Good Policing Practices And Operations Essay Example

Traditional police practices required a different structure and routine than community policing. Responding to a crime after it has happened is how policing worked in the beginning. This required an officer to follow a set plan every day including patrolling a certain area community policing still requires these patrols however there are two reasons to patrol these routine areas now. One of the reasons is the traditional reason to control problem areas and look for crime. Two is to reduce the resident’s fear that crime will happen in their neighborhood by giving them a sense of security seeing officers patrolling the area. Responding quickly to emergency calls and completing any necessary repeat or further investigating are also new aspects that differ from traditional policing. The difference with community policing is that its main purpose is to attempt to prevent crimes while still following the traditional policing routine. Traditional policing is still very much a part of how policing is operated today however it has been adjusted and expanded upon to include more community friendly and oriented approaches to offer police services that the public can depend on (Scheider, 2015).
Traditional policing was meant to serve a purpose of catching criminals however they also made a name for themselves as outsiders separated from the regular community. These officers were alone and doing their job to enforce order in society however they did not have any relationship with the citizens they protected in many cases. Community policing gets the officers involved with the people in the community and these relationships have shown immense progression when it comes to being able to target the specific areas of concern and solve criminal issues in the community. There have been issues within the police department in getting officers to adapt to community policing which are for the most part attributed to the officers being used to their original practices. Since there is some resistance to the implications of community policing it is important for departments to make changes from the inside out. This means they cannot just expect the officers to adopt community policing practices but the entire department will have to embrace the change. A lot of this change will happen with the proper communication and training for the officers who do not know how to be community oriented as well as encouragement from the department. To adopt such a big change with the least resistance no officer can be above or allowed to differ from this model of policing that is why it is so important for the entire department to embrace the changes. To have the proper communication outside of the department the change has to also be happening on the inside (Gilmartin & Harris, 2015).
There are many reasons that it is important for the justice system to consider a makeover of the policies and embrace community policing. One of the major reasons is that prison systems are crowded and the old system is only working for filling them up more and not keeping people out of trouble. Community policing is a model that is being put into place currently to combat all of these major concerns. The main goal for officers who have begun to incorporate community policing is to be able to reach the young people in the communities to help them grow into people who are not going to break the law and instead find a productive means to be a normal and adjusted piece of society. Along with community policing efforts there are similar programs in place to help impact society in a new and positive way like the Victims’ Rights Movement, the Violence against Women’s Act and BARJ or Balanced and restorative justice. All of these efforts are in place to protect the citizens while instilling a trust for police officers that has long been in question (Bucqueroux, 2015).

Issues with partnerships between law enforcement and the community

Community policing is still a work in progress and with all good things there are some bad. Community policing although it is a great idea does have some serious gaps in its approach. For instance the idea is to focus on young people and try to direct them toward a better lifestyle however this ignores a large part of the criminal offenders who are adults because it is essentially assuming these people are not going to be able to change. This along with the fact that some young people have shown a resistance to the program and actually pushed farther into a criminal life because of contact with the justice system raise some red flags. However the system has been able to show a reduction in crime thus far meaning something is working. This same type of community oriented policing could be applied to adults however community policing has been difficult to incorporate this far for children who are still learning and it would be a challenge to persuade skeptics that adults have high chances for change with the same program (Bucqueroux, 2015).

Recommendations for change

One recommendation for change hits deep in the political and social systems as some suggestions conclude there are too many issues with the current sentencing polices. For instance mandatory minimum sentences are responsible for incarcerating a large number of offenders for crimes that are not very serious. People who opposed these mandatory minimum sentences point out that this is causing the prison overcrowding and making it hard to keep the actual dangerous criminals in prison and out of society. One change that is necessary is to incorporate the community policing for the entire community and this includes the adult population. There should be no reason why any person is excluded from an opportunity to change unless they are a danger to society. This being said mandatory minimums should not be imposed for people who are not responsible for committing serious and dangerous crimes. For instance a person who is charged with their first drug offense should not spend the same amount or more time in prison than a person charged with child molestation. This is a huge difference in criminal activity and there are many people serving long sentences in prison for petty crimes and causing a serious problem when it comes to having adequate space for new and more serious offenders who might pose a danger to society. Another idea that would help a lot is if the community uses preventative measures to help ensure that the neighborhood is not a place that is conducive for drug deals and other crimes. Police do this in some areas by partnering with the community to form neighborhood watch programs. This will help reduce arrests because it will limit the opportunities for young people to find a place where there will not be a watchful adult to report them when there up to trouble (Bucqueroux, 2015).

Conclusion

Community based policing is not a replacement for traditional policing; rather it is an expansion to the already helpful tactics used by police. In the past police were able to protect communities by arresting people who committed crime however over time this isolated officers from the rest of the society and in the end pitted the citizens against the police. These two sides being against each other did not create a safe environment for the citizens instead it left them in fear of criminals and separated from the police officers who were protecting them. Community based policing efforts are attempting to bridge the gap by finding ways to prevent crime and build a relationship with the community rather than just arrest everyone when they do commit a crime. The efforts to prevent criminal activity reduce the crimes in the area better than arrests making the partnership a better crime deterrent (Bucqueroux, 2015).

References

Bucqueroux, B. (2015). Restoritive Community justice. Retrieved 21 March 2015, from Gilmartin, K., & Harris, J. (2015). Community Policing . . . Starting Inside the Department. Emotionalsurvival.com. Retrieved 21 March 2015, from http://emotionalsurvival.com/community_policing.htm
Gilmartin, K., & Harris, J. (2015). Community Policing . . . Starting Inside the Department. Emotionalsurvival.com. Retrieved 21 March 2015, from http://emotionalsurvival.com/community_policing.htm
Scheider, M. (2015). Community Policing Dispatch. Cops.usdoj.gov. Retrieved 21 March 2015, from http://cops.usdoj.gov/html/dispatch/march_2008/nugget.html