Mission of Community Policing Services - Term Paper Example

Urban policing Introduction Crowther et.,al states that, community oriented policing contrasts heavily with rapid response .It is an enforcement oriented policing involving long term associations between law enforcement officers and the community they are policing. The policy involves sharing the process of crime control through groups like the neighborhood watch. This kind of policing entails forming long lasting relationships between the community and other interest groups. It is very popular in many countries and adopted in many jurisdictions in the US (Crowther, 2000). History Sozer notes that community oriented policing began in the United States and UK in the 1970s with the intentions of being a short term fix in Ares plighted with poor relations between the police officers and the members of the minority the officers were monitoring. Many people saw it as an exercise in futility due to the government’s reluctance to institute changes on a larger scale and meet the needs of the community (Sozer, 2009). Efforts funded by the Office of Community Policing Services (COPS) in the U.S Department of Justice, have now address the issues of change in the organization and its delivery of services to the public. The scope of community based policing is now on a nationwide scale rather than been limited to minority inhabited areas only. COPS, founded in 1994, is involved in a number of initiatives such as the provision of technologies to police officers policing communities and funds for community policies in the tribal lands. Reports suggest that in the US, 64% of law enforcement agencies have had interactions with CP while 86% of the population has had an engagement with the policing. Some 64% of U.S. law enforcement agencies, serving 86% of the population, currently have some engagement in CP. Even in Europe, communities have adopted community policing which is funded specific programs like in the UK. Countries such as England and Wales have established the Crime and Disorder Act of 1998 that mandates compulsory police and community partnerships for the purpose of crime alleviation among other things. The main programs include the Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships, which enhances and fosters relationships between the police department and other public sector agencies in their local jurisdictions, the private sector and other volunteering stakeholders. The policies are in different forms incorporating different types of initiatives. The community policy places emphasis on the desire to adopt an organization wide set up, decentralized decision making ,accountability based on the location of policing and the involvement of volunteer in a subordinate capacity. Community oriented policing differs with other policies like the rapid response approach in a few ways .CP pursues a proactive approach in both the prevention of crime and problem solving. Unlike others, it pushes for the fostering of partnerships between the police force and the community at large. Due to its broad incorporation of everyone, evaluating its effectiveness becomes rather complicated necessitating the need to focus on specify initiatives and programs for analysis and evaluation. Effects and Impact The Chicago Alternative Policing Strategy is a community based initiative that places emphasis in the integration of the police, social services, housing and incorporating the community in a bid to reduce crime and delinquency. The gradual development of the program led to the enhancement of the policing component and was fairly effective in curbing crime. The city’s lack of development in association with the initiative however cannot be said to be due to the failure of the program. Transformation of the city requires heavy investment and participation by the community. Armitage notes that between 1995 to1997, thousands of residents and police officers were lectured on the identification and analysis of the manner by which perpetrators of crime and victims worked together unknowingly in the creation of crime hot spots .The training sessions were attended by thousands of residents and police officers were required to participate in community meetings in order to be able to incorporate the input of the civilians in their agenda (Armitage ,2011).Through such meetings civilians were able to widen the mandate of their local police departments by addressing issues such as vandalism, noisy domestic tiffs and graffiti use. Police became more involved in the community through assisting the citizens in cleaning dilapidated structures, accompanying them in prayer vigils relating to drug shootings. The fostered relationship between the police and the community was evidence by the necessity of the police department to change its dispatch system and increase in the number of calls to beat officers concerning their beats by 75%. About a third of the community members who attended the beat meetings reported positive reviews in the meetings. Members reported seeing improvements in their neighborhoods and noted actions were taken on complaints they had voiced. Residents support for the police department was higher as result of the introduction of the CAPS program just after two years. Other reports suggested that homeowners were the most likely demographic group to appear in meetings which is attributed to their desire to safeguard their families and property against criminals. The flow of information was usually one sided; the community members would relay their problems to the bear cops for them to act on it. The tackling of abandoned buildings was the area where residents proved very helpful. They were relentless in pressuring landlords, working closely with the city legal division in order to evict troublesome tenants and marking buildings for specification be the police officers. Between 1994 and 1999, there was a recorded decline in gang violence by 10% and the street and crime index fell by 7%.Other crimes –robbery, assault, burglary, car theft and vandalism reported a decline by 8% and the physical decay index fell by6%.The results are not very significant but in places plagued with severe crime and social disorder, the results were a great improvement especially among the African American community. Crime rates were sustained and from 1994, a recorded increase in the number of people feeling safe in their homes. Impact of current policing on crime rate The impact of policing in the fight against crime prevention is analyzed by looking at the strategies adopted