Essay Example on the Future of Community Policing: A Comprehensive Analysis

Introduction

Community policing is the practice of provision of service by a police officer or police officers that entails the police officer to patrol and work in the same area permanently. The police officer works in partnership with citizens to maintain and keep order in the community. The analysis of this paper is going to study the future of community policing in consideration of the parties that get involved in community policing, such as the community, individual police, and the police agencies.

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Social isolation of police officers

In many countries, citizens express hostility and isolation towards police officers. This leads to the police officers being socially separated from other members of society. The social isolation of police officers may be attributed to a number of factors that may include; the history of the social reaction of the police officers (Kappeler & Gaines, 2012). In different settings, police officers from past have been regarded as incompetent professionals. They are mostly associated with brutality, corruption, and individuals who like to serve self-interest before those of the public. With this idea that the public perceives the police officers, it becomes difficult for the citizens to socially accept them in the community. This results in the isolation of the officers by the general public.

Secondly, the force that may contribute to the social isolation of the officers may be the operations that accompany their profession (Kappeler & Gaines, 2012). Sometimes, police officers are forced to act brutally in their service to protect the civil public and to maintain law and order. The actions of brutality that the citizen witness sets them apart because every single time that a citizen witnesses an officer, he definitely gets a reminder of the brutal actions of the police in their service. This has borne stigmatization of individuals in public; thus, it has resulted in the public isolating the officers in order to protect themselves from the stigma, which is regarded as a common reaction. An examination of this social isolation shows that the individual police officers suffer the most significant problem that comes with separation. This is because police officers, just like any other human beings, are social and need to associate and interact with the members of the public freely. Isolation by society limits their interaction, thus resulting in psychological torture that is experienced among the police officers in most of the cases. However, the police agencies equally face a problem resulting from the social isolation of police officers. They cannot gain the trust of the public; thus, the delivery of the services to the public becomes a challenge to the agencies. The society also opts not to provide any meaningful information to the police agencies due to the mistrust and their negative perception about police officers, thus hindering the servicing of police agencies.

Negative influences within the police culture

The police culture is one that requires total service to the public. Despite the recruitment of high profiled and well-disciplined individuals into the police service, the negative perception that exists in the already serving police officers stands as a barrier to the excellence of the police service. Some of the negative influences experienced in the police culture include; police cynicism, close-mindedness of the police officers, biases, prejudice, and authoritarianism.

Under the police cynicism, the police officers get an inclination and are swayed to believe that self-interest is the only way that they can be motivated (Kappeler & Gaines, 2012). Cynicism creates an environment with unmotivated officers who are hardly dedicated and devoted to their professional ideals. It creates an atmosphere with officers only making impaired judgments that are based on a poor interpretation of the available facts. Resultantly the cynicism influence makes the officers settle on erroneous decisions that affect the lives of the citizens negatively. In addition, police culture is adversely affected by the biases culture in their service (Palmiotto, 2011). In most cases, this culture is what bears the culture of corruption that has been in the police culture for quite a long period of time. In their service, police officers make investigations over a number of issues that may arise in public. However, their decision on the matters does not reasonably favor the parties that are involved in the conflicts. The unfair treatment and decision making give rise to the biased culture that breeds within the police officers. It vastly affects even the new recruits, thus standing as a hindrance to the police agencies that are determined to offer their best services to the public. The public equally loses trust in the police service after experiencing the biased culture that is practiced within them.

Equally, authoritarianism is also a negative effect that is experienced in police culture (Palmiotto, 2011). In most police agencies, police officers develop a culture that makes them appear powerful than the citizens that they serve. In different incidents, reports record that a large number of officers use their ranks to socially command the citizens and thus serve a 'masters' to the public. Considering the authoritarian culture within the officers, the public loses confidence in them and isolates the officers as they cannot share any meaningful ideas since the officers act supreme. This hinders the police service to the public that the agencies try to reinforce. Prejudice, on the other hand, serves as a critical negative influence on the police service. It is the nature of most police officers to make prior judgments to a conflict that exists in public. Due to this nature, the public loses confidence and trust in the service of police officers, thus crippling the functions of police agencies.

