Good Case Study On Community AND Problem-Oriented Policing

Question 1

According to Conser, Paynich, and Gingerich (2013), Community Oriented Policing is described as the dynamic, decentralized approach aimed at reducing crime, fear, and crime disorders by ensuring the involvement of the same officer in a particular community for a long time. The police are always expected to maintain a good relationship with the community hence making a reality the historical tradition that renders the police the same as the public and vice versa. The Community Oriented Policing does not work alone but partners with the neighborhood, business associations, schools, and families that are able and willing to deal with the problems associated with crime and disorder. It is mainly focused on the neighborhood by partnering with the community to proactively solve community problems.
Besides, the Community Oriented Policing addresses life quality issues such as abandoned houses, junked cars, neighborhood nuisances, zoning violations, and overgrown lots among others. These conditions are known to help breed crime. Hence, the community oriented policing empowers people to help solve such neighborhood issues (Conser, Paynich, & Gingerich, 2013). The community is informed of the available resources and together with the police they identify neighborhood problems and focus on the solutions. Community Oriented Policing does not rush from call to call but rather respond to emergency calls like those made for crimes in progress. Besides, while responding to emergencies, they are attentive to the surrounding conditions that may be the cause of the calls.
On the other hand, Conser, Paynich, and Gingerich (2013) describe Problem Oriented Policing as the means of coming up with more efficient police services by reinforcing more aggressive police strategies. The police are expected to address problems or similar issues that are of concern to the community. However, Problem Oriented and Community Oriented Policing take the police-citizen partnership seriously and use it to ensure an increase in public safety. They both are wed to the notion of merging their crime prevention efforts with those of the community with the aim of reducing crime, lessening fear and increasing the satisfaction of the community with the police (Conser, Paynich, & Gingerich, 2013). Nevertheless, the community oriented and the problem oriented policing work hand in hand, only that the problem-oriented policing is the one that respond to the repeat calls for service. They scan the area while relying on their personal observations and citizen’s inputs, and use them to analyze and respond to the situation while the community oriented policing focuses on promoting working partnerships. The problem-oriented policing mainly concentrate on specific procedures while the community oriented policing have mission statements.

Question 2

Although both in the Problem Oriented Policing and the Professional Crime Fighting model the police focus on fighting crime, they significantly differ from each other. Greene (2007) points out that in the problem-oriented policing, the police are proactive while in the professional crime fighting model the police have been criticized for being reactive and failing to avert crime. The problem-oriented policing involves the community in their policing by also trying to prevent crime while in the professional crime-fighting modes, the police only respond when summoned and after the occurrence of offenses (Conser, Paynich, & Gingerich, 2013). They are not as close to the community as the problem oriented policing and do not intrude if not summoned.
According to Greene (2007), the eight reasons for problem-oriented policing include:-

• To build and maintain the feeling of safety and protection in the community

• To identify potential problems that are capable of becoming serious hence affecting the government, police, and the community
• To sort out and find solutions to conflicts between groups, persons, or even between inhabitants and their government
• To give assistance to those incapable of caring for themselves such as the elderly, the physically, disabled, the mentally retarded, the intoxicated and the addicted

• To ease the movement of vehicles and persons

• To safeguard individuals’ constitutional guarantees including the entitlement to free speech and assembly
• To provide assistance to crime victims as well as protect persons in danger of physical ill-treatment
• And above all, to protect as well as control the occurrence of serious offenses and the conducts that are threatening to property and life.
These reasons affect police work today by reducing the root causes of crimes hence reducing the number of arrests being made. Most police agencies also nowadays provide many ancillary public services that are related to attaining the core objectives for problem-oriented policing. They foster citizen police academies, conduct youth education, and recreation programs, teach safety courses and provide programs and services that help in crime prevention (Conser, Paynich, & Gingerich, 2013). Most of all, the problem-oriented policing has improved the relationship between the community and the police making it easier for the officers to do their work in fighting crimes as well as identifying the causes of potential crimes and trying to control them. Therefore, police work today has become easier with a lesser workload where the police do not need to wait for a call, but rather try to avoid an instance where a crime occurs by removing its cause and preventing it from happening.

Reference

Conser, J., Paynich, R., & Gingerich, T. (2013). Law enforcement in the United States. Burlington, Mass.: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Greene, J. (2007). The encyclopedia of police science. New York: Routledge.