Running head: COMMUNITY POLICING AND CRIME REDUCTION

Community Policing and Crime Reduction

Name

Institutional Affiliation

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Community Policing and Crime Reduction

Community policing as it is presently practiced in the United States can be defined as a

law enforcement philosophy that permits constables to ceaselessly work in the same area to build

a robust bond with the citizens residing and operating in that locality. This enhances the police to

engage with the members of the community and prevent crime from taking place rather than

reacting to incidents after they happen.

Community policing fosters action plans that assist in supporting the consistent utilization of

partnerships and problem-solving skills which addresses prompt conditions that leads to public

safety problems like delinquency and fear of crime.

Community policing can be explained as collaboration between the law enforcers and the

members of the community. With this team-up, they seek to identify and decipher the community

issues and increase trust in the police (Community Oriented Police Services (Cops), 2014). Since

the police are not the only protectors of law and order, community representatives become active

partners in the effort to improve the safety and quality of neighborhoods. The primary objective

of community policing is to make better the condition of law enforcement services in the

community. The enactment of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 gave

rise to the Office of Community-Oriented Policing Services which aims at improving community

policing. Police officers are of the view that community policing concentrates on several things

such as social disorder, delinquency, crime prevention, community engagement, problem-

solving, and partnerships. Law enforcement officers together with the members of the

community, work together as partners to help point out and address problems. This helps in

maintaining social order and minimizing the fear of crime (Bureau of Justice Assistance, 1994).

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The main criticisms in Ferguson are that; community policing appears to be to a certain

degree modest but has reduced to nearly nothing in current years. He further contends that no

police officer plays any substantive function in community policing endeavors. The proof given

in the studies was that some constables operate on a 12-hour duty shift which makes community

policing very complex and laborious to handle. According to Ferguson, the 12-hour duty shift

sabotages the community policing operation. The investigation carried out also opened the

justifications that community policing indeed needs law enforcement officers to spend more time

with the members of the community to undertake the problem-solving roles which is not the case

in the 12-hour shift in the American society (Ferguson. "Investigation of the Ferguson Police

Department", 2014). Ferguson also stipulates that inadequate diverse police force sabotages

community trust.

The steps that the community can take to make community policing a successful strategy

for law enforcement are; to build a stronger relationship with the police. A stronger relationship

will definitely help in maintaining public safety and efficient policing. This is because the law

enforcement officers count on the coordination of the members of the community to give

information about lawlessness in their neighborhoods. Robust relationship with the police will

help the community members to work hand in hand to devise solutions to delinquency and

disorder issues. The members of the community will also trust the police conduct i.e. if they

presume that law enforcement officer’s actions reflect society values and incorporate the

doctrines of legitimacy and procedural justice. Over the past years in the US, the police conduct

of using excessive force and other misconducts have been questioned by the citizens to a point

where it triggered demonstrations of all sorts. Another step is to surge the opportunity for law

enforcers to have constant positive interactions with the members of the community (Ferguson.

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"Investigation of the Ferguson Police Department", 2014). Community partnership has proved to

be the most appropriate method of handling the duty performance call by the law enforcer unit.

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References

Community Oriented Police Services (Cops). (2014). Community Policing Defined. Washington,

DC.

Bureau of Justice Assistance. (1994). Understanding Community Policing. Retrieved August 2,

2020, from https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles/commp.pdf.

Ferguson. "Investigation of the Ferguson Police Department" (March 4, 2015), United States,

Department of Justice Civil Rights Division.

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