3 PAGE PAPER DUE WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 8, 2021

Introduction

Community policing and problem solving entails strategic concepts which seek to redefine the means and the ends of policing. Problem solving policing helps the police to focus on problems which lie behind the incidents, instead of focusing on incidents only. Moreover, community policing emphasizes more on the establishment of various working partnerships between the communities and the police. For instance, the existing approaches which for many years only emphasize on professional law enforcement has failed terribly in controlling as well as preventing crime, failed in making policing a profession and has only fostered an unhealthy separation between the communities and police (Diamond & Weiss, 2016). However, adoption of new organizational policies and strategies might present risks such as politicization, diminished effectiveness in fighting crime as well as enhanced powers of police, hence potential gains in strengthened and safe communities make such risks worth taking.

Community policing and problem solving therefore addresses the causes of crimes and encourage community participation as well as cooperation with police and ensures better use of exiting community resources. It is a philosophy, organizational strategy and management styles which promote police-community partnerships and problem-solving policies and strategies. Community policing focuses more on proactive problem solving in routine and a systematic fashion. For instance, instead responding to crimes only after they occur, community policing encourages other agencies to proactively create solutions to the most immediate underlying conditions that contribute to public safety challenges. Thus, the aspect of problem solving needs to be infused in all the police operations as well as guide decision making processes and efforts (Diamond & Weiss, 2016). The relevant agencies should be encouraged to think innovatively about the responses and perceive arrests as the way of a wide range of possible responses.

Community policing and problem solving

In the recent past, there has been much fuss which has been made regarding the aspect of community policing and problem solving in police department. The proponents of these new strategies and polices herald them as very important concepts which bid to replace the traditional law enforcement that has existed for over thirty years as the dominant paradigm of modern policing. However, to some critics, these ideas translate into nothing but empty slogans for instance the recent public relations gimmicks rampant in policing which are devoid of substantive content as well as lack of operational utility (Jenkins, 2016). To others the ideas of community policing and problem solving are attractive since they have become the solution to the general aspect of policing within the community.

In addition, an analogy to the changes within the policing have rationalized community policing and problem solving concept is evident in various changes that have in the recent past been taking place in the criminal justice system. The use of various community alternatives has been emphasized in order to supplement the traditional reactive punishment based criminal justice system. However, like the holistic policing movement, the application of the new paradigm in community policing and problem solving proposes a new holistic and community oriented approach in prevention and control of crime. This concept attempts to incorporate all the available approaches in trying to emphasize a better understanding of various community contexts through which crime occurs so that preventive community based interventions strategies can be developed and applied through community policing and problem solving (Skogan, 2019). Hence, for this reason we can state that the concept of community policing and problem solving is the panacea of problems in the city.

The introduction of community policing which entails implementation of programs that are designed to provide the communities with meaningful ways of participating in the policing efforts is a perfect way of dealing with city problems. This is because it involves various individual programs as well as systems which support different organizations’ policing styles. This includes training, recruitment, rewards, performance evaluation and discipline. This program provides the members of the community with an opportunity to take part in community policing and problem solving activities hence plays a significant role in dealing with community challenges in terms of dealing with crimes and other negative vices within the city. It also entails more sweeping and comprehensive changes from the previous departmental policing strategies. And since it the policing styles that is being revamped, these strategies affects the whole police department as well as the entire community. Hence provides the solution to many city challenges ranging from crimes rates reduction and other socio-economic challenges (Jenkins, 2016). This will significantly assist in various concerns which arise from the traditional policing strategies and will hence open way for the new community and problem solving strategies to take effect and ensure that the city realizes its dream.

It is evident that the introduction of community policing and problem solving strategy shifts the attention of police work from reactive law enforcement to a more proactive problem solving. This shift from law enforcement to community policing and problem solving which represent significant change from the traditional policing to a community policing approach. This represents major police reforms in the recent past. This provides an opportunity for studying the processes through which the police agency is implementing these reforms which aims at creating partnerships between the police and communities. This will help in shifting from the traditional policing where police routinely respond to repeat calls for service to major problem locations and each call for service is always treated as differently. Thus, community policing and problem solving strategies aim at discovering and addressing various underlying circumstances and situations which generate crimes as well as disorder or allows the major chronic city problems to persist. Therefore, there is need for philosophical and strategic differences between as well as community policing requires the reconfiguration of the bureaucratic organizational structure (Skogan, 2019). Thus, there is need to reorganize the police department in order to allow for community policing and problem solving strategies to be effectively implemented and ensure participation of the members of the community.

Additionally, community policing will go a long way in reducing police workload in the police department since many police departments are increasingly becoming interested in less formal modes of organization like the foot patrols and community patrols. Hence the community policing strategies which employs the use of foot patrol officers is believed to enhance and form closer relationships with community members. This is because these strategies can become more sensitive to the various issues within the community. This significant understanding often leads to more police and community cooperation which enhances service delivery hence reduces the police workload since the community is actively involved in dealing with various challenging bedeviling the city. However, the major problem is that community policing is more closer to community social status compared to the crime and service to the community hence it is more successful generally in the affluent and more socially organized communities which organizes various activities like neighborhood watch. Thus community policing works best in communities that need it least (Skogan, 2019). For this reason, there are going to be changes in the police officers’ workload which results from the community policing and problem solving strategies.

The strategies like team policing, foot patrol, neighborhood policing as well as decentralizing of police services within the framework of community policing and problem solving. This creates opportunities for the informal flow of information about various problems within the community. This serves as a major source of information for this strategies and ensures that the police and community access relevant information for effective implementation of these policing strategies (Kappeler, 2020). The cooperation between the community and police often creates the possibility of the people to collectively set priorities which drive the problem-oriented policing which reinforces these concepts about the nature of community policing and the potential benefits as well as addressing community disorders and crime prevention.

It is clear that prevention is usually the first imperative to justice. However crime prevention comprises various measures and strategies which seek to reduce the risks of crimes from occurring as well as their potential harmful impact on individuals and community at large, hence the need to plan for crime prevention. This can be achieved through use of various community policing and problem solving strategies. Responsible and effective crime prevention often enhances the quality of life of all the citizens. However, juvenile crimes, substance abuse and youth gang activities are sometimes challenging in terms of planning for their prevention. Hence this calls for improved planning through various community and problem solving strategies which are essential in crime prevention processes (Diamond & Weiss, 2016). Personnel management however is an important aspect since it helps in the implementation of crime prevention strategies as well as planning. To this effect proper management strategies and the use of community policing and problem solving will significantly help in managing, training and retaining personnel in order to improve crime prevention within the community.

References

Diamond, D., & Weiss, D. M. (2016). Advancing community policing through community

governance: A framework document.

Diamond, D., & Weiss, D. M. (2016). Community policing: Looking to tomorrow.

Jenkins, M. J. (2016). Police support for community problem-solving and broken windows

policing. American Journal of Criminal Justice, 41(2), 220-235.

Kappeler, V. E., Gaines, L. K., & Schaefer, B. P. (2020). Community policing: A contemporary

perspective. Routledge.

Skogan, W. G., Hartnett, S. M., DuBois, J., Comey, J. T., Kaiser, M., & Lovig, J. H. (2019). On

the beat: Police and community problem solving. Routledge.