Introduction
Community policing is a philosophy in which policing involves building close working relationships and proactively partnering with community members with the aim of identifying and solving problems in society (U.S. Department of Justice, 1994). Community policing is thus a strategy in which the police agencies interact with members of the public and the local authorities to form partnerships aimed at lowering disorder and crime within society. This is a form of decentralized law and order maintenance that focuses on highlighting societal problems and providing the necessary intelligence for crime and disorder prevention hence eliminating the need for reactive policing (Nagin & Telep, 2017). Community policing seeks to help the public in establishing and upholding a safe, orderly social environment in the community. This role is facilitated through apprehending criminals as well as engaging the community in finding solutions to crimes that affect them.
Communication between police and the community takes many forms including town meetings, surveys/polls, consultations with interest groups, neighborhood newsletters, and call-in programs. It is through these connections that the expectations of the community from the police and the community’s willingness to solve a problem are made manifest. It is thus a way of enhancing citizen satisfaction with policing and increasing police legitimacy. The success of community policing is indicated by devoting community resources to crime reduction, financial support by public and private agencies, business groups, and schools, and community initiated projects that address issues affecting the community (U.S. Department of Justice, 1994). This paper explores the concept of community policing and its significance in promoting police legitimacy, enhancing citizen satisfaction, and upholding social order through crime reduction in society.
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The History of Community Policing
Community policing can trace its core values to Peelian principles which came into being in response to the reactive policing approach. Drawn from Sir Robert Peel’s police force ethics, the Peelian principles provide three approaches, namely integrity, transparency, and accountability; approaches through which law enforcement can gain legitimacy and public confidence (Loader, 2014). According to Sir Peel, police officers must learn the art of building public trust, cooperation, and force reduction. This art involves effective listening to the public, creating public awareness of the use of force, and upholding of human dignity in the course of policing. With the advent of digitization and technological advancement, the policing strategy saw a paradigm shift from reactive policing to a proactive strategy focused on emergency response and motor vehicle patrolling so as to combat crime. However, this strategy became associated with corruption prompting the rotation of officers across different localities so as to deter corruption. Consequently, foot and motor patrols lessened significantly leading to police absence in many neighborhoods (U.S. Department of Justice, 1994). Studies conducted on the effectiveness of motor patrols showed that the police had become detached from the community thus causing an apparent distrust from community members.
In response, community policing experiments set in with President Lyndon Johnson, in 1967, commissioning the development of a new police force that would work to build ties with minority population groups and act as a community liaison to restore community cooperation with the police (U.S. Department of Justice, 1994). Furthermore, research and educational development, as well as political administrations such as the Clinton administration, promoted the implementation of community-oriented policing leading to the establishment of the Office of Community-Oriented Policing Services instituted by the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. This office provided financial support to promote community policing (Murphy, 2014).
The 1960s civil unrest led to the inception of the community policing concept as an effort to provide alternatives to the reactive strategies of the mid-century. Community policing started taking root as larger police departments started integrating community policing aspects through funded specialized unit establishments (U.S. Department of Justice, 1994). Gradually, all other departments both in urban and rural areas adopted mass application of community policing thus leading to the institutionalization of the practice. Community policing can thus be said to have undergone three stages of evolution, namely the innovation stage that started in 1979 through 1986, the diffusion stage that followed the innovation as commencing in 1987 to 1994, and the institutionalization stage that kicked off in 1995 onwards till today (Murphy, 2014). In the present era, police departments have incorporated the use of information technology as a form of community policing whereby social media is utilized in the dissemination and sharing of relevant information with the public. Policing agencies in cities have successfully exploited information technology to prevent violence and drugs, among other criminal activities.
Police Legitimacy
There is great importance in police expressing fairness and legality of their actions in the eyes of the general public. Scholars have established procedural justice in police-civilian encounters as an important precursor of their legitimacy (Gill et al., 2014). Police legitimacy is a function of four main elements, namely public participation in the decision process, fairness and transparency in dispute resolution, respectful and dignified treatment of the citizens in the hands of law enforcers, and genuineness or trustworthiness of police motives in their interactions with the citizens. According to Gill et al (2014), the incorporation of the above-stated elements of procedural justice into police-citizen/suspect encounters fosters citizen cooperation with police directives and law due to the perception of the police as a legitimate agency before the public. It is this legitimacy that can potentially enhance compliance behavior thus lowering crime.
Community policing is a fundamental strategy for increasing the amount of police legitimacy to lower crime as it increases citizen satisfaction and lowers chances of victimization. When used with other approaches such as hot spots policing, community policing’s consultative, collaborative and transparent nature enhances police-resident relationships thus increasing overall police legitimacy (MacQueen & Bradford, 2015). This build-up of legitimacy is highlighted by President Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing that recommends the embracing of a guardian attitude and culture in law enforcement.
