YORK

UNIVERSITY
COMMUNITY POLICING: AP/PPAS 2420 3.0 M
WINTER 2018

Time: Monday Director: Kirk Atkinson
Office: McLaughlin College
5:30-8:30 Place: CC
Office Hours: To Be Announced
108
kirka@yorku.ca

Course Description:

This course seeks to explore the leading edge of issues dealing with the problems,
contexts, and prospects for policing in the future. Our focus will be on community
policing. What type of paradigm shift does this involve? In order to understand this
question fully we need to explore: 1) the societal impetus at the base and origin of
modern policing (as found, for example, in the ideas of Robert Peel); 2) the re-
organization of policing under the impact of important technological and ideological
changes in the mission and scope of policing; and, 3) the contemporary ‘resurgence’
of a community-oriented model.
This course is largely concerned with understanding and analyzing the notions of
“community” and “policing” both as analytical and critical ideas. Does our idea of
community, determine our approaches to key issues and problems? Is our idea of
community an ideological tool that is prey to our larger political points of view and
aspirations? Further, do we see policing as a social institution that must necessarily
use force? Or, should policing be more about “community service”? Students will be
encouraged to explore these questions with an eye to the policy implications that
may ensue from such a paradigm shift in the nature of policing.

Grade Breakdown

Test 1: February 12—20%
Test 2: April 02—20%
Essay: March 19 - 40%
Participation and Attendance--20%
*Part of this component will be made up of in class discussions and questions that
will be brought by students while the other 10% will be based on regular
attendance.









1

Required Texts

There are two required texts in this course:

McLaughlin, Eugene, The New Policing, Sage Publications, London, 2007.

Newburn Tim (editor), Policing: Key Readings, Willan Publishing, Portland, Oregon,
2005
Additional readings may be assigned



Objectives of the Course:

• Student will learn about the institutional and historical factors that gave rise to
the modern institution of the police.
• Students will learn what it means to think of the police as part of the
institutional framework of the rule of law governance in liberal societies.
• Students will learn how to apply various analytical theoretic frameworks to
evaluate the function of the police.
• Students will learn the various policy paradigms of policing and how to
evaluate the efficacy of these paradigms.
• Students will learn how the legal order establishes the boundaries of police
powers.
• Students will learn how to think about and evaluate the pressures from the
media and community groups that the police as an institution faces.

2


Lecture Schedule

1: January 08: Introduction to the Course and Expectation along with a general and
brief introduction of community policing in historical perspective.

2: January 15: The Technocratic Model of Policing: Newburn, Chapters. 7 & 8.

3: January 22: The History and Urban Context of Policing: Newburn, Chapters. 1-3.

4 January 29: The Sociological Construction of Policing: McLaughlin, Chapters. 2

5: February 05: Traditional Perspectives: McLaughlin, Chapter. 3.

6: February 12: Test 1: 20% of final grade

7: February 26: Administrative Policing: Newburn, Chapters. 10 &

11. 8: March 05: Police Culture: McLaughlin, Chapters. 4-6

9: March 12: The Concept of Community and Restorative Justice: Newburn, Chp. 25.

10: March 19: Police Corruption: Newburn, Chapters. 33-35.

11: March 26: Policing and Community Justice: Newburn, Chps. 25-27

12: April 02: Test 2: 20% of final grade

3






Class Attendance and Participation expectation

The 20 percent grade component of the course will be allocated based on attending
lectures and a regular basis and participating in class room discussions based on the
assigned readings each week, as well as informed questions that arise from media
coverage and debates about the police in the context of community policing.

Research Essay

You will have a limited choice of possible essay questions. Your essay must be
constructed as an analytical as well as critical exercise. That is, you must understand
the structure, context, and content of ideas and concepts. If you’re going to write a
paper on community policing, it is important to understand the intricacies of such a
concept. You must be able to tell me what exactly community policing is and why
it is so important to contemporary debates within the policing literature. Also, you
must display critical skills in evaluating the significance and policy implications of
the perspectives that we will be examining. Do you think that the models work?
Why so? What type of policy recommendations would you offer?

The research essay must follow standard academic procedure and formatting: Title
page, bibliographical page, standard academic referencing and citation and page
numbering.

Research essay topics will be distributed in class.