POLICING APPROACHES

Community & Problem Oriented Policing



Community and Problem Oriented Policing

Community -oriented policing

Community-oriented policing refers to eradication of crimes, social disorder and fear. It is a philosophy which takes helps from systematic use of partnerships and problem-solving techniques which aims to promote the organizational strategies. It gives solutions to the emergency situations arising in public safety issues. There are main three components of community -oriented policing. First is a community partnership. This is the collaborative relationship between the law enforcing organizations with individuals which aims to increase trust in police and create solutions to the problems. This comprises of government agencies, service providers, community members, media and private businesses. The second category of COP is organizational transformation. This category aims for problem solving and supporting the community partnerships. It is an arrangement of the organizational structure, personnel, and management and information systems (Bayley, 2005).

Organizational transformation consists of agency management, geographic task of officers, employees and information systems. Agency management refers to the decision making, organizational structure, climate and culture, strategic planning, transparency and others, geographic task refers to resources and finances with de-specialization. Personnel refer to recruitment and training. Information systems refer to quality and accuracy of data along with communication and access to data. Problem solving refers to the development of solutions and proactive and a systematic examination. This includes scanning, analysis, response and assessment. One example of COP in San Francisco is Neighborhood Watch Program which comprise of community coordinators, watch coordinators and block captains working on a common goal. The Citizen's patrol groups, civil remedies, and Drug Abatement Response Team (DART). The COP in the CITY OF Taylor is in terms of Citizens Advisory Committee, neighborhood watch, child identification fingerprinting and crime prevention education program (Center for problem-oriented policing.org).

COP strength is that it goes through all the activities of policing. Centralizing the policing activities means that the personnel would be able to focus on all the unique activities. Uniformed officers make a good contact with the public. The activities of COP are coordinated by the operational commander. This makes the commander to supplement, support the patrol work and rapid-response officers. Various activities conducted by the personnel are unified and supports team coordination. COP weakness is that changing the orientation of all police officers at the same time is difficult. Centralized location may deprive the employees of local contact. Police may be attending the emergency calls more than the policing activities, which is a disadvantage. The community-policing specialists may possibly lose contact with groups and neighborhoods.

Problem-oriented Policing

Problem- oriented policing is another approach for policing. Small and discrete pieces of police business are examined in very detail and depth which makes learning of problems leading towards new discoveries and effective strategy to deal with those problems. The main value is the preventive measures which are dependent on the utilization of criminal justice system. POP has the commitment for the implementation of new strategies, which would contribute to build a knowledge-body supporting police ...