Community Policing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Community Policing - Essay Example approach it recognizes that crime is a community and not exclusively police problem, so that the effective solutions may be found only in case of the community involvement into the problem solving. It is a long-term process of identifying, analyzing and developing solutions to community problems. Community policing is rather directed at community issues and fear of crime problem than at the actual crime. Besides, crime prevention, the three core components of community policing are community partnership, problem solving and organizational change. They are represented in three major principles: shared responsibility, prevention, increased officer discretion. Shared responsibility means that there is frequent and on-going interaction between the community members and police, built on mutual trust and cooperation. It is recognized that ‘police work is not an isolated activity performed in a social vacuum and even traditional police work, including preventative patrol, rapid respon se, and apprehending offenders, cannot be performed without the regular cooperation of the citizens’ (Bad-Boys Net. 2007). The community members are to be actively involved in crime prevention through timely reporting crimes and organizing volunteer patrol groups. Though traditional arrests are necessary, there are alternative, less traditional ways of effective dealing with crime problem. Currently, these methods are used after the arrest has taken place. Police is to react to all the problems distinguished by the community, demonstrating respect for all residents. An officer is given enough time to get acquainted with the community and participate in community activities. Prevention is directed at diagnosing the problem before the crime has been committed, or analyzing the criminal conditions with the aim of altering them. This presupposes the involvement of police and community, public and non-profit organizations. Increased officer discretion suggests that community polic ing is based