Features of Community Policy Paper Example

Introduction

With the current affairs and the current social development, community policy is recognized often to be the most abused and the most misunderstood topic in policy management. For the past years, community policing has become fashionable for police agencies to come up with effective community policing. Community policing is considered as a value system which permeates a police department in which the main organizational goal is operating in unison with individual citizen, groups of citizen and both the private and public organizations to bring a solution to some of the issues which have a potential impact on the livability of specific areas, or specific neighborhood. This essay will hence bring a clear discussion on some of the features of community policy.

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Offering effective solutions to problems

Community policing creates structures and avenues in which the community can find solutions to the problems they grapple with. It has a problem-solving model that fuses other government agencies into their operations making them come up with solutions to the factors contributing to public safety problems. In today's world, community policing has reached a zenith where it's a belief that the presence of police is necessary for social order without which chaos ensues (Reiner, 2010).

Provision of services to the community

The basic responsibility of the community policing agency is to enforce the law, provide crime prevention mechanism through mobilization of the local community on being vigilant. They move around the streets creating cognizance on safety (Meyer, 2011) . The agency offers emergency services to the public, assist victims of crime and maintain order in the community.

Empowers the community

Community policing creates a sense of responsibility within the community as it gives the locals a chance to participate in ensuring their safety. In conjunction with other agencies, it provides training to the community on ways in which they can solve some of the problems they face. The community is involved in the recruitment, employment, and retention of all law enforcement agency staff as their views are considered in this process. CITATION Rud10 \l 1033 (Zinn, 2010) argue that the most efficient way of preventing crime is through improving the safety of the locality to the point that lawbreakers avoid the area. He further states that this can only be achieved through active participation in curbing the crime.

Stakeholder involvement

The law enforcement agency alone is incapacitated to ensure the security of the public. It, therefore, makes very necessary for them to involve other stakeholders with a view of intelligence gathering as well as identification of the problems faced by the community in their area of jurisdiction. (Muller, 2010) argue that the involvement in the policing programs alters the perception of the police towards the community. Through the involvement of the local community, the agency is able to build trust with locals making it easy for them to disclose any impending security threat. The intelligence gathered enables the police to thwart those threats before they blow out of proportions. The police can also rely on other government agencies to identify the challenges faced by the community with a view of offering lasting solutions.

References

Meyer, M., & Van Graan, J. G. (2011). Effective community policing in practice: the Roodekrans neighborhood watch case study, West Rand. Acta Criminologica: Southern African Journal of Criminology, 24(2), 130-143.

Muller, M. M. (2010). Community Policing in Latin America: Lessons from Mexico City. Revista Europea de Estudios Latinoamericanos y del Caribe/European Review of Latin American and Caribbean Studies, 21-37.

Reiner, R. (2010). The politics of the police. Oxford University Press.

Zinn, R. (2010). Inside information: Sourcing crime intelligence from incarcerated house robbers. South African Crime Quarterly, 32, 27-35.