Introduction
The society has always depended on police departments to counter any criminal activities. Over the years, people have had different ideas on how the police should deal with crimes. For the longest time in the history of the United States, there has been considerable public satisfaction with the police departments whose main responsibility was to arrest offenders. According to Sparrow et al. (1990), the strategies for meeting these responsibilities include preventive patrol, quick responses, and retrospective investigations. Over the years, the police departments in the United States have been under constant pressure to deliver positive outcomes and ensure the streets are safer and free of crime. Therefore, the pressures of achieving these demands have prompted the establishment of new strategies such as community policing and problem-oriented policing. Historically, these two model gained popularity in the early 1980s. The essay will evaluate community-oriented policing and problem-oriented policing and assess their success or failures in different police departments that have used them. Moreover, there will be a dissection if crime analysis COMPSTAT is significant to these policing programs.
What Is Community Policing?
A majority of police departments in the United States during the beginning of the twentieth century operated under the professional model of policing. For instance, the model demanded strict hierarchical protocols, which required a response to serious crimes in most cases. However, as the nature of crimes began to rise, law enforcement bodies and other municipal leaders started to re- evaluate the roles of police departments in maintaining public safety through improved relationships between the police and the citizens. These new efforts and strategies finally led to what is now referred to as community policing. It involved a more direct involvement with the police and the citizens towards dealing with different community crimes. A majority of experts believe that community policing does not fall as a program category but a law enforcement philosophy. More often than not, community policing has been categorized into three main groups, which include organizational change, community partnership, and problem-solving.
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It is right to state that the lack of standard definition for community policing and the unclear measures of success makes it difficult to determine the effectiveness. Furthermore, the complexity of community policing challenges the provision of enough evidence of success or failure. Mayhill (2004) identified particular benefits related to community policing. First, he stated that the model enhances police-community relationships and as well as the citizens’ perception of the police. For instance, in many states, it has been found out that the police and the community work towards the same goals. Secondly, the model is effective in widening the capacity of the community to deal with crime issues. Thirdly, the model has changed the attitude and behaviour of police by increasing their interaction and relationship with the community. On the other hand, evidence has suggested that community policing has increased the perception of safety and reduced the occurrences of antisocial behaviours.
What Is Problem-Oriented Policing?
While community policing encompasses a relationship building mandate, the problem-oriented policy is more focused on the crime and social disorders. The central goal for problem-oriented policing is to give police deeper insights regarding crime and the different methods of intervention. Just like the name suggests, the problem becomes the center of the criminal law. It is a model that is more focused on formalizing a methodology for the police department to deal with consistent community crimes, social disorders, and fear problems. Based on this, one of the widely used frameworks for problem-oriented policing is SARA (Dempsey & Forts, 2013). It involves Scanning, Analysing, Responding, and Assessing. By utilizing SARA, the police can scan different communities for underlying problems, analyse the intent of the problems, create an effective response to the identified issue, and assess the consequences of the response.
In some way or another, this model overlaps with the community policing because the community is usually involved in problem definitions and interventions. More often than not, problem-oriented policing assumes two distinct types. As stated by Goldstein (1990), the first category comprises of a careful evaluation of the problem, the search for interventions of the problem, effective intervention implementation, and assessment of the response. Moreover, the second type is often less demanding because no comprehensive analysis is done, and the police just apply the traditional methods. Directed and tactical patrols are god examples of this model.
What Is The Difference Between Community Policing And Problem-Oriented Policing?
Most people have often perceived the two models to be similar, but in reality, they have distinct differences. For instance, the focus of policing when it comes to community policing is on community building through crime prevention, whereas in problem-oriented policing the focus is on law, order, and fear problems. Secondly, community policing interventions are often proactive on crimes based on civil and administrative law, but problem-oriented policing is mixed on all these aspects. Thirdly, the focus of police culture in the first model is outward and based on building partnerships, but for the latter, the police culture is mixed depending on the problem, which requires comprehensive analysis. Moreover, the community involvement in the first model is high and active whereas in problem-oriented policing the community involvement varies depending on the problems identified.
Examples of Police Departments Implementing These Models and the Results
Research has indicated that a majority of police departments have been successful in the implementation of community policing strategies. For instance, in 2004, almost one-third of the departments were successful in using community assessment and engagement as a strategy for community policing (Fields, 2010). The Mound (Minnesota) Police Department distributed the citizen comment cards in traffic contacts and other call services to ensure all laws were followed. Secondly, the Highland Village Police Department (HVPD) in Texas established the “police involving parents program” initiative, where parents worked in close relationship with the police to enforce appropriate punishments on young adults. On the other hand, when it comes to educating the community as a community policing strategy, the North Little Rock (Arkansas) Police Department established a training and awareness program known as the “Meth Aware” to educate the community about the dangers of these chemicals. Moreover, in Texas, the Carrollton Police Department (CPD) started a multifaceted campaign, which focused on making the neighbourhoods free of crime. Police officers were able to alert citizens through roadside posters, billboards, and educational fliers especially in areas where crimes were rampant. The outcome was positive and the rates of crimes drastically reduced.
When it comes to crime analysis strategy COMPSTAT, a majority of scholars agree that it complements and strengthens community policing as well as improving it (Willis et al., 2010). The viewpoint purports that the reforms for both the models reduce serious crimes and enhance the quality of life. Both reforms attempt to make police operations more transparent even though their accountability frameworks function differently. Hence, it is just to state that COMPSTAT plays a significant role in the implementation of different community policing strategies.
Conclusion
Community and problem-oriented policies are very crucial models to be considered when analysing the future of crimes in America. If both the strategies are implemented appropriately, the future of policing in America will change. However, it should be noted that the absence of crimes would measure their effectiveness.
References
Dempsey, J. S., & Forst, L. S. (2013). An introduction to policing. Cengage Learning.
Fields, C. (2010) Award-winning community policing strategies: A report for the International Association of Chiefs of Police Community Policing Committee. U.S Department of Justice, COPS Office. Retrieved on 19 April 2017 from https://ric-zai- inc.com/Publications/cops-w0451-pub.pdf
Goldstein, H., Goldstein, H., & Hill, M. (1990). Problem-oriented policing (p. 134). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Willis, J. J., Mastrofski, S. D., & Kochel, T. R. (2010). The co-implementation of Compstat and community policing. Journal of Criminal Justice, 38(5), 969-980.