but the law enforcement agencies and the partnerships and proactive practices used by the police force. There are increasingly a large number of cities that have adopted the use of surveillance cameras (CCTV) in a bid to reduce crime. There is however little proof to back up these claims. The federal government is cutting down on its costs and as such, public safety measures are not very stringent as policy makers are trying to find out the best ways to curb crime and the costs involved. A research funded by the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services decided to find out whether the use of CCTV cameras has aided in reducing crime rates in the country. The study was conducted in Baltimore, Chicago and Washington DC. According to Hagan, the reports from the study were mixed with some areas reporting reduced crime rates while others reported no changes in the crime level. Conclusions from the study are that the use of surveillance cameras is reliant on a number of factors like the method the cameras are set and how each city balanced the issue of privacy vs. security (Hagan, 2008). The establishment of the Los Angeles Gang Reduction and Youth Development Program is an example of an urban policy geared towards crime. It is an initiative by the Mayor of Los Angeles to reduce gang prevalence in the city .In 2009, a research was carried out to determine its effectiveness. The study included documentation of the implementation of the program in each GRYD zone, community level violence, gang crime effects, and intervention case service outcomes .The study concluded that there was not enough data to show any definite relationship between the program and a reduction in crime. Suggestions were made that the reduced crime rates were a joint effort of multiple groups and offices for the last 7 years as of 2012.The study concludes that the GRYD program is successful as can be expected of a program that is still relatively new. A study was conducted in Thurgood Marshall Academy Public (TMA) Charter High School to study the school’s mechanism put in place to prevent crime in school. The school is a college preparatory high school in Anacostia, Washington DC. The school is composed of students between the 9th and 12th grade who are prepared for life in campus and engaging life in a democratic society. The school was assessed on its approach towards violence prevention. The school has included a variety of violence prevention measures to enhance the general security in the school for the purposes of providing a conducive environment for reading free from metal detectors, heavy police [presence and routine bag searches as is the norm. The school however incorporates other traditional approaches like morning meetings and summer preparatory programs. The broach approach used in the school has been evidenced with little criminal and delinquent activity. A study funded by the National Institute of Justice evaluated the use of cameras as a tool to fight crime. The study entailed studying crime prevention effectiveness in the parking facilities in Washington’s metro rail commuters. Digital motion activated cameras were installed at the exits of 25 Metro parking facilities and matched with 25 parking facilities that were used as controls. Findings suggest that .the cameras were ineffective in reducing crime as no evidence was recorded of displacement. However, the cameras had real time surveillance .they probably would have recorded criminal activity as intended. According to Hancock, Safe City is a crime prevention model implemented in specific areas cross the US. The purpose of the initiative is to address public and private partnerships with a view of curbing crime in retail settings. Findings from the implementation of the Safe City varied with respect to the chosen sites. There were observed increase in perception of safety among the business that were located in certain Safe City areas. The designated Safe City area were the safe city area scored the highest since they had full implemented the model. The study conducted with the aid of National Institute for Justice and Target Corporation found that the two cites achieved high cost effective reduction levels in crime depending on the type of crime. The goal of the initiative was to partner local law enforcement with community leaders and retailers in a bid to foster public safety (Hancock, 2001). The Norms and Networks of Latino Youth, which was funded by the Office of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Program was established to determine the members of Latino, the structural systems in place enhancing their propensity to commit crime and the friendship networks in place. A survey was conducted in a small neighborhood regarding g delinquent behavior, personal networks and matters related to peer pressure and the group as a whole network. Both social and personal networks were examined to investigate the proper tools to be used in order to deal establish efficient neighborhood based interventions. The family and community ties were found to influence heavily whether a youth went into a life of crime regardless of police presence in the neighborhood. Effect on perceptions Innes et.,al notes the fact that the past 20 years has led to an increase in the number of police officers, who have been enlisted into the force with an aim of policing schools. This has been attributed to the rising cases of school violence since the early 1990s.Some of the high profile cases like the ones in Littleton, Colorado, 1999, West Paducah, Kentucky, 1997 and the one in Jonesboro, Arkansas, 1998 have necessitated the need for changes in urban policing. School administrators have been implementation safety measures in schools with the help of police officers assigned to schools in order to improve safety for both the staff and children in schools (Innes, 2006). One of the implementations to curb and reduce rates of school violence has been the introduction of the metal detectors and surveillance cameras in schools. , this had mostly been implemented in urban public schools that were plagued with crime and violence. However, the use of technology to fight crime has been spread throughout the country now. Almost all schools in the country have implemented the use of metal detectors and surveillance cameras as can be witnessed in schools in both the suburban and rural areas of the country. Additional measures besides the use of technology have also been implemented .Focus on policy innovations in a bid to curb crime, delinquency and violence in school has