Police Strategy Assessment - Assignment Example

? Police Strategy Assessment of Table of Contents I. Introduction II. Definition of burglary III. Police operational police strategies IV. Community policing V. The theoretical foundations of community policing VI. Steps for applying community policing to burglary VII. Critique of applying community policing on burglary VIII. Conclusion IX. References Introduction To predict, prevent, control, and manage crimes and other disorder problems, police departments are faced with a number challenges and obstacles while executing their duties. In addition, the duty of the law enforcement agencies to reduce the fear of crime among members of the public makes their work rather tricky. To execute their duties effectively and achieve their objectives, police departments have to establish productive operational strategies using all the available resources such as money, personnel, equipment, and weapons (Allen, 2005). Moreover, there is need for the law enforcers to incorporate the pubic/community into their operational strategies as researches have shown that community involvement in crime-fighting has resulted in tremendous reduction in citizen fear/sense of insecurity and crime prevalence in many metropolitans. The nature and level of public involvement however depends on the nature/type and the prevalence of crime targeted. Among the crimes for which operational police strategies are established, implemented, evaluated, and reformed include robbery, rape, burglary, arson, robbery with violence, and theft among other crimes (Allen, 2005). This paper explores the use of the police operational strategy of community policing in fighting the crime of burglary in metropolitan neighborhoods. The Definition of Burglary Police departments in major metropolitans in the world are faced with myriad disorder problems or crimes. To prevent, control, manage, and predict the occurrence of these crimes and disorders, police departments establish and implement various policing strategies. Among the most commonplace crimes in many metropolitans is burglary. Whenever burglary is mentioned, among the terms that come to mind are forceful, breaking, and entering (Dressler, 1995). According to common law burglary would simply be defined as the act of forcefully entering another person’s property with intent to commit a crime. Therefore the most important inclusion in the definition of burglary is forceful entry. Nevertheless, detailed definitions of the crime of burglary vary from one jurisdiction or state to another. However, certain aspects come out as distinct for burglary, differentiating it from other crimes such as simple theft. For instance, burglary is always accompanied by forceful entering, breaking, and intent to commit a felony. There are numerous types of burglary, depending on the severity and the manner in which the act is committed. Nighttime burglary, the more serious type of burglary, refers to a breaking and entering committed at night. Some law enforcement agencies or states also define burglary as an inchoate/undeveloped crime, implying that the mere act of intruding into another person’s house is harmful in itself (Dressler, 1995). However, it regarded as an incomplete offense as only the security and the safety of the house or premise broken into is compromised. Police departments have therefore established and implemented a number of policies by which the prevalence of the crime of burglary could be predicted, prevented, controlled, and managed effectively. The effectiveness of these policies however varies, depending on the precision and the thoroughness of their implementation. Police Operational Police Strategies To enforce the laws targeting burglaries, there are numerous policing operational strategies that could be applied. While some of these strategies are designed to prevent crimes from occurring, other are tailored to handle routine crimes or emergencies. Similarly, while some of these strategies are short-term, others are more complex and target long-term solutions for long-term crimes and disorder problems. One of the police operational strategies is preventive patrol, which is one of the strategies employed by the police to prevent possible crimes from occurring. This type of strategy could be made effective through a variety of sub-strategies. These sub-strategies include the use of beat cops, who are an integral part of preventive patrols. In addition to beat cops, patrol cars, horse, or bike are important for the beat cop to move about the assigned areas. The intensity of the preventive patrols may change depending on the levels of security alert prevailing in an area. Heightened insecurity may result in police patrols using roadblocks or crackdown on suspects. Moreover, if an area is considered crime-prone, direct patrols could be conducted in such an area. The other police operational strategies are routine incident patrols and emergency response. While the former refers to police responses to routine occurrences of crimes such as traffic accidents and domestic complaints, the latter refers to response to emergencies such as hostage rescues, terror alerts, or fugitive captures (Schmalleger, 2006). One police operational strategy that has shot to prominence in recent times is community policing, which is based on a rather obvious concept. That is, it becomes easier for police officers to patrol areas and fight crimes effectively if the local community likes and welcomes the officers into the areas (Schmalleger, 2006). Otherwise, it would be difficult to fight crime and solve crime-related problems if officers are not liked/welcome in a locality. A good police-community relationship is thus the central idea in community