Police Community Relations
Public safety is an issue of concern that affects everyone in the society. Although it is the duty of law enforcers to maintain law and order in the communities, it is essentially everyone’s responsibility to ensure their safety and that of their neighbor’s. Police-community relations are one of the key determinants to the success of law enforcement today. The relationship between the police and community members is, however, not always one of harmony. This is often brought about by prejudice and misunderstanding between the players thus hindering the possibility of trust. The nature of the relationship between the community and the police is in most cases rooted on various factors some of which goes beyond the work of ensuring public safety.
Definition of Police Community Relations
Albeit there is no consensus to the definition of police-community relations, it involves the perceptions between the police and the community as revealed by the sum total of their behaviors and attitudes towards each other (Fong, 2002). They generally range from positive to negative. A tripod of public relations, community service, and community participation is one way through which police-community relations are understood today. In essence, the execution of the three elements of the tripod in any society contributes to good police-community relations which in turn lead to effective policing and hence public safety.
History of Police Community Relations
Reform Era
The issue of police-community relations rose in the twentieth century in America. This was the era that saw the reform in policing through the development of departments of professional police in the nation. According to Community Policing.com (n.d.), police departments were inefficient and corrupt before the reform era. They focused on walking around the communities to prevent crimes and arrest lawbreakers. Professional departments involving strict hierarchies of leadership within a well laid out organizational system introduced in the reform era inevitably led to the rise of the concern of ways through which the quality of enforcement could be improved. However, in the 1960s, the community relation’s aspect of the style broke down. As the community protested over personal matters of concern such as civil rights, the police focused on being objective enforcers of the law. They were highly detached and impersonal in their work which the community viewed as unnecessary brutality against unarmed citizens.
Problem-oriented Policing
With the disabled relationship between the law enforcers and the community that still went on up to the 1970s slowing down the police’ efforts to maintain law and order, police departments were compelled to re-evaluate these relations. Herman Goldstein, Wisconsin law professor, proposed a new perspective for policing in 1979 and called it problem-oriented policing (POP) (Fong, 2002). The scholar suggested that police needed to adopt a more proactive approach to law enforcement. This included finding solutions to the underlying root causes of crimes in the society rather than waiting to solve them after they have been committed. According to the scholar, the reform era policing failed as a result of putting too much emphasis on the means to policing rather than the ends.
Herman Goldstein developed a systematic approach to solving problems which he believed would help reach meaningful ends (“Problem-Oriented Policing,” n.d.). The model often referred to as SARA, involved scanning the environment and other relevant sources to identify problems, analyzing the nature of the problem and its root causes, responding to the problem using the most appropriate means, and finally assessing the effect of the response to the problem to determine its effectiveness. Various jurisdictions who adopted problem-oriented policing (POP) attested that it was relatively effective compared to reform policing. It began repairing the relationship between the police and the community members something which the previous policing had failed to accomplish. This era also saw the development of the “Broken Windows” theory by George Kelling and James Wilson in 1982 (McKee, n.d.). The theory indicates that a low-level social crime and disorder in the community should never be ignored since it would create a favorable environment for serious offenses. Nonetheless, problem-oriented policing contained significant shortcomings most of which accrued from the fact that it was solely concerned with the ends. This called for the need to develop another policing; one which would direct on the best means to achieve the ends.
Community-oriented Policing
Community-oriented policing often referred to as community policing was developed to solve the problems of problem-oriented policing. However, the idea behind it had been born in 1829 by Sir Robert Peel, the founder of London’s Metropolitan Police. This was the era that replaced “traditional policing” with “modern policing” (Law Enforcement Action Partnership, n.d.). “The old system of law enforcement in England began to collapse as London had grown into a large industrial city with problems of poverty, disorder, ethnic conflict, and crime” (Katz & Walker, 2008). Together with his commissioners, they developed nine policing principles generally regarded as Peelian principles stressing the need for police officers to gain public respect and win their willing cooperation. According to the principles, the use of excessive force in law enforcement is detrimental to police-community relations. The principles have been proven to be relevant to present day policing and have been used as the foundation to community policing.
Essentially, community policing is a collaboration or mutual partnership between the police and the community members to identify and solve their crime issues (Diamond and Weiss, 2009). It aimed at combating the impersonal nature of police officers that was evident in the reform era. The policing encourages community members to become active allies in ensuring law and order is enhanced in their neighborhood. It also includes various strategies that help to bring the law enforcers close to the community so that they can efficiently and effectively solve their crime-related issues. Foot patrol, bike patrol, surveys, citizen police academies, crime analysis, and collaboration with other law enforcement and government agencies are some of the ways through which police departments have attempted to institutionalize community policing (Lombardo and Lough, 2007).
Chuck Wexler, the Police Executive Research Forum executive (PERF) director since 1993 has also made tremendous contributions to the revolution of police-community relations. Together with law enforcement officials and other experts in the field, Wexler has been committed to improving the quality and professionalism policing. The organization is engaged in such activities as carrying out policing researches and publication of related books and reports, management studies, policy development, management, and police executive education and consultations for police agencies (McGinty, n.d.). Under his leadership, the organization has addressed a wide range of issues that confront the policing profession and the trends that could affect law enforcement strategies in a continually dynamic world.
Importance of Police Community Relations
Good police-community relations bear multiple benefits to both the police officers and the community. To the police, the relationship enables them to perform their duty more efficiently and effectively, boost their morale in the job, win the respect of community members, have longer careers as a result of fewer litigations brought about by the relations. To the community, it enables them to trust the police in their duty to ensure their safety, contributes to less tension and more safety in the community, and enables them to gain quicker solutions to crimes (Boga, 2017).
Ways through which law enforcers can build good police-community relations
There are various ways through which the police can ensure they establish a good relationship with the community. Some of these ways include residency requirement which requires the police to be a member of the community they serve, execution of public relations, community services, the establishment of community-oriented policing bases in the community, avoidance of excessive power in law enforcement quests, and fair treatment of all community members regardless of their demographic groups.
In conclusion, the nature of police-community relations plays a huge role in the success or failure of law enforcement. Its history dates back in the nineteenth century when Sir Robert Peel introduced modern policing. Recognizing this, various law enforcers and experts in the field have proposed alternative ways of solving a crime that incorporates the active participation of community members served. Strategies to improve mutual trust between the police and the community such as community policing, public relations and community service should form an integral part of all law enforcement agencies.
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