Methods of Community Policing
Community policing starts with the assignment of officers to specific areas known as beats. In addition to the training on patrol designs in a particular beat, officers familiarize themselves with their areas of jurisdiction and get face-to-face service-oriented interactions with community members (U.S. Department of Justice, 1994). Therefore, community policing involves such interactions in which the police encourage community involvement in crime prevention by offering advice, supporting neighborhood watch groups, and giving talks at schools, among other techniques. Also, community policing may be done through increased use of foot/bicycle patrols and creation of officer teams to serve in designated beats. Moreover, fostering clear communication between communities and the police and forming partnerships with other agencies such as nongovernmental organizations, media, private business groups, nonprofit service providers, and community members are effective community policing strategies. Finally, the decentralization of police authority and enhancement of officer accountability to the community are important forms of community policing that have been exploited in the U.S. leading to the prevention of crime (Nagin & Telep, 2017).
Analysis of Community Policing
Studies that evaluate the impact of community policing on the reduction of crime, enhancement of legitimacy and promotion of citizen satisfaction show a weak relationship with crime reduction in the short term. However, in the long term and as a result of increased satisfaction and legitimacy levels, a more significant positive relationship may be achieved thus implying increased citizen compliance with the law and lowered crime (MacQueen & Bradford, 2015). On the other hand, community policing positively and to a large extent impacts citizen satisfaction, police legitimacy, and lowers perceived disorder. From these findings, therefore, community policing initiatives serve as a mechanism through which police-community relations are improved because they facilitate the incorporation of the principles of procedural justice into the interactions. In addition to these findings, neighborhood watch programs as part of community policing strategy significantly contribute to the reduction of crime (Bennett et al., 2008).
Setbacks to Community Policing
Despite this evidence on the benefits of community policing, critics have faulted the use of the term “community” as being ambiguous and lacking a universal definition thus finding it difficult to describe community policing. Other critics argue that the notion of creating positive working relationships between the police and the community is nostalgic because police officers will never be everyone’s friend due to its central elements that contrast the police culture and the ideology of crime and punishment (Gill et al., 2014).
Conclusion
Community policing is a strategy exploited by law enforcement agencies in which departments proactively partner with community members as a means to improve police perception in the eyes of the general public, increase police legitimacy, and reduce crime with an overall objective of identifying and solving problems in the society (U.S. Department of Justice, 1994). Community policing has evolved through ages since the mid-19th century following the civil unrest of the 1960s in a bid to find an alternative to reactive policing. After its inception, there followed a period of diffusion in which larger police departments started funding specialized units for community policing before a mass application of community policing across all police departments both small and large, rural and urban in what has matured to be regarded as the institutionalization of community policing. Community policing is a fundamental strategy for increasing the amount of police legitimacy to lower crime as it increases citizen satisfaction and lowers chances of victimization (MacQueen & Bradford, 2015). Despite the weak relationship with crime reduction in the short term, community policing has been found to have a positive impact on the enhancement of legitimacy and promotion of citizen satisfaction. Also, in the long term and as a result of increased satisfaction and legitimacy levels, it has been found to increase citizen compliance with the law and lower crime levels in the community (Nagin & Telep, 2017).
References
Bennett, T., Farrington, D., & Holloway, K. (2008). The effectiveness of neighborhood watch. Crime and Justice , 4 (1). doi:10.4073/csr.2008.18
George Mason University. (2018). Community policing and procedural justice. Retrieved from https://cebcp.org/evidence-based-policing/what-works-in-policing/research-evidence-review/community-policing/
Gill, C., Weisburd, D., Telep, C. W., Vitter, Z., & Bennett, T. (2014). Community-oriented policing to reduce crime, disorder and fear and increase satisfaction and legitimacy among citizens: a systematic review. Journal of Experimental Criminology , 10 (4), 399-428. doi:10.1007/s11292-014-9210-y
MacQueen, S., & Bradford, B. (2015). Enhancing public trust and police legitimacy during road traffic encounters: results from a randomised controlled trial in Scotland. Journal of Experimental Criminology , 11 (3), 419-443. doi:10.1007/s11292-015-9240-0
Nagin, D. S., & Telep, C. W. (2017). Procedural justice and legal compliance. Annual Review of Law and Social Science , 13 (1), 5-28. doi:10.1146/annurev-lawsocsci-110316-113310
U.S. Department of Justice. (1994, August). Understanding community policing: A framework for action. Retrieved from https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles/commp.pdf