been key a strategy used by school administrators. Some of the policies implemented include the development of crisis drills for the students, staff and faculty, limitation of the use or possession of weapons in school grounds coupled with the creation of procedures that limit access to school buildings and campuses. School administrators have also resolved to the use of additional police officers and security staff in a bid to deal with the growing concern of school and student safety in recent years in the wake of increased cases of school shootings by students. According to Sharp, The popularity of School Resource Officers simply known as SROs is testament to the effectiveness of the decision by school administrators and the local police agencies to fight crime in schools. It should be noted that the SROs are certified sworn police officers employed by local police agencies but assigned to patrol and implement security measures in schools (Sharp, 2012) . The SROs are tasked with a number of duties that mainly fall under teaching, mentoring and law enforcement .Since the SROs are sworn police officers, they are obligated and bound by the law to uphold the laws of the country. Therefore they act as the first responders in cases that are of a serious threat to the school’s safety as a whole, investigate crimes and criminal activity and apprehend suspects of a crime. As stated earlier, they have other duties besides upholding the law, they are required to teach students about the dangers and consequences of crime, mentor students as well as educate the students on policing as a potential career path Emphasis should however be placed on law enforcement first with the other duties. Like mentoring and teaching taking an auxiliary role. Recent reports suggest that there are variations on the level of emphasis placed by different SROs depending on the type of school an officer is assigned to, the level of crime and delinquency in the school assigned and the personality of the officer. The permanent assignment of police in schools is a relatively new phenomena in urban policing compared with the previous times before the 1990s.Due to increased fears of violence in schools, drug peddling and drug use, increased levels of interest in community policing, led to the rapid deployment of police officers in public schools across America. Reports from the Bureau of Justice show a steady increase in the number of police officers deployed since the early nineties to date. Further analysis reveals that in the late 90s, just over 30% of the local police and sheriff departments employed permanent SROs. The percentage steadily rises to 43% for local police departments and an estimated 47% for the sheriff’s department in 2003. In larger jurisdictions, the resources availed to schools in terms of deployment of SROs is high. Around 80% of the police departments and just over 70% of the sheriff’s department are involved in the urban policy initiative. Jurisdictions housing populations between 250,000-500,000 residents have their law enforcement departments housing more than 90% of full time SROs. In total, with the exception of states like Hawaii and Alaska, the SRO program employs around 20,000 officers in both the sheriff and local police departments. Gerber et.,al argues that the federal government’s effort of advancing community policing has been attributed for the general increase in the SRO program. The COPS in school is part of the federal government’s wider initiative emphasizing on community input frequent positive police-citizen interactions and police-community cooperation. The current SRO program can be traced back to the efforts of the Office of Community Oriented Policing in 1999 by initiating a grant to facilitate the hiring of police officers whose purpose was to engage the community in policy matters and providing safety, mentorship and teaching children in middle school to high school (Gerber, 2008). Their efforts also facilitate in fostering relationships between the police department and the local schools. Between 199 and 2005, COPS provided funding for the SRO program in schools in the region of $750 million for hiring police officers to be permanently deployed in schools. Further funding of over $20million was directed towards school administrators participating in the program and the training of the SROs. Additional funding by Students Initiative and the Office of Justice Program’s Gang Reduction Project of around $12 million has been channeled to the COPS program to enhance the program’s agenda. Impact Very little is known regarding the operations of the SRO program, its ability to achieve realistic goals despite the huge funding by the federal government. Some studies conducted suggest that the program conducts very little assessment on its effectiveness while another study that interviewed over 1000 police heads cross the country reported that the police departments and the school districts rarely developed any useful means of assessing the effectiveness if the program. Majority of the remaining studies have been keen on establishing the impact of the introduction of the SRO program on school administrators, students, and the faculty. General findings from the reports are of the conclusion that the SRO programs have been effective in reducing crime and delinquency in schools. The programs are also credited with the improvement of perceptions and attitudes of students regarding police officers, increased willingness by students to report cases of crime and delinquency in school and promoting a senses of security and safety among students in schools. References Crowther, C., & Campling, J. (2000). Policing urban poverty. New York, N.Y.: St. Martin's Press. Armitage, R. (2011). Crime prevention through housing design: Policy and practice Sozer, M. (2009). Crime and community policing. El Paso [Tex.: LFB Scholarly Pub Hancock, L. (2001). Community, crime, and disorder: Safety and regeneration in urban neighbourhoods. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Gerber, H., & Vries, I. (2008). Training for police members in service delivery in the Benoni cluster Innes, M., & Jones, V. (2006). Neighbourhood security and urban change risk, resilience and recovery. York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation Sharp, E. (2012). Does Local Government Matter? How Urban Policies Shape Civic Engagement. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press Hagan, J. (2008). Analyzing law's reach empirical research on law and society. Chicago: American Bar Association Read More