Different police departments do things differently and hence the different functions of various departments in the police. These departments' different modes of operation are mainly based on three styles as categorized by a social and political scientist- James Q Wilson in 1968 (Fuller, 2011) . According to him, a policing style is a collection of the various police methods, procedures, and practices performed by a specific department of the police (Ulmer, 2017) . The three styles include the watchman, legalistic policing style, and service type. This paper looks into the three forms of policing and the most appropriate place of application.
Therefore, it is imperative that when choosing a policing style to be used, the nature of society should be considered. Some of the societal factors to be considered include the population, society's social-economic nature, and government organization. For instance, the watchman style is more useful in rural settings and in regions where we have diverse cultures. Watchman policing style is where solving of disputes is left at the discretion of the police officers. The watchman type of policing can also be helpful when the police department is not well funded to be proactive in the prevention of crimes.
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The watchman style is well suited in a situation where a violation has just been committed and the police at the scene have to determine the penalty of violation based on his judgment and to the extent of the violation. Since this style mainly depends on an officer's judgment in charge, it might also be considered subjective and discriminative if all the officers do not serve standard charges.
The second form of policing is the legalistic one. This style can be considered as a direct opposite of the watchman type, especially in terms of law enforcement procedure. In this style, officers resolve disputes through arrests or threats of arrest (Fuller, 2011) . Just like the watchman type, the legalistic type does not actively participate in the prevention of crime but rather handles the already committed crimes.
This style is most appropriate in large cities with well-organized governments and, of course, sophisticated social and cultural general public. There is no danger for discrimination in this scenario since everyone well knows charges for various violations (Ulmer, 2017) . However, it is notable that this style of policing may not be very effective due to the rigorous procedures that are supposed to be undergone to resolve a dispute. The style may also be unfair in some way since the penalty is standard and not based on the extent of violation.
Lastly, we have a service type of policing. This type of policing is only different from the other two types in the sense that police officers are involved actively in preventing crime and the fact that the public can request the police to do some actions such as controlling gambling, asking them to come to the neighborhood to control noise pollution and such acts. This type of policing is well suited in a well of neighborhoods in cities where the government structure is well designed and implemented.
Conclusively, every style has its own space of the application, and one should be careful about when to apply each style. Additionally, it is also possible to combine either of the styles depending on the situation to ensure that law and order are upheld. With an ever changing and dynamic world, policing relies on these types to maintain law and order. It is, therefore, vital for the police out there to take note of the various types of policing in order to take the necessary action.
References
Fuller, J. R. (2011). Criminal Justice: Mainstream and Crosscurrents, Student Value Edition . Prentice Hall.
Ulmer, J. T. (2017). Policing and Minority Communities. Justice Quarterly , 34 (7), 1127–1128.
