/groups
■ Nonprofits, service providers
■ Private businesses
■ Media
 By Haidar (NOA)

Intelligence-Led Policing
Intelligence-led policing (ILP) refers to the collection and analysis of information to produce informed police
decision making at both the tactical and strategic levels. It emphasizes information-sharing, collaboration, and
strategic solutions to crime problems at various levels. ILP relies heavily on:
■ confidential informants
■ Offender interviews
■ Careful analysis of crime reports and calls for service
■ Suspect surveillance
■ Community sources of information

Intelligence-led policing bears a great deal of similarity to problem-oriented policing. The two are somewhat
different, however. Problem-oriented policing puts problem identification and solutions in the hands of individual
street-level officers. In contrast, ILP emphasizes a top-down managerial approach by which administrators set
priorities for crime prevention and enforcement and then pass these priorities down through the agency. ILP is
also similar to community policing in the sense that it relies on residents as part of the intelligence-gathering
process. It is different, though, because while community policing emphasizes the desires of the community,
intelligence-led policing relies on problem identification through careful analysis of the criminal environment as a
whole. Here are examples of the forms that ILP currently takes:

A head of district police identifies narcotics control as its top priority and develops strategies accordingly. The
office targets known offenders and groups, shuts down open-air drug markets and crack houses, and participates
in school-based drug awareness programs to help prevent drug use.

A police agency in a small city makes safe streets a priority. The agency focuses on directed enforcement in
identified hotspots. It also targets career criminals whose apprehension will significantly reduce the number of
crimes being committed. Preventive measures include enhanced patrols, improved street lighting, and crime watch
programs.

If the police are able to identify and arrest a criminal suspect, the focus of the justice system then turns to the
court system, where the adjudication process unfolds. The court is a complex social agency with many
independent but interrelated subsystems—clerk, prosecutor, defense attorney, judge, and probation
department—each having a role in the court’s operation. It is also the scene of many important elements of
criminal justice decision making—detention, jury selection, trial, and sentencing.