Community Policing: Past, Present, and Future
By: Travis B. Anthony
JADM 260-Community Policing
Professor McIntyre
DeVry University

Abstract
Community policing has surged forth since the 1970s as an increasingly important strategy for investigating and preventing crime activity, and enhancing community involvement and safety. It is a philosophy and an organizational strategy that helps the police and the community to work closely together in many different and inventive ways to solve the problems of crimes, illegal drugs, fear of criminal activity, physical or social disorder, neighborhood decay, and the quality of life in the community. Community policing is rather difficult to define. Although community policing does not have a singular definition, there are several various elements of community policing. A major definition used to define community policing is: Community policing is more of a philosophy than a specific tactic; a proactive, decentralized approach designed to reduce crime, disorder and fear of crime by intensely involving the same officer in a community for a long term so that personal links are formed with residents (Champion, 1997). This definition helps to explain the key elements of community policing. The most common features involve cooperation between police and community residents, willingness to work toward mutual goals, and a general desire to improve community safety through more effective crime control.

Introduction The overall aspect of policing has been in existence for many decades. For many of these years, the view of the police officers and what they do has remained pretty much the same. In numerous books, movies, and television shows, the public has been presented with a romanticized view of police officers as fearless crime fighters who think very little of their safety as they are involved in daily shootouts. Truthfully, how close is this portrayal to real life? Police officers deal with various calls for serviced each year. However, the number of calls police officers receive that are related to enforcing the law is only a small part of these calls. The bulk of these calls are for civil disputes and minor disruptions. Officers today are required to be more than enforcement officers. The police officers of today are needed in many different areas and for many different issues. Due to the fact that many agencies do not have the ability or manpower to accommodate this growing need, community policing has become a necessity for all agencies. This allows the community and police to work together for the benefit of both. In this paper we will discuss where community policing came from, how it effects the law enforcement of today, and the many different ways to expand this concept to benefit all for the future.

