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Community Policing from a Community Perspective It is time
for human relations advocates to understand the concept of community policing. The concept embodies revolutionary change in the role of the police and their accountability to the community. Public officials who seek to
bureaucratically resist the changes embodied in community policing are using the lack of public awareness to kill it by obscuring its true meaning while claiming to have adopted it. What it isn't:
Community policing is not just more police on foot patrol or on horseback!
Community policing is not mounting high profile attacks on crack dealers in particular locations!
Community policing is not increasing the number of police officers!
What it is: Community policing is
the initiation of a dialog between police and community (those who live and work in the area within a police jurisdiction) to:
Review law enforcement issues, e.g. drug dealing, reckless driving, aggressive panhandling, etc.;
Determine the underlying dynamics (root causes) in the community that allow the issues to persist, e.g., unemployment, homelessness, truancy;
Select priorities, determining which issues should be addressed when;
Design and implement an action plan to address the root causes of the problems that offers opportunities for police and people in the community to partner resources and coordinate efforts.
The kernel of community policing is involving law enforcement in a partnership
with the people in their jurisdiction to identify and resolve community problems that lead to criminal activity. For example, in an area where residents complain of excessive trafficking in crack from a particular house and where there is a high level of drug addiction. A meeting involving police and residents that seeks to identify the issues underlying the excessive abuse and sale of narcotics in the area and develop a strategy to deal with it is clearly a community policing function. In addition to efforts to eliminate the crack house, it might require efforts by some local people involved in small businesses to team up with city planners to build an economic base that would provide more employment opportunities; it might require some advocacy by police and parents with the school board to make the school more sensitive to the needs of the children in the particular community and more accountable for their whereabouts during the school day; it might call for police and parent involvement in providing evening recreational opportunities for youth and young adults, etc.
Do not be hoodwinked! A meeting called by police to state that they have received a number of complaints about a crack house and that officers will use aggressive practices to make it uncomfortable for people to
patronize the house is not a community policing function. There is no sharing of power with the community, this is only a public announcement that traditional police practices will be used to address typical complaints made
to the police department about a crack house. The community was not given the opportunity to identify the issues that concern it (the police assumed that the complaints they received determined the issues). The community was
not given the opportunity to determine which issue it wanted to give highest priority. The underlying cause for the existence of the crack house in the community was not addressed. The community has no role in bringing
about a resolution of the problem. According to Bonnie Bucqueroux, Associate Director of the National Center for Community Policing at Michigan State University, studies done by her Center and by the FBI showed that three out of
four police agencies that claim to be doing community policing do not allow the community a voice in identifying, prioritizing, and solving problems. CAHRO plans on holding a one-day conference on Community Policing
from a Community Perspective within the next six months. Look for an announcement in the next Newsletter. For further information contact the National Center for Community Policing at Michigan State University:1-800-892-9051.
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