Community Policing (Essay Sample)

Topic: Community Policing
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Affiliated institute
Introduction
In every corner of the world, security to the public has always been a concern. It is a responsibility of the government to provide security to its people. To ensure that there is a reliable security to the public, the government must streamline some approaches to security threats and effectively prevent or counter them. It is a common understanding that in most of the times in our lives, we happen to interact with the people who break the law or we witness an action which supposes to be punishable by the law. In the event that we have information that would improve the state’s security levels, we should willingly give it to the police. Contrary to this, many of the members of the public will want to hide such information, out of fear of interacting with the police or fearing that the information may leak and your identify revealed, posing you to danger.
Community policing has evolved as a way of changing the relationship between the public and the police. It was meant to involve members of the public in the process of maintaining security. The community policing initiative in Calgary has been one of the successful initiatives of the like. It is an initiative implemented by the Calgary Police Service, which is located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. In this document, we will examine the impact of community policing and its cost to the public.
Benefits of community policing
Improved security standards
Provision of security to the public is fundamental. When a place is secure to live or visit, will obviously develop, since the members will actively involve themselves in developmental activities. Although police is the body mandated with the provision of security to the public, it is not possible for the police to provide reliable security while working alone. Community policing gives every member of the public a role to play in ensuring their land is safe to live in. The security is accorded through the combined efforts by both the police and the members of the public. The members of the public play a role by providing/ reporting any security concern to the police, and working with them hand in hand to restore/ maintain peace in the society. Gramckow and Jacoby (1993:30) concluded that community policing is a good strategy to address the concerns and problems of communities, since it is decentralized, proactive, and deals with crime prevention and the fear of crime. Since the police stay within the community, it becomes easy for faster response in cases of emergency. Whenever the police are called upon for help, they can turn up within a short while.
Positive relationship between police and members of the public
It is common that police are not regarded as good ‘people’ in the face of the members of the public. This is usually due to the nature of their work, as they work to enforce the law. Community policing has played a major role in changing how the community perceived the police and change the attitude of the public towards the police. This makes it possible for the community to help the police in executing their duties, to maintain peace and security. Cutcliffe (1994:14) Indicated that, "good traffic control programs in residential neighborhoods help citizens to understand that the police are trying to improve their quality of life and that should bring communities and the police together.”
It inculcates a feeling of safety to the residents
Community policing entails police who patrol the community and live within the community. Seeing the police walk or drive around the community makes the residents feel secure. This feeling of safety helps in building a good relationship between the police and the members of the public. In return, the residents find sense in playing role in maintaining safety in their community. This improves the quality of life in the community, since the levels of crime must decline.
Reduction of court costs
Community policing in Calgary is given powers to deal with some cases, without necessarily taking them to court. This leads to fast judgements and reduction of costs incurred by the court in preparation for the hearing of the cases. Since the costs incurred by the courts are provided for by the tax payer, cutting the costs would be a benefit to the tax payer.
Flexibility in strategies
The communities which we are living in are frequently changing from day to the other. To ensure security measures or strategies remain valid, there is need to restructure them from time to time. Since community policing involves the members of the public, it gives them a chance to take part in designing the new measures which they think they should be implemented to achieve higher standards in security levels.
The negative aspect of community policing
The success of the program depends on the community
The main problem with the community policing program is that it relies on the acceptance of the community to succeed. There must exist trust of the police officers by the community and therefore gain acceptance. If the police cannot be trusted by the community, the community will not show commitment or interest in the program and hence the program must fail. "Police and there would-be partners do not always value the same, or even compatible, things" (Thacher, 2001, p. 766).
It requires long term commitment
Another problem with this program is that, it is a long term program and tireless commitment is essential. Community policing program is usually not a time bound project and therefore requires tireless commitment and devotion to realise its success. It helps nothing to start the project with great commitment, only for the commitment to decline afterwards. It is usually impossible to predict when a crime may occur in the community, and therefore for success of any community policing program, long term commitment is vital.
Removal of police officers from the streets
The community policing program normally has its own officers who implement it. Having these specialized officers removes officers from the streets and street patrol. For the sake of security levels being as high as poss...