The cotemporary world has been characterized with increased criminal activities. This has called for greater collaborations between the law enforcement officers and the general public. The alliance has resulted to the adaption of a new concept referred to as community policing. Community policing involves a modern police strategy that entails efficient use of the partnership coupled with problem solving methods that proactively tackle instantaneous conditions that bring forth public safety. Community policing is generally composed of three elements that entails; community partnership which occurs when there exist collaborations between the general public and the law enforcement agency (Peak, 2010). This collaboration helps police and the individuals they serve come up with solutions that address the problems they face which brings increased trust in the police force. The other aspect of community policing is the organization transformation that involves realignment of an organization structures, personnel, information systems and organization managements in order to reinforce the partnership and the proactive problem solving. The last element of community policing is the problem solving aspect that comprises of proactive and methodological evaluation of identified problems in order to arrive at effective responses (United States Department of Justice, n.d).
The Los Angles was characterized by increased criminal activities that mostly entailed violent crimes. The coming of a new Police commissioner known as William Bratton from New York Police station transformed the Los Angeles police completely. By then, I was working for the LAPD when Bratton introduced the Compstat program. The initiation of this program was triggered by inefficiency of Los Angeles police department. When Britton investigated the cause of the poor performance within the police department, he realized that the Los Angeles police department was at odds with the community it was serving. Thus, he realized that was the reason behind its poor performance. The poor performance of the Los Angeles police department in comprehending the criminals in the area occurred, despite the department being served by very qualified and competent officers.
Further investigation revealed that the residents of Los Angeles did not have trust of the police force that was serving them. The lack of trust was as a result of poor communication that existed between the community around and the Los Angeles police. Moreover, the William Britton also discovered that the Los Angeles police were using a very ineffective culture that entailed aversion of risks and opposition to change. The culture had caused low police morale, low organization performance and consequent decrease in proactive enforcement techniques and arrests. This culture had resulted to a notable amplification in violent crimes in Los Angeles City that required appropriate address.
William Britton having worked in New York police department where he had seen the success of CompStat model in reducing the crime rate in New York City opted to implement it in his new work place which was highly characterized by high prevalence of violent crime. CompStat model stands for computer statistics. The model is a well known conceptual framework that greatly helps police departments in ensuring that police gets back to their main task of proactively fighting crime instead of reacting to it. One aspect of CompStat model is its philosophy of making sure that police are accountable and comprehend their duty to combat crime in their assigned region.In addition, the model ensures that the police authority are provided with the authority to use their resources to achieve their set objectives. In most cases the diverse police departments mold the model to reflect their needs to amplify its effectiveness.
The Los Angeles police department had earlier on before the coming of Britton tried to employ another model that was referred as FASTRAC which stands for Focus, Accountability, Strategy, Teamwork, Response And Coordination which had eventually failed. The model had tried to use the concept of trying to concentrate on the duty of combating crime on the leadership of commanding officers in the community police departments. The failure of the model was triggered by the inability of the commanding officers to being given the authority to implement nontraditional tactics of deploying resources. The model was also designed to being applicable to specific crimes with very minimal or no follow- up at all. Due to this shortcomings, the model did not work and thus the high prevalence of crime in Los Angeles City. CompStat often referred as comparison statistics is a system that identifies and existing and upcoming crime trends so that to efficiently deploy the available resource to address those trends. The model employs four rules which are:
Timely and Accurate Intelligence: The principle entails on the use of accurate and timely intelligence. The Los Angeles police department was characterized by existence of very poor communication between the police and the community they served. Lack of effective communication had highly enhanced crime in the region. Thus, by the introduction of CompStat model which emphasized on timely and accurate intelligence there was a great change in the communication process. A great change occurred that increased the communication process from both within the police force and also between the police agency and the community. This eliminated instances where some Los Angeles detectives withheld relevant information from their counterpart patrol officers about information relating to suspects and crime trends which is very vital to the patrol officers since they are the one that are more likely to come into contact with these suspects. The enhanced of information sharing in the Los Angeles police department enabled the institution to greatly improve their services. The principle of Accurate and Timely intelligence suggests that information should be employed as a radar screen to guide police resources to where the exact problem is (Schick, 2011).
CompStat model emphasizes on the use of effective tactics. The model requires that participatory involvement where every faction plays its role in enhancing community safety. The model does not deal with the problem superficially such as just arresting the criminals, but in addition the police should try and establish the environmental factors that promote certain crime trends in a certain region. The model also does not withstand the old attitude that is associated with slow response to crime, but instead advocates for a sense of urgency while responding to crime. Los Angeles police force there before had a tendency to show slow responses to crime instances which had aggravated the crime rate in the region greatly. With the introduction of the CompStat model, the police resumed back to their responsibility of making sure that it is their task to combat crime in Los Angeles City which prompted them to develop a sense of urgency while responding to crime (Kelling, Wasserman & Williams, 1988).
The police in Los Angeles had in the past relied mainly on calls for service which they had always responded in a reactive manner. The introduction of CompStat model resulted to Los Angeles police department being more equipped with more information pertaining to crime trends which necessitated for better strategic police responses. These responses can either being in form of uniformed or plainclothes. The presence of rapid deployment greatly amplified the police operations in the area which in turn reduced the crime rate in Los Angeles to a great extent (Schick, 2011). The CompStat program is still currently performing very well with the help of Charlie Beck as the new police chief of LAPD Since he took over on November 2009.
The Los Angeles police department was formerly characterized by lack of proper and relentless follow-up and assessments as exhibited by the failure of FASTRAC model. The introduction of CompStat entailed critical evaluation of past tactics and identify those tactics that worked and those that did not work. There are usually weekly meetings that are shared by William Britton that provides statistical data and management information that illustrates the weekly performance of the command officer in charge of the crime department. The report assists the command officers in their future work and especially while designing new crime reduction strategies. During these meetings those crime reduction strategies that were successful are highlighted and shared to other commands to help them address similar scenario. The uses of relentless follow-up have greatly boosted the fight of violent crime in Los Angeles City.
Reference List
Kelling, G., Wassermann, R. and Williams, H. (1988). Police Accountability and Community Policing. New York/; Prentice Hall.
Peak, K.J. (2010). Justice Administration: Police, Courts, and Corrections. New York: Prentice Hall.
United States Department of Justice. (n.d) Building Relations, Solving Problems. Web.
Schick, W. (2011). CompStat in the Los Angeles Police Department. Web.