policing. Also important in the theoretical foundations of community policing is the need for the community served to respect the police who ensure their safety and security. Community Policing Since it emerged in the 1960s, the idea of community policing has intrigued many a people. However, the philosophy and the theory behind community policing emphasize organizational strategies, the systematic application of partnerships/relations, and the use of collaborative problem-solving approaches. The man objective of community policing has therefore been the proactive addressing of immediate problems/issues on public safety and security such as disorder problems and fear of crimes (Schmalleger, 2006). There are three main elements with which community policing is synonymous. These elements are community partnerships, organizational transformation, and problem solving. The first element, community partnerships entails the group effort among the various stakeholders such as law enforcement agencies/officers, local community members/groups, media, other government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and the business community. Once all these stakeholders are incorporated into community policing, there is need for organizational transformation in the law enforcement and the agencies. This transformation regards agency management, labor relations, decision-making processes, leadership approach, climate, and culture (Schmalleger, 2006). In other words, the law enforcement agencies must then align their structures, management, systems, and personnel to support proactive crime busting via community partnerships. The policies of the law enforcers on organizational evaluations/supervisions, transparency, officer assignments, training, recruitment, hiring, and selection must also be in line with the philosophy of community policing. Resource, more so personnel and finances must be allocated in adequate amounts to community policing operations. To evaluate the success or lack thereof of community policing, effective communication, data accessibility, quality, and accuracy must be established in the law enforcement agencies. The last component of community policing, and perhaps the most important is the problem-solving aspect of the strategy. It would be an exercise in futility to put the above machinery in place only to fail in solving the crimes for which they were established. Therefore, community policing must have problem-solving as its core goal. To solve the crime-related problems in a community, there must be a proactive and systematic identification of the problems, which is an important step towards designing and evaluating the most effective responses. A thorough scanning to identify crimes and prioritize the need to curb them should be an essential activity in problem-solving operations (Schmalleger, 2006). After scanning and prioritizing crimes and public disorders in a target area, an analysis should be carried out to make the law enforcers knowledgeable about the problem. It is only after understanding a problem that law enforcement agencies would be in a position to develop possible solutions. The solutions may seek to eradicate or reduce the rate of occurrence of the targeted crimes. This leads to the need to assess and evaluate the successes of the responses opted for given crimes. The Theoretical Foundations of Community Policing The theoretical foundations of the community policing strategy postulates that the closer the relationship among the stakeholders in the fight against crimes, the more effective would be the police operational strategies established and implemented. It is only through mutual and good-will relationships between the law enforcement agencies and the community they serve that the fear of crime among citizens would be considerably reduced. Furthermore, such closer ties would translate into improved and healthy community-police relations, thereby facilitating the effectiveness of responses to crimes and other disorder problems in the community. The community policing strategy is particularly based on the observation that strained or hostile relationships between law enforcement agencies such as the police and the community is always counterproductive in the fight against crime and disorder problems. Moreover, the autonomy that the police used to have in making decisions on crime and related issues meant that they were more prone to be compromised or corrupt in their thoughts and deeds. Community policing also seeks to eliminate or reduce any form of internal resistance by the police, to the implementation of effective responses to crime and disorders. Community policing therefore has an enduring appeal despite the fact that there are numerous constructions of its meaning depending on the different philosophical underpinnings. However, the general approaches to Community Policing (CP) emphasize that if the police are closer to the community and understands the community’s needs and concerns from regular contacts, the fight on crime would cover more positive ground. In fact, the police would be better placed to act on the security concerns of the public in accord with their wishes. Drawing on findings of researches that evaluate community policing programs, it would be essential to assess the prospects of such approaches being used to fight and prevent burglary in metropolitan communities. Steps for Applying Community Policing to Burglary The effectiveness of the community policing strategy in curbing burglaries depends largely on the implementation of the strategy, in particular, the steps followed in applying the strategy. As earlier mentioned, the community in this approach does not only imply the people living in their homes: