Introduction
Community policing involves police and the community collaborating so that they can help each other in solving crimes. They usually identify crimes and disorders and solution is usually sought by involving members of the community. Community policing is made up of four basic components. This enables that all the members of the community benefit equally.
Members of the community and police partners so that they can be able to determine those crimes that are committed within the society and also to come up with a way of solving those crimes. Problem-solving department identifies and solves community problems. Management of police is changed so that they can involve the community.
Main text
Community policing helps in reducing crimes in a society since when the member so the community is involved, they are at a better position of identifying the most occurring crimes within a given area. Through members of the community police can come up with various ways of taking patrol within the area since community is willing to collaborate with them to identify lawbreakers and in inventing a way of solving these crimes.
When community is involved in working with the police, place can be kept safer since patrol is more effective. This is because as people go about their daily activities, they identify some of the problems that the community is facing and therefore they can address these problems sot the police who will be at a better point of handling the issues. When police are aware of the initial cause of the problem which they get from the community, they can be able to deal with the issue at a better point than when they are not getting any assistance from the community. People within a given area know the problems that they are facing therefore they can address them to the police so that they can get help and problems can be solved. Incidences of crimes are hence reduced when police collaborate with members of the community since they can be able to identify lawbreakers within the community because people are aware of them.
The wall between the police and the community is integrated since they work hand in hand with each other to solve crimes. When police interact with the members of community freely, they can get relevant information from the community which will help them in dealing with the crime. Members of the community can be free to express their problems to the police and reporting cases that need law intervention. Therefore, when there is no barrier between these two groups, the fear of reporting problems that are faced is eradicated since many individuals fear police which makes them not interact freely fearing some problems unsolved.
When community works hand in hand with the police, greater achievements can be attained since police will aim at making the community more confident since they relate to each other in friendly manner and therefore they can address their problems without fear (Roh, Sunghoon. 2004). They achieve success of making neighborhood safe since members of the community usually keep an eye on each other. Greater achievements can also be attained in community policing since members of the community have a chance to address to police those issues that they feel need to be addressed since they are quite free with them.
Members of the community end up feeling content since they are realizing their contribution towards maintaining the safety of the community. Police can run their activities more efficiently since they are advised by the community on areas that they feel they are a threat and therefore they can be more précised in carrying out their surveys.
Accountability is also reached when police and the community interact freely in trying to maintain the safety of the community. Since police are integrated within the community, members of the community are at a point of understanding them when they intend to take action of a crime that has been committed since their approach is quite friendly. This makes them differ from professional policing since they take the action brutally and the community ends up feeling harassed. Police and members of the community create a good working relationship which helps in reducing crime occurrence within the community. Crime rates are reduced within the neighborhood since those who intend to commit crime retards because they have a feeling that they are being watched by members of the community. The fear that is created by the lawbreakers of being watched by their neighbors reduces the rate of crime in community.
In both philosophical and organizational ways, community policing works hand in hand with the community members. They also deal with other aspects such as physical and social disorders within members of the community. Fear of crime, neighborhood decay and also aspects of improving the quality of life within the community. Most of the problems today experienced by community can be solved efficiently by community policing since they understand the problems of members of community through their good relationship which helps them to understand each other. Both police and the community members feel free to exploit their creating in trying to manage crime rate within the community. They usually invent new ways of trying to deal with crimes so that the concern of neighborhood can be addressed.
Community policing are empowered to lay their commitments in the community.
Their organizational strategies require that everyone has to be sworn so that all can hind to the process of power-sharing so that crime rates can hence be reduced. Community policing grants autonomy to general members of the community since they give them freedom to make decisions in ways that they want to be implemented in solving problems of the community members. Through autonomy, the judgment made by the police will be respected by the decision-making. At community level, members should come up with a conclusive way of identifying, prioritizing and ways of solving problems since they are fully pledged police partners.
In community policing, a direct link is created between the police and community who will help in addressing the problems that community is facing and also this direct link can help when one requires reporting an incidence of crime (Lyons, Phillips. 2000).
Police officers ensure that there is face-to-face communication with members of public so that they can serve in areas that are clearly defined by the members of the community as being a beat to them. This results in better understanding and good serve of community members.
Officers in community policing should ensure that they are always in good contact with those individuals who abide by law within the community. This enables them to work together so that they can draft solutions to the concern of people whereby private members serve as volunteers and supporters in dealing with crime. When members of the community notice a crime being committed, they usually report to the police immediately who gives an immediate response of arresting the culprit. Community policing works together with other agencies which help in giving them solutions that they can apply in dealing with crime.
Collaboration between the police and community in solving crimes gives police new contact of sewing the citizens in a better way. This helps in overcoming apathy which is widely spread within the community as they restrain any result of vigilantism. These relationships i.e. police-community operates on the basis of mutual trust and respect and people believe that police are usually catalyst which enables people to speed up their desire to work as a community policing, members of the community are entitled in dealing with minor problems themselves so that they can solve them locally without involvement of police.
By working with the community, mandate of police is expanded since they incorporate traditional reactive role which gives them a full spectrum service of police. The branch of community operates throughout i.e. 24 hrs a day and for seven days so that they can respond to the needs of the community immediately when there is a crime incidence.
Within the community, community policing helps those individuals who have special needs. They believe in enhancing lives of those who are mainly facing problems within the society such as old people, disabled, poor and those who are homeless as a result of insecurity they are struck by disaster. This branch of police therefore, works with other members of the society to ensure adequate help is given to such individuals who are less fortunate in the society.
Community policing works together with citizens to promote use of the available technology. They encourage people to work in groups and this can keep them busy and also earn them a living which will reduce crime rates in a community. The available technology can help people in performing quite a number of tasks which will adversely raise their living standards.
Police enable that there is internal transformation of individuals which helps in bridging a gap between police officers and people that are being served. They usually provide crucial information which is needed so that problems that community is facing can be fully addressed and awareness can be created.
Conclusion
Therefore, in conclusion, community policing should be adopted as long term strategy since it is quite efficient and it plays vital role in the community which helps in reducing crime rates. Within the community, they have formed decentralized and personalized services which help police to work together with the community. Apart from solving crimes, they also solve other contemporary concerns of the community which increases their efficiency in the community. For efficiency of helping the community, all the branches of policing should adopt operational methods of community policing since it has proved to be quite efficient in dealing with the issue of all sorts of crimes and generally in helping the community.
Reference:
Lyons, Phillips. (2000) Community Policing Concepts Applied to TLE Patrol. Spring, Texas Highway Patrol Association Magazine. Web.
Roh, Sunghoon. (2004) community policing: Application of Expectancy Model. Houston, Sam Houston State University.