Introduction
The rhetoric that surrounds the idea of being tough on criminals or the establishment of community policing does not have the understanding of the reasons behind the occurrence of crime and thus remain short-sighted in regards to the possible impacts the proposed policies may bring. The policies are usually driven by ideology and have a gap between the proposal by the programs and their implementation if at all they have merit (Brogden, 2013). Community policing entails a policy as well as a strategy that aims at achieving effective and efficient control of crime, reduce the fear of crime, improve the quality of life, improve the services of the police and their legitimacy via a proactive reliance on the resources of the community seeking to change the conditions that cause crime (Brogden, 2013). It is thus imperative to have community policing instituted and more so in local stations to facilitate improvement of the police service at large.
The Los Angeles Police Department has reported a significant increase in crime over the past few years. It would seem that the rate of crime in the state is always on the rise and the police seem to have failed in its course to curb the situation from both spread and intensification. It is thus imperative to institute a system that checks on the police system and service to ensure the area is safeguarded and the police become effective in their role as the enforcers of law and maintainers of order in the city. The Local police department should embrace the policy of being cordial with the society in order to get detail pertaining to suspicious persons from the local community (Cordner, 2014).
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Objectives
To make significant changes in the departments within the local police
To increase and improve the corporation between or rather among various agencies
To facilitate and encourage the community to employ the police as one of its needs as well as resources hence use it as such
Responsibilities of the Unit
The proposed unit will serve to act as the unifying factor between or among different agencies. The Unit will thus conduct a study and figure out the agencies that seem not to fair well with one another and proceed to connect the agencies in a bid to foster key relations that will improve service delivery. The policing unit will further oversee all operations conducted by the police and ensure they all comply with the goals and guidelines stipulated by the law. The main aim of doing so will be to ensure that the police is a service to the people and does not act in any way as the oppressor (Somerville, 2009). This will ensure the citizens to regain confidence and trust in the police hence be open to them.
Officers in Unit
The unit will need elite officers that have done well in the academy and have skills in IT, social studies and relations and are not residents of Los Angeles. The unit will also need police officers that have been on the job for at least five years and as such have garnered the necessary experience of dealing with the various persons in the society and more so a society like Los Angeles.
Officer Assignment
The officers with IT skills will work in the office connecting different departments via social network and ensure there is free flow and transfer of information from department to department and agency to agency in order to ensure the local department functions effectively. The police will also be able to store and record information over the social network platform. Police with a background in social studies or relations will be stationed on the ground and will always accompany the experienced police officers during patrols. The two will comprehend and complement each other as the one with experience will be able to study and analyse situations and know what to expect while the one good in social relations will reach out to persons in the best way possible and form a bond with them.
Unit evaluation
It is difficult to gauge the success of such a unit. However, the police unit will first be stationed or operational in certain areas in Los Angeles deemed vile. Therefore, after six months, the department will go through the number of crimes reported since the inception of the policing unit and compare the number with what used to be reported in the past in the same span of time. Secondly, the department will record and calculate the number of calls they receive in the same span of time informing them of suspicious persons or activities and compare the same with what they used to receive in the past. The numbers will tell of whether the police unit has made some improvement in the local areas or not (Larsson, 2010). The areas that will not have the unit will act as control experiments as it will be expected that the areas would continue to experience the same kind of chaos they already experience or have already been experiencing.
Conclusion
Community policing is an imperative policy in the police department because it facilitates easy policing and improves the services offered by the police to the study. The policing unit does well to ensure the society feels part of the police and hence can trust the police department with crucial information that allows them to proceed with their work effectively and see to it that there is a reduction in the fear of crime and crime rates themselves.
References
Brogden, M., & Nijhar, P. (2013). Community policing: Routledge.
Cordner, G. (2014). Community policing The Oxford handbook of police and policing, 148-171.
Larsson, P. (2010). Ideology as a cover up: Community policing in Norway|. Cahiers Politiestudies, 1(3), 233.
Somerville, P. (2009). Understanding community policing. Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management, 32(2), 261-277.
