Biggest Challenges Community Policing Face - Essay Example

Community policing is a system of value, which gives the police department permission to work cooperatively with the both private and public organizations, groups, individual citizens identifying, and resolving issues that affect the city as a whole, specific areas, and neighborhoods. In such terms, this is the primary goal of forming community policing. On the other hand, community policing is not a program but it is a system that is created to have a way of reaching citizens and organizations to cooperate towards eliminating the occurrence of crimes. Community policing has been initiated for some years now and regarded as the best, but lately, in police management, it is the most frequently abused and misunderstood theme. However, regarding issues that need quick solution and prevention community policing is the best in that because with police alone it is not easy to address the crime and solve it with an immediate effect, as it required. In that regard, that is the main reason as to why community policing was formed and not just for granted. Nevertheless, the individual officers are encouraged to maintain and develop relationships with community organizations, schools, businesses, and citizens. Therefore, this topic will entirely cover the challenges that face community policing and ways of overcoming them.

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In such terms, the philosophy of community policing was established on the concept that private citizens and officers would work together in a creative way to prevent and to solve the citys contemporary issues related to neighborhood life problems, physical or social disorder, fear of crime, and the crime itself. In such terms, it involves the police to take ownership areas where they patrol, and the citizens take care of the neighborhood where they live to ensure that security is of a high standard and avoid unnecessary chaos. However, in the other communities things are not the same because other neighborhoods that have the same needs and can be treated in the same manner. Therefore, the primary aim of the philosophy of community policing is to take control of the area and prevent it from the occurrence of crimes. The team of Community policing is dedicated to work and help citizens of the local communities.

The following are some of the advantages of community policing, and they include commitment, educating, community, minimization of crime, and brings the community together. Once community policing is in good communication with the people around the society, therefore, the stronger sense and ties of responsibility are linked (Dunn, & et.al, 2016). Also, community policing can educate the society because it is easier to approach the officers of the police force. Due to citizens are more comfortable once they see a recognized friendly face. Therefore, it will be easy for them to be educated concerning their role in crime reporting and prevention. For instance getting the first-hand information from the society is one of the best ways of rendering services to them. In that connection community policing should constant patrols as they are only they can get an overall idea of the state of the community hence it is easy for them to identify problems and look for a quick solution before it is too late. Moreover, community policing reduces the rate of crimes hence giving support to the police officers. Also it the community together because of the trust they have on them.

However, the community policing has its advantages to the society

It has some of the disadvantages such as it may make community officer relationship worse, and carelessness among citizens. In that case, these are some of the reasons as to why community policing face difficult challenges while in their work. In that conjunction, when people in the community do not seem to care, it automatically becomes difficult for the community policing officers to get any information. In that regard, community-policing evaluations were carried out recently and suggested that the level of satisfaction rendered to the society by police varies depending on the social characteristics of the members of the society, and its implementations (Aiyer, & et.al, 2015). In that case, even though community policing promise to benefit every there are other situations in which they show partiality to the other groups and discriminate the others, and that is one of the major challenges that are posed by the police team. Due to that, the residents and neighborhoods of a high crime or weak area become distrusting to the police hence rendering to low rates of community participation. Immediately the police find a hard time to convince citizens that they are committed to, long-term improvement.

The other challenge that community policing face is to help officers understand ad recognize the benefits of encouraging public involvement about making arrests, solving crimes and reduce social disorder. In that regard, police practitioners are acutely aware of their resistant subculture to innovations and challenge their role as crime fighters (Maxfield, 2015). Sometimes community policing referred by police to be an exercise in community relations or a mere social work. In building trust, it is not something easy because some arrogant officers have already destroyed it. Therefore, it will take them some time to restore it and implement it as one way of overcoming the challenges. Because once the trust has been broken its restoration is not easy as such.

Due to that, law enforcement agencies and police nationwide have taken measures to improve the relationship between them and the community they serve. Such measures that will enable the cops to bolster their communication and relationship with their community include recognizing the importance of interdepartmental accountability and internal affairs, by introducing programs of community outreach and training. Also, the police will give back to, their community through interaction with the community like face-to-face communication, homeless outreach, youth /police interaction, offering scholarships, community and school presentations, and crime prevention.

In building legitimacy and trust, the police should work with the community in the ownership of the procedures and policies. In that process, it not only establishes relationships but also opens lines of communication between the community and police officers. The ideal is strengthened to an extent they are on longer opponents but partners. Training should be administered to the community as well as to the police. Regarding police officers, their training should be of high quality and quantity as compared to the previous ones so that to make them more relevant. In that, training key issues should be addressed such as current tactical skills, social interaction, cultural and bias responsiveness, procedural justice, and crisis intervention. Therefore, that is the only way the community policing can overcome such challenges.

References

Aiyer, S. M., Zimmerman, M. A., Morrel-Samuels, S., & Reischl, T. M. (2015). From broken windows to busy streets: A community empowerment perspective. Health Education & Behavior, 42(2), 137-147.

Dunn, K. M., Atie, R., Kennedy, M., Ali, J. A., OReilly, J., & Rogerson, L. (2016). Can you use community policing for counter-terrorism? Evidence from NSW, Australia. Police Practice and Research, 17(3), 196-211.

Maxfield, M. G. (2015). Basics of research methods for criminal justice and criminology. Cengage Learning.