Community policing in America can be traced from the colonial times to the 1900s. American policing activities transpired in early England at or about the time of the Norman Conquest in 1066. Chancellors were used to settle disputes between neighbors, such as property boundary issues, trespass allegations, and child misconduct. An early similarity of the chancellor, with similar duties and responsibilities, was the justice of the peace, dating to about A.D. 1200. Together with the chancellors or justices of the peace, reeves (now known as a sheriff) maintained order in their respective jurisdictions (Champion, 1997). England’s use of policing became well known. Many other regions soon adopted England’s standards. American colonist continued the English system of law enforcement and the study of law. In addition to reeves, constables were used for maintaining law and order in colonial communities. The duties of constables included collecting fees for highway usage, collecting taxes, and presiding over minor legal issues. The position of the sheriff was created and they became the principal law enforcement officers in the various counties throughout the colonies. Early policing was characterized as urban policemen walking beats and interacting daily with merchants and other members of the community.
In the 1940s, the policing model most common in America has come to be known as the “political” model. Many governmental leadership positions, including police chiefs, were occupied by people directly beholden to a city’s political machine for their position and livelihood. This was a period filled with corruption and transformation. In the 1950’s, many communities became dissatisfied with law enforcement and called for a new corruption free enforcers (Zhao, 1997). In the 1960s and through the 1970s, a model evolved known today as the professional model. It was during this period that a law enforcement code of conduct and uniform training standards became the foundations of American law enforcement with the professional and efficient delivery of police service its ultimate goal. The present model requires that officers not associate too closely with the people they serve, an obvious reaction to the corruption evident in the earlier models.
Modern devices have added the professional model of today. At about the same time, m equipment and technology (cars, radios, telephones, and mobile-digital terminals) began to arrive on the law enforcement scene (Zhao, 1997). These tools further distanced patrol officers from their community contacts. Gradually, the patrol officers’ proactive “problem-solving” approach was replaced with reactive “call handling.” The community called for help, and the police department responded. However, when the calls for assistance reached such high levels that the ability of the police to respond to all of them was slow, drastic improvements in dispatching were initiated. To replace the old way of calling the police, fire, or medical units, individual 911 numbers were introduced. “Special units were trained to allow a very precise response to a situation that might overwhelm the officer” (Thayer, 1997). Various specialized units emerged out of the 911-response method. A few of these include; the weapons and tactics units, canine units, hazardous materials units, and hostage negotiation units.
Almost thirty years later, there is a new model for policing. It is an evolutionary and not revolutionary philosophy that attempts to refocus the nature of policing to a law enforcement that tries to do two things: first bring police officers and citizens together in neighborhoods, second, give the police responsibility for solving problems in the community. By bringing the law enforcement officer closer to the community, officers initiate trust and communication. Through the development of trust and communication, the neighborhood is going to be closely monitored and citizens are more likely to report problems. The community does not need to be the problem solver, they merely aid law enforcement officers in their primary duties – to protect and serve the public interest. Citizens rely on community policing to ensure that their concerns and problems are included in the setting of police policy and priorities. At the center of community policing are three essential and complementary core components: community partnership, problem solving, and change management (Thayer, 1997). Community partnership identifies the importance of the people in dealing with the policing process. The society needs to come together as one or as a whole and educate each other on the problems of crime in the neighborhoods. They need to work out an effective plan that can involve each person to help with the deterioration in the neighborhoods. Problem solving recognizes the specific concerns that community members feel are most threatening to their safety and well-being. These areas of concern then become priorities for the police-community intervention. Change management requires a clear recognition that shapes community policing partnerships and beginning problem-solving activities will require changes in the organizational structure of policing. Properly managed change involves recognition of the need for change, the communication that change is possible, the identification of the concrete steps needed for change to occur, the development of an understanding of the benefits of change, as well as the creation of an organization-wide commitment to change. By including citizens, police are more likely to receive the support and cooperation of the public.
Community policing offer a broad range of functions. They are there to ensure the citizens that they are responding to their concerns and problems along with developing new skills that will better serve the community. There are ten basic principles of community policing:
1. Philosophy and Organizational Strategy: The philosophy rests on the belief that people deserve input into the police process, in exchange for their participation and support. It also rests on the belief that solutions to today’s community problems demand freeing both people and the police to explore creative, new ways to address neighborhood concerns beyond a narrow focus on individual crime incidents.
2. Commitment to Community Empowerment: This demand making a subtle but sophisticated shift so that everyone in the department understands the need to focus on solving community problems in creative, and often ways, that can include challenging and enlightening people in the process of policing themselves.
3. Immediate and Long-Term Proactive Problem Solving: The community policing officer’s broad role demands continuous, sustained contact with the law-abiding people in the community, so that together they can explore creative new solutions to local concerns, with private citizens serving as supporters and as volunteers.
4. Ethics, Legality, Responsibility, and Trust: This new relationship, based on mutual trust and respect, also suggests that the police can serve as a catalyst, challenge people to accept their share of responsibility for the overall quality of life in the community. Community policing means that citizens will be asked to handle more of their minor concerns themselves, but in exchange, this will free police to work with people on developing immediate as well as long-term solutions for community concerns in ways that encourage mutual accountability and respect.
5. Helping Those with Special Needs: Community policing stresses exploring new ways to protect and enhance the lives of those who are most vulnerable-juveniles, the elderly, minorities, the poor, the disabled and the homeless.
6. Building for the future: Community policing provides decentralized personalized police service to the community. It recognizes that the police cannot impose order on the community from the outside, but that people must be encouraged to think of the police as a resource that they can use in helping to solve contemporary community concerns. It is not a tactic to be applied and then abandoned, but a new philosophy and organizational strategy that provides the flexibility to meet local needs and priorities as they change over time.
In many cities, large areas have been taking over by youth gangs and drug dealers. Due to this, many programs are emerging to help protect communities along with helping the children of the communities. Community patrol officer program (CPOP) is a type of community policing commenced as a pilot project in 1994 in New York City; officers were assigned to foot patrols for 16- to 60- block beats; seventy-five precincts used CPOP by 1989 (Oliver, 2004). The most important function of CPOP was the prevention of street-level drug problems. Police officers have begun to assist communities in establishing neighborhood watch programs. This program uses neighborhood residents, particularly during evening hours to watch for criminal conduct. Juveniles usually do not or cannot understand the point of view of police officers. Therefore, many intervention programs have been established to help the youth. Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) allows police officers to familiar elementary school children about drugs and drug laws and teaches them to say no to drugs (Brown, 2012). Children also learn how to recognize illegal drugs and about different types of drugs and their hostile effects. T.I.P.S., which means Teaching Individuals Protective Strategies is geared to helping youths in schools, acquire the reasoning ability for responsible decision making. G.R.E.A.T., which is Gang Resistance Education and Training, involves police officers that visit schools and interact with students on a regular basis over a specific time period. Here, the youth can learn to overcome peer pressure involving drug use and joining gangs. Alateen is designed for youths who have alcohol problems or have parents with alcohol problems. These are only a few of the many programs operating throughout the United States involving police in positive roles. These programs will not necessarily turn around a community or the youths, but it will make them aware of a positive side of police officers.
Team policing involves teams of police officers, detectives, and other personnel assigned to a particular community area to work in a coordinated way in solving crimes. There are many different types of team policing. The most common types today are (1) animals, (2) human, (3) mechanical, and (4) electronic. These functions include patrolling by foot, automobile, aircraft, motorcycle, horse, dog, boat, bicycle, video camera, and television. The application and type of enforcement patrol greatly influence the ability of the officer(s) to communicate with the public (Lurigio, 1994).
In order for community policing to continue to survive, a strong commitment to the officers and the citizens must be met. The officers must be willing to inform, communicate, and use various problem-solving skills in order to provide the right assistance. The community must put forth the effort and determination to want change. They must also be able to listen and provide the information and ideas to better their community. Without the efforts of the officers and the community, community policing will not exist in the future. In the past decades, new models of policing have emerged. Community policing was formed out of these new models of policing. When community policing was formed, interaction with citizens was rare. As time progressed, citizens and officers work together to shape a better community. Community policing allows an officer to become familiar with the citizens needs and concerns. It allows them to interact with the community on a daily and face-to-face basis instead of catching a glimpse of a patrol car riding through the community. While community police continue to handle and fight crimes in communities, the police and community work together to help improve the conditions in the community. In order to serve the community better, there are many different methods of community policing. Only with the support and understanding of the community, then community policing will be able to accomplish challenges and goals. Without that support, community policing will fall short. Community policing therefore requires that everyone in the community must become involved. In order to carry the message that community policing can be successful, it needs the support of the officers along with the community.

References;
Brown, L., 2012. Policing in the 21st Century: Community Policing. AutoHouse, Bloomington, IN.
Champion, D., 1997. Policing In the Community. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddler River, NJ.
Lurigio, A., 1994. An Inside Look At Community Policing Reform: Definitions, Organizational Changes, and Evaluation Findings.” Prentice Hall, Upper Saddler River, NJ.
Oliver, W., 2004. Community-Oriented Policing: A Systemic Approach to Policing (4th Edition). Prentice Hall, Upper Saddler River, NJ.
Thayer, R., 1997. Community Oriented Policing. Abaddon Books, London, UK.
Zhao, J., 1997. Community Policing: Where Are We Now? Random House, New York, NY.