Unit V Article Review Community Policing Strategies

BCJ 4101, Police and Community Relations 1

Course Learning Outcomes for Unit V Upon completion of this unit, students should be able to:

7. Analyze impediments to community policing. 7.1 Explore the challenges faced by law enforcement related to maintaining safe neighborhoods

and communities using community policing strategies.

8. Explain why CPTED (crime prevention through environmental design) and Weed and Seed programs are important to neighborhood safety. 8.1 Discuss how CPTED is related to community policing strategies designed to maintain safe

neighborhoods and communities.

Reading Assignment Chapter 9: Early Experiments in Crime Prevention and the Evolution of Community Policing Strategies Chapter 10: Safe Neighborhoods and Communities: From Traffic Problems to Crime

Unit Lesson In the late 1960s and early 1970s, crime prevention programs became popular. Such programs included street lighting projects, security survey projects, neighborhood watch projects, and property identification projects. The street lighting projects employed a strategy called crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED). This strategy requires that the environment be designed in such a way to reduce and/or eliminate the elements necessary for crime (e.g., motivated offender, suitable target, absence of a capable guardian). Street lighting can be strategically placed in an environment to increase the visibility in that area. Research has found that street lighting projects do not decrease crime rates; however, they do have a positive impact on how secure community members feel. Property identification projects are designed to allow community members to identify their property so that in the event that it is stolen it can be identified as that community member’s property. Similar to the street lighting projects research has not been able to demonstrate that property identification projects have an effect on reducing crime in the entire community and/or increasing the apprehension of the perpetrators of those crimes. Security surveys also take into consideration the design and place when developing prevention strategies. Once elements of a location that put people at risk or create opportunities for crime are identified, problem-solving strategies are implemented to develop a crime prevention program for that environment. Citizen patrol projects, citizen crime reporting, neighborhood or block programs, and special crime watch programs (e.g., mobile crime watch, youth crime watch, business crime watch, apartment watch, realtor watch, and carrier alert) are programs designed to directly involve the community in the crime prevention process. Citizens actively patrol communities, eliminate environmental opportunities for crime, and/or inform law enforcement about criminal activity in the community (Miller, Hess, & Orthmann, 2014). Crime prevention programs have also been specifically designed for youth. Some programs include campaigns such as the McGruff “Take a Bite Out of Crime” program, which used a dog dressed as a Columbo-like detective as a spokesman to encourage children to become involved in preventing crime in their community. There are also athletic programs such as the Police Athletic League (PAL), which gives youth an opportunity to interact with law enforcement during athletic activities instead of en route to juvenile detention

UNIT V STUDY GUIDE

Community Policing Strategies:

Early Interventions

BCJ 4101, Police and Community Relations 2

UNIT x STUDY GUIDE

Title

facilities. Some crime prevention programs are targeted at encouraging youth to think about possible future careers in law enforcement. For example, in the Police Explorers program youth are given the opportunity to be “trained in various aspects of police work such as fingerprint, identification techniques, first aid, and firearms safety” (Miller et al., 2014, p. 248). Police also have a presence in schools to encourage youth to become comfortable with law enforcement and to reduce crime that occurs in schools. These police-school liaison programs can also be beneficial in improving relationships between law enforcement and school administrators and teachers. The Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program was developed to encourage elementary school children to “say no to drugs.” The DARE program is no longer as widely used by law enforcement as it has been in the past; however, it is still a popular program with many parents, teachers, and some law enforcement. Empirical research has been conducted on community policing crime prevention strategies. Early empirical studies were conducted on the Flint, MI neighborhood foot patrol program; Newark, NJ foot patrol experiment; Oakland, CA foot patrol program; San Diego, CA community profile project; Houston, TX fear reduction project; Boston foot patrol project; and Baltimore County citizen-oriented police enforcement project. The study’s findings were inconsistent concerning the reduction in the fear of crime and the reduction in the actual crime rate. Some studies found mixed findings, such as identifying a reduction in the fear of crime but not identifying a reduction in the actual crime rate. Some studies found that both the fear of crime and the actual crime rate were reduced. Some studies found that neither the fear of crime nor the actual crime rate was reduced. Some studies found that as the number of foot patrols in the community were increased the community members’ perception that there was a serious crime problem in the community also increased. These early empirical studies have been criticized because of concerns about the use of flawed research designs and the absence of rigorous statistical analysis. More recent empirical studies of crime prevention programs, such as the San Francisco Police Department foot patrol program and the Philadelphia foot patrol program, have responded to the call for better research designs and more rigorous statistical analysis and they have focused on differing crime types and the associated locations (Miller et al., 2014). In addition to quantitative empirical studies on crime prevention, qualitative evaluations of crime prevention programs have been conducted. According to Miller et al. (2014), the National Symposium on Community Institutions and Inter-City Crime Project researched model programs for the reduction of inner city crime. Their study was able to identify the following program characteristics of outstanding local inner-city crime reduction programs:

