Free Research Proposal About Police Discretion/ Community Policing In Crime Prevention

Police discretion is the ability and powers accorded to policemen to make decisions in maintaining law and order. It allows them to decide when to make arrests and initiate the actual police and legal procedure and when to let perpetrators, especially those who commit minor offenses to go without being booked. In some instances, crime is committed in a manner that is difficult to prove through provision of sufficient evidence. Cases such as those of domestic violence and hate or racial crimes qualify as serious offences but are difficult to prove in court in terms of who cased the offence and who escalated it. This is especially where incidents of verbal abuse and threats are involved and no physical injuries or bruises are visible. In such cases, the police are allowed to exercise discretion to determine the course that the case should take (Greene, 2007). There are many issues that are related to police discretion and sometimes questions are raised on whether the police should be accorded these powers. Apart from having difficulties in determining the course of some cases, a police may let an offender go scot free after their explanation as to why the offence was committed is found to be genuine. Police discretion also brings about other issues such as racial profiling where people from certain races are taken as suspects.
This paper seeks to analyze issues related to police discretion and determine whether it affects the principle role and practice of the police service.
Questions raised includes whether police discretion goes against the codified rules of service and if necessary, the extent to which the police should exercise discretion. How does police discretion change with the victims age, race and gender as well as the police rank, gender and age. Is it justified and does it lead to the recurrent of crime.
Community policing is a strategy that seeks to develop direct links between the police, other security agencies and the community. It’s a procedure that incorporates the community in police service and involves three important components namely; initiating direct links and partnerships with the local people, developing and implementing a strong organizational feature for community policing as well as being actively involved in problem solving in issues related to the security of the community (Palmiotto, 2000). Community policing is seen as the ultimate method of fighting crime and other social vices such as terrorism and has succeeded in many places worldwide. Through development of proper communication frameworks, the community which mainly harbors criminals is able to pass information regarding national security to the police who in turn act on this without exposing the source. Many programs such as the neighborhood crime watch, night patrols and burglary prevention and home safety have been started by the police department in support of community policing in many areas. In some neighborhoods, the police department offers basic training to some of the leaders in the community to enable them steer ahead the issue of community policing.
This paper seeks to identify these strategies and programs and examine the success rate of community policing. It also seeks to determine the future of community policing and the police service in general.
Questions raised include whether community policing is the ultimate strategy of fighting and preventing crime and what the strategy means in terms of protecting people’s privacy.

References

Greene, J. (2007). The Encyclopedia of Police Science, Volume 1. Oxford: Taylor & Francis
Palmiotto, M. (2000). Community Policing: A Policing Strategy for the 21st Century. Burlington: Jones & Bartlett Learning