Community Policing case study - Essay Example

Community Policing Case Study 2007 The community policing approach is the best method of issues solution in the situation. The area is characterized by diversity. It is comprised of multi-family dwellings owned by different individuals and managed by different property management companies, as well as of privately owned one-family dwelling, inhabited by people of different ages. It is obvious that the managing agencies and owners do not care much of the quality of life of the area residents. Numerous calls to the police indicate high level of fear and feeling unsafe among the residents.

This is conditioned by the dead ends, gangs and drug related activities in the area. The adjacent park may serve as a place for the gangs and drug related activity and cause additional disturbance of the residents. The problems concern all the residents of both multi-family dwellings and private owners of the one-family dwellings. Their cooperation with the police can provide effective and quick results, while it would be difficult to cope with the situation without the residents’ assistance. 1. It is preferable to appoint two line officers to the community.

They are to be engaged in turn in foot and motor patrols around the district. Implementing each other, they will provide short response time in extreme situations. The typical duties of the police officers should be foot or motor patrols, visiting homes, making contacts, handling complaints, attendance of community meetings, organizing neighboring groups, checking and tagging the abandoned cars, visiting school area and working with teenagers and juveniles. 2. The officers of the local police department should be trained in community policing and be able to react quickly and in appropriate manner.

It is possible to organize the hot line dealing with the community issues and providing quick response.3. The police officers are to organize a number of community meetings and have a talk with all the residents of the area, to introduce themselves, acquaint the residents with the philosophy of community policing and offer the plan of actions. 4. It is necessary to organize the block clubs and the watch association, to appoint committees dealing with various issues. The functions of these community organizations will be to assist the police in solving day to day issues, as well as to set the drug and gang problems, to decide on funding and gather money from the residents, organize volunteer patrols about the area and in the park.

The officers are to be catalysts in the formation of the neighborhood associations, articulating community expectations of the police, establishing foot patrol priorities and community programs. They are to help the associations to deal with referrals, interventions and links to governmental social agencies. 5. The officer is to have meetings with dwelling owners and managers and persuade them to cooperate with the police on the drug dealers in rental units. Managers should be instructed on the screening of the applicants related to drug activities.

It is necessary to identify the drug houses with the help of the community and to make drug raids. Further one should institute the follow-up components including: foot patrols, work with juveniles, visits to school area. 6. The community officer is to work with the teenage juveniles. With the assistance of the community it is necessary to identify the problem teenagers. They should be referred to social workers, support groups and be worked with individually. The community should be informed of the methods of interventions within a family.

The officer is to meet with the teenagers on regular bases, delivering lectures and communicating about issues they are concerned with. The officers are to establish the relationships with the adolescents of the district, participate in school programs. It is possible to organize Police Athletic League. 7. The officers are to assess the effectiveness of their work on regular basis. This should be done with the help of multiple performance measures, including community surveys measuring the community’s perceptions of changes in quality of life and police statistics.

As we remember, four types of measures should be considered: hard direct (crime rates, victimization rates, real estate values, substantiated complaints about police behavior), hard indirect (number of police, response time, arrests, clearance rates), soft direct (satisfaction with police, fear of crime, perceptions of safety, perceptions of disorder), soft indirect (job satisfaction, organizational commitment, self esteem, perceived significance of work) (In Reisig 1997).Bibliography:Belknap, Joanne, Morash, Merry & Trojanowicz, Robert (1986).

Implementing a Community Policing Model for Work with Juveniles: An Exploratory Study. The National Center for Community Policing. Retrieved November 6, 2007 from www1.cj.msu.edu/~people/cp/webpubs.html - 15kMcLanus, Lina (1990). Tactics to target troubled neighborhoods. The National Center for Community Policing. Retrieved November 6, 2007 from www1.cj.msu.edu/~people/cp/webpubs.html - 15kMcLanus, Lina (1990). Tracking drugs on their way to the street. The Community Policing Newsletters. The National Center for Community Policing.

Retrieved November 6, 2007 from www1.cj.msu.edu/~people/cp/webpubs.html - 15kReisig, Michael D. (1997). Measuring Performance in the Era of Community Policing. School of Criminal Justice, Michigan State University. Retrieved October 25, 2007 from www1.cj.msu.edu/~outreach/cp/measperf2.html - 27kTrojanowicz, Robert C. & Pollard, Bonnie (1986). Community Policing: The Line Officers Perspective. The National Center for Community Policing. Retrieved November 6, 2007 from www1.cj.msu.edu/~people/cp/webpubs.

html - 15kTrojanowicz Robert C., Steele Marilyn & Trojanowicz Susan (1986). Community Policing:  A Taxpayers Perspective. The National Center for Community Policing. Retrieved November 6, 2007 from www1.cj.msu.edu/~people/cp/webpubs.html - 15k