Robert Trojanowicz's vision of neighborhood community policing centers

The national center for community policing was initially named as the national neighborhood foot patrol center. It was created and headed by the late Robert Trojanowicz. The neighborhood community policing centers did perform some of the earliest research on community policing. In this entry, some of the principles that Robert Trojanowicz developed as well as his vision for the neighborhood community policing center. In his development of the neighborhood community policing centers, Robert Trojanowicz developed principles that could make the community policing a successful activity in the service of policing to the society. Some of the vital principles of community policing centers that Robert developed are; the philosophy and organizational strategy. In the first principle, community policing is regarded as a philosophy and a strategy that allows the police to be in partnership with the community, and through the partnership, any possible problems of the society that may be required to be solved by the police could be made possible (Palmiotto, 2011). He states that the solution to the community today demands the development of feeling both people and the police. Through the strategy, the police can develop ways to address neighborhood concerns. The dedication to community empowerment is the second most vital principle for community policing centers. This commitment required that every individual in the police department must develop ways of translating the police powers into a sharing practice with the community. Through the philosophy that he termed as 'power-sharing' philosophy, the community's problems are solved in a creative way that also enlightens the community.

The decentralized and personal policing is also a vital strategy that Robert Trojanowicz developed to help him attain his vision of a useful community policing strategy (Palmiotto, 2011). In this strategy, community policing must form a line officer who acts as a link between the community and the police. Through the policy, the police department gets to reach out to the problems of the community and develops plans that are within its department to solve the issues. In addition, the police officers can be freed from isolation through the policy of decentralized policing as they maintain a daily face to face approach with the individuals in the community as they serve a clearly defined community, and thus their objectives and actions remain well known to the community. It becomes difficult for the community to isolate the officers as they develop the conception that the police are the solution to their problems. In these philosophies, the visions of Robert Trojanowicz about community policing are manifested. The application of the theories ideally made the centers materialize as they achieved their objectives in the community policing department.

The future of community policing

Community policing has been regarded as the cure to all the problems related to the criminal justice system. The future of community policing includes the past of their service e and the present. An analysis of the history and the present state of community policing gives the probable requirement of the future of the community policing department. Community policing requires the adaptation of new needs with regard to the changing situations of the community. In the initiatives to ensure a useful community policing department, the adoption of individual cultures is necessary for the police department. Some of the strategies that should be implemented to provide a productive future for the community policing department are; the equipment of body cameras by the police (Brogden & Nijhar, 2013). By equipping the community policing officers with body cameras, the accountability and transparency of their service are guaranteed. All the actions carried out by police officers in their fields of the patrol will be monitored; thus, the need for better service delivery to the public will be a paramount requirement for the officers. This will give the public some confidence in the actions delivered by the police.

The betterment of services for community police officers is also a strategy that is required to improve the services of the department. Bettering their services may include better housing conditions for them, incorporation of modern technology equipment in their service, and upgrading the already existing equipment for their services (Brogden & Nijhar, 2013). With material such as radio calls and patrol vans that are equipped with modern technology for the police officers, their services are made more comfortable. Upgrading their housing conditions too increases the betterment of their services because the police officers remain motivated to their services and duties of community patrol. Such programs and other motivational ideas for the police department will ensure they stay dedicated to their service. The community policing status today is improved since there is outreach to the community by the police. This is so because of the better method and better equipment that the officers are equipped with within their service. The use of proactive problem-solving approaches also makes the policing department remain effective and improved.

Conclusion

To sum up, the expansion of community-oriented policing is necessary for the community service techniques of community police officers to expand and reach out to broad areas of the community. The correct implementation and application of the philosophies of the visions of Robert Trojanowicz in the community policing departments is also a strategy that will ensure effective service delivery of the police officers in the community policing department. Therefore the philosophies should be encouraged and applied across all the commun...