rather, the term refers to all those susceptible to burglary attacks and its effects. For Instance, not only are homes but also offices and industrial buildings susceptible to burglaries. Therefore, to fight burglaries in an effective manner, homes, offices, industries, their managers, and junior employees must be incorporated in the fight against burglaries. Therefore, depending on the types of burglary targeted, the relevant section of the community should be targeted by the community policing strategies adopted by the police. An important element in the implementation of community policing is a shift from the traditional reactive approach to policing, replacing it with a community-oriented approach (Community-Oriented Policing Services, 2011). The other element is the educating or training of the stakeholders on the possible and appropriate responses to burglaries. For instance, the community should be trained on how to notify the law enforcement agencies promptly and accurately whenever a burglary occurs or is about to occur. Importantly, the need to guard a burglary scene before the police arrive is another aspect of community policing that should be instilled in the public. The core steps of community policing are profiling the community, identifying the community’s response capacity, assisting in community development and mobilization, and forming partnerships. The above steps are followed by engagement in consultations/problem solving, developing action plans for police/community problems, and conducting evaluations on the service rendered to the community. The first step, the profiling the community enables the police and the community to identify the resources, crimes, and the demographics of the community (Community-Oriented Policing Services, 2011). The second step is the assessment of the community’s ability to respond to crimes. This response capacity may be obtained via interviews on the community’s performance on school projects and church functions among other activities. The amount of resources, prior response to police issues, and the community’s fear of crime are good indicators of its response capacity. The step of community development may be necessary in situations where the community lacks the capacity to assist the police in solving their own problems. The step of community development therefore calls for partnerships among all the stakeholders in community policing (Community-Oriented Policing Services, 2011). Important in community policing is the step of holding discussions through consultative committees whenever a crime or disorder problem is to be solved. From these consultations, action plans are developed and their performance evaluated after their implementation. In spite of the support and the effectiveness of community policing, it has been criticized for ineffectiveness from certain quarters. Critique of Applying Community Policing on Burglary Its effectiveness in preventing and fighting crime notwithstanding, there are certain aspects of community policing that have been criticized. First, there are mixed evidences on the effects of community policing on burglary. That is, while some metropolitans report reduced burglary rates due to intense and effective implementation of community policing, other areas remain unaffected (Fielding, 2005). The main reason cited for the failure of the strategy in some areas is poor implementation approaches adopted for community policing. Second, there is also mixed results on the effect of community policing on citizen fear of crime and criminals (Fielding, 2005). Nevertheless, more positive results have been reported on the strategy’s impact on citizen fear, with many cities reporting reduced fear. An indication of the reduced fear levels is the increased sense of safety and security in neighborhood in which the police cooperated with local communities to solve crime-related problems. The expected improved relationship between the public and the community is also not as universal as postulated, varying with the implementation approaches used and the social features of the local populations. A further apprehension is that an increased decision-making autonomy for officers and closer police-community relations gives the police greater opportunities to abuse their authority and indulge in corruption. Conclusion Burglary is one of the most prevalent crimes in many towns and cities. The nature of the offence, characterized by forceful entry with intent to commit a felony makes it tricky for the law enforcement agencies to predict, prevent, or control without assistance and cooperation from the community. To this effect, many police departments implement community policing strategies to make the fight against burglary more effective. By working closely with the local community, police departments are able to receive reports and calls on suspected burglars as well as on incidents of burglary, enabling them to respond in time to such crimes. Importantly, members of the public have been made conversant with the possible ways in which they may respond to crimes of burglary. References Allen, M. (2005). Textbook on criminal law. Oxford University Press, Oxford. Community-Oriented Policing Services. (2011). Community Policing Redefined. Retrieved on November 1, 2011 from http://www.cops.usdoj.gov/default.asp?item=36. Dressler, J. (1995). Understanding criminal law, second edition. Boston: Matthew Bender. Fielding, N. G. (2005). Concepts and Theory in Community Policing: University Of Surrey - School Of Human Sciences. Howard Journal of Criminal Justice, 44(5), 460. Schmalleger, F. (2006). Criminal law today: an introduction with capstone cases. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Prentice Hall. Read More