Community policing as a concept and a law enforcement approach in the USA emerged in the 1980-s in response to the growing need to engage the general public in cooperation with the police. Such efforts have always been designed to control and prevent crime and maintain public order by implementing community programs. One of such programs, National Night Out, is discussed in the news article by Yancey-Bragg (2020). It vividly demonstrates the particularities of the community policing era in the USA.
The program has been implemented continuously since its launching in 1984. It has connected the public and the police in an attempt to “promote positive interactions between residents and law enforcement with block parties, parades and festivals” (Yancey-Bragg, 2020, para. 2).
The article represents the community era by describing how the program addresses community-oriented problems. In particular, since the National Night Out gathering was scheduled during the COVID-19 pandemic and the racial unrest across multiple communities impacted, its task was to improve community relations and ensure trust toward police (Yancey-Bragg, 2020). The program tends to improve communication and enhance professionalism to ensure the police’s reliability and trustworthiness in the times of race-based unrest of the public in the USA.
Thus, community-oriented problems are being addressed utilizing community policing programs to unify the public and police efforts. National Night Out is a vivid example of a program designed according to the characteristics of the Community Era in the US policing and is held to help resolve current issues, such as COVID-19 pandemic and the unrest due to the Black Lives Matter movement. Such efforts prioritize effective public-police interaction for better problem prevention and solving on a community level.
Reference
Yancey-Bragg, N. (2020). Scaled down National Night Out continues amid coronavirus, unrest over police brutality. USA Today. Web.