 focused on causes of crime,

 built on community strengths,

 incorporated natural support systems,

 had an identifiable group of clients,

 targeted those who were less affluent,

 had clearly stated goals and well-defined procedures

 had sufficient resources, and

 had a strong leader (Miller et al., 2014, p. 264). The ultimate goal of crime prevention is to keep neighborhoods and communities safe. Thus, crime prevention efforts must cover all issues related to disorder in communities: from traffic problems to crime. Traffic enforcement and safety in the community includes addressing speeding in residential areas, street racing, red-light running, use and non-use of seatbelts, impaired drivers, and other related incidents. Law enforcement also addresses disorder concerns in communities to prevent crime. There are also specific problems that are addressed by community policing efforts such as preventing: burglary in public housing, burglary at single-family house construction sites, theft of and from vehicles, robberies at automated teller machines, witness intimidation, acquaintance rape of college students, identity theft, street prostitution, human trafficking, assault in and around bars, robbery of taxi drivers, violent confrontations with people with mental illnesses, and crimes against businesses (Miller et al., 2014). Implementing crime prevention strategies in the community often requires partnerships with police departments and various entities in the community (e.g., public works staff, business members and community residents in beautification projects). There have also been several federal endeavors to help with the implementation of community policing such as the development of The Office of Community Oriented

BCJ 4101, Police and Community Relations 3

UNIT x STUDY GUIDE

Title

Policing Services and the Community Policing Consortium, and the funding of the Weed and Seed Program (1991-2011). Partnerships to prevent or reduce crime and disorder in communities are not limited to agencies within the various components of the criminal justice system or the federal government. Such partnerships must also be fostered with entities such as: business groups, local government, community crime prevention coalitions, and grassroots organizations. Another aspect of maintaining safety in communities is to reduce the fear of crime in those neighborhoods and communities. Efforts by law enforcement to assist in reducing crime in neighborhoods and communities have included strategies such as the use of video surveillance in public places (CCTV), increased foot and vehicle patrols in high-crime neighborhoods, community education and awareness programs, and police substations in troubled neighborhoods. Statistical software has also been used to help fight crime. Such usages include identifying hotspots using maps and geographic information systems in conducting statistical analysis to determine if the high number of crimes in an area is actually a hotspot or simply a random occurrence. The crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED) strategy can also be utilized by law enforcement to prevent crime in the community. CPTED focuses on target hardening, changes to the physical environment, and community building. This strategy complements community policing because it focuses on the systematic analysis of crime in a specific area which allows the development of crime prevention strategies that are designed to address the unique problems in that area. Other community crime prevention efforts include addressing risk factors for offending by creating prevention models that counteract those risk factors.

Reference Miller, L. S., Hess, K. M., & Orthmann, C. H. (2014). Community corrections: Partnerships for problem solving

(7th ed.). Clifton Park, NY: Delmar Cengage Learning.

Suggested Reading To learn more about the topics found this unit, you must first log into the myCSU Student Portal and access the General OneFile database found in the CSU Online Library. The articles listed below highlights issues associated with implementing and sustaining of community policing: Ellison, J. (2006, April). Community policing: Implementation issues. The FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin,

75(4), 12-16. Friend, Z., & Martinez, R. (2010, November). Preserving community-oriented policing in a recession. The FBI

Law Enforcement Bulletin, 79(11), 10-13. Leitenberger, D., Semenyna, P., & Spelman, J. B. (2003, November). Community corrections and community

policing: A perfect match. The FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, 72(11), 20-23.

Learning Activities (Non-Graded) Environmental Design This is another opportunity to better familiarize yourself with your community. Take some time to research the environmental design of your community (e.g., spatial boundaries, traffic flow, lighting, and community development ordinances). You may be able to conduct this research based on your knowledge of the community and/or you may have to spend some time searching the Internet and/or directly observing the environmental design of your community. Once you create an environmental design sketch of your community take some time to make note of any environmental design issues that might make conditions favorable to commit crime. Next, take some time to identify strategies that are being used by law enforcement agencies and other government agencies to address the problematic environmental design issues you identified. Again, you may be able to identify the strategies based on your knowledge of the community and/or

BCJ 4101, Police and Community Relations 4

UNIT x STUDY GUIDE

Title

you may have to spend some time searching the Internet and/or directly observing the environmental design of your community. Lastly, make note of any suggestions for improvement and/or creation of strategies for developing and maintaining an anti-crime environmental design in the community. Non-graded Learning Activities are provided to aid students in their course of study. You do not have to complete or submit them. If you have questions, contact your instructor for further guidance and information.