Assignment 3

Assignment Two

Karyl Derek Mokudai

University of Global Campus

Due Date: February 16, 2021

Introduction

Community-based policing has been widely promoted as a policy intervention that builds public trust and police legitimacy by encouraging nonenforcement and positive contact between the public and police officers. The community-focused elements that form the basis for the policy intervention include decentralization of police organization, community engagement, and problem-solving. The strategies for community-based practices thus promote and recognize the active role of citizens in the process of crime prevention. They aim to define the model of the relationship of interaction between the community and the police.

Detailed research question

Training and education are among the listed interventions of community-based policing. Community relations training for police has been stated as an intervention for collaboration or community engagement. However, little research that assesses the role that such training plays in community policing is available. Training as a technique has been seen to be an effective tool of informing. However, whether it can be an effective tool for community policing is had to conclude since many factors influence the success of community policing. Hence, the research will investigate the research question: Is community relations training for police and community a factor to consider in community-based policing?

Reviewed Literature

Przeszlowski, & Crichlow (2018) assesses how community-based or oriented policing affects crime reduction in small locales. The authors examine the social disorganization predictors and variables of community policing to evaluate their impacts. Various strategies that include the utilization of community surveys, problem-solving projects, among others were combined. The authors state that deeming the practice as either ineffective or effective by basing it on the ability to affect crime rates, defies its philosophical basis. Instead, we should regard community policing success on aspects such as an increase in police legitimacy and a decrease in fear of crime. Also, it should be considered a catalyst for social order and change due to its success in developing positive changes in citizen-police ethos. The author further argues that during implementation of any kind of formal control, lacking to consider social context may result in a backfire impact. This is because when the influences or risk factors of crime are considered community-oriented policing is at its strongest. Hence, when implementing the policing, community factors and building stronger relationships are encouraged.

Nawab et al., (2019), highlight insufficient financial resources, mistrust, lack of competent or educated human resources, political intervention, miscommunication, and over expectations as some of the factors promoting poor police-community relations and weak policing especially in Pakistan. They emphasize that the two core elements of community-based policing are changing the practice and methods of officers and adopting measures to create a relationship between the public and the police. Also, for communities in Pakistan, such issues as high illiteracy rates, gender-based violence, and high crime rates, makes cooperation a challenge and hence the implementation of policing.

Feltes, & Hofmann (2018) explain the challenges local culture and ownership pose to the implementation of community-based or orientation policing by examining Kosovo. The form of policing in the area was associated with police reform efforts and peacebuilding. According to the authors, a collaboration between the public and police to foster security is perceived to foster the quality of life today. When policing was being adopted, little attention was given to the training of its strategies as the emphasis was more towards order and law model. The authors state that local compliance is among the important factor for ensuring the sustainability of policing. Also, trust in police is crucial for policing success and perception of citizens on security.

Griggs (2017) argues that police actions can influence citizen or public perception and effect and impede relations between officers and citizens. This is because some communities, for example, African Americans perceive the police as being too authoritative. Besides, individual racial identity and policing practices are possible factors in influencing perceptions of the police. Hence, the influence of perception in implementing the policing problems is rooted in police-community relations.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the reviewed articles have identified various gaps and unveiled the complexity of community-based policing. From the articles, it can be deduced that for the success of the implementation of policing, many factors need to be fully addressed and not basing its effectiveness on some factors and disregarding others.

References

Feltes, T., & Hofmann, R. (2018). Local Ownership and Community Oriented Policing: The Case of Kosovo. Eur. L. Enforcement Res. Bull., 17, 19.

Griggs, A. L. (2017). African-American Perceptions of Community-Oriented Policing Programs.

Nawab, B., Ullah, S., Nyborg, I. L., & Maqsood, T. (2019). Community-oriented policing: political, institutional, and technical reforms in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) police.

Przeszlowski, K. S., & Crichlow, V. J. (2018). An exploratory assessment of community-oriented policing implementation, social disorganization and crime in America. Social Sciences, 7(3), 35.