Community Policing Case Study

The program splits the law enforcement officials into teams, which are beat officers, rapid response officers, and other city agencies. The beat officers patrol a certain area for at least a year, which allows each officer to know the neighborhood as well as the residents. This allows the officers and the residents to form a bond with one another and build trust between both parties, which allows them to work together as a team to monitor, strategize, and solve problems within the community. The rapid response officers assist the beat officers on emergency calls as well as back up the beat officers while they are in their community meetings. Undercover and gang officers help the beat officers on solving crimes and detaining suspects. With the collaboration between the law enforcement teams and the citizens the Chicago Alternative Policing Strategy and proven to be a successful weapon to fight crime.

Nevertheless, the key to the improvement of the quality of life and perception of crime in these neighborhoods is the officer’s ability to listen to neighbors, working with them to creatively address issues. ROPE is the neighborhood’s liaison with government resources, including the police, providing an immediate link to community policing efforts throughout the City Of Elgin. The identification of neighborhood issues, followed by a coordination of effort lead by the police with City departments, is the key to ROPE success. Each neighborhood poses issues requiring unique solutions. ROPE, in concert with an enhanced department philosophy of community policing, offers an opportunity to benefit neighborhoods across the City of Elgin. Also, the ability to identify a problem and find its solution is one aspect of ROPE that provides both challenges and rewards to the officer and neighbors. The personal contact with the neighborhood is an immeasurable benefit of the program. The program provides a constant challenge to solve problems while living and working in the neighborhood that a resident officer must realize. Scheduling must be flexible, contrary to traditional policing, to allow officers the ability to address quality

Although many may find community policing and problem-oriented policing to fall in the same category, there is (surprisingly) a difference between the two. For one, community policing has many definitions. For some, it means instituting foot and bicycle patrols and doing acts pertaining to the ideal bond between police officers and their community. While for others it means maintaining order and cleaning up neighborhoods in desperate need of repair (Dunham & Alpert, 2005). However, an idyllic definition of community policing is altering the traditional definition of crime control to community problem-solving and promising to transform the way police do their job. Within the past two decades, there has been much research on community

Different officers may have different ways to contribute to partnerships. For example, patrol officers have a unique position to help monitor and supervise supervisees (Parent and Snyder, 1999). Patrolling gives officers access to the supervisee and their social networks which can help provide knowledge of their activity (La Vigne, N. G., Solomon, A. L., Beckman, K. A., Dedel, K., & Center, J. P., 2006), this can be very valuable especially in cases which community corrections officers are mostly in their office and not in the field (Thornton et al. 2006). This can help with intervening before recidivism occurs due to being able to foresee issues that the supervisee may be having. This may help law enforcement officers prevent certain crime

Community- Oriented Policing (COP) is a philosophy that promotes organizational strategies, which support the systematic use of partnerships and problem-solving techniques, to proactively address the immediate conditions that give rise to public safety issues such as crime, social disorder, and fear of crime. (http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Community-Oriented+Policing). Community based policing is comprised of three key components;

Community policing is a philosophy. It uses organizational strategies that support the use of partnerships and problem solving techniques to address issues of public safety.Community-oriented policing is collaboration between the community, organizations within the community, and the police that identify and solve community problems. Police officers work with the community to help solve problems related to crime, fear of crime, social and physical disorder, and neighborhood conditions. They do this to enhance the safety and quality of neighborhoods. Officers spend time in these neighborhoods getting to know the residents and business owners by talking to them about the problems that the community is facing or individuals who are causing problems. They are responsible for reducing crime in their beats.

This program would be developed in a manner that the community can come and address the issues in their community with law enforcement, as well as get to know the officers patrolling their neighborhoods. This could show the community and the officers that there are no differences that can’t be solved with communication. A similar program has been used by the nearby department in San Jose. The program goal “is to help our residents learn about issues and challenges, share their ideas, and help propose collaborative solutions that can lead to long-term relationships between police officers and our community that are more trusting and productive for everyone.” (Newsroom,

According to Miller, Hess, and Orthmann (2008) community policing is defined as a law enforcement agency actively working with the residents of the community to reduce and prevent crime. Within the Fort Worth, Texas police department a citizen’s police academy is held for members of the local community to actively participate with sworn officers and serve as a link between officers and the community they protect. In addition to the citizen’s patrol, Burleson also hosts an Explorer program which allows young adults age fourteen or older to gain valuable learning experiences by interacting with officers who mentor and mold them into responsible members of the community. McGruff the crime dog is another child based icon which teaches young children about safety and avoiding violence and

In policing a large city, there are multiple approaches that the police chief can use. Four of the main strategies are the standard approach, community-oriented policing (COP), order-maintenance policing (OMP) and problem-oriented policing (POP). Experts disagree on which approach is best, but each one has its own benefits and detriments. The standard model is the traditional reactive approach to policing. The key elements of the model are preventative patrols, emergency responses and follow up investigations.

Community policing is one of the newer looks on law enforcement. Many people do not know exactly community policing is or how it works. It is used in many places around the world and has many elements needed to be successful. It varies from traditional policing with how they want to solve the problems in the community.

In relation to the advantages of officers walking the beat, James Q. Wilson and George L Kelling found in their article titled Broken Windows, that police presence would yield a

The staffing of the administrative structure of COP, as well as the COP unit, are important elements of the pilot program in development. The experimental area of the program will be tested in 5 Brooklyn precincts, preferably in the 67th precinct, 71sr precinct, 73rd precinct, 75th precinct, and 81st precinct.

There are multiple approaches to engaging a police force with the community in order to most effectively prevent and respond to crime, and considering the relative strengths and weakness of each of these strategic models will demonstrate how models can impact the operation of daily policing practices and activities. The model under discussion here is called community oriented policing (COP), and focuses on building relationships and rapport between officers and the community in order to more effectively prevent crime. It is augmented by a model called problem solving policing (PSP), and depends upon rank-and-file officers identifying community problem areas through direct observation and analysis. Each model excels at slightly different things, and in practice most police agencies deploy a mix of models. By examining the Miami-Dade Police Department's handbook for school resource officers, it will be possible to view a COP/PSP policy in action in order to better understand how these models practically affect policing.

Community policing is a policy and a strategy aimed at achieving more effective and efficient crime control, reduced fear of crime, improved quality of life, improved police services and police legitimacy, through a proactive reliance on community resources that seeks to change crime causing conditions. This assumes a need for greater accountability of police, greater public share in decision-making and greater concern for civil rights and liberties.

Police Administration and organization play a key role in the police department. By administering the proper organizational methods a department can provide a great quality of service to its community. A police officer’s duty is to maintain public order, preventing, and detecting crime so that citizens can feel safe when they venture outdoors. A good example of these actions being performed as a whole is the 106th precinct. This is a precinct that has improved its progress dramatically with gratitude to the COMPSTAT system.