Community Policing

As police services attempt to maintain public confidence, Community Policing has undergone several iterations, with the result that it is no longer possible to clearly define. However 5 features of community policing have been reasonably consistent, Neighbourhood based, Reassurance, Engagement, Prevention, and Partnership. Communities have become more diverse with changing views of the police and an assertion of ethnic culture amongst the minority groups which together have implications for levels of trust in the police and compliance with the law.

Community Policing is often regarded as a luxury rather than core business function during funding crisis and is liable to be one of the first tasks to be sacrificed in favour those activities which are more easily measured signifying a retraction to reactive policing. This retraction to reactive policing reduces accountability making it more difficult for police to understand their communities, react proactively to public concerns and assist with reducing/preventing crime.

This entry addresses institutional, theoretical and legal issues relating to Community Policing, Community Crime reduction and, how or if the concept can be reconciled with the requirements of security policing

Policing in Insurgency

This covers policing communities suffering violent and armed conflict in which the state and its institutions are under attack and losing public confidence and trust.

In such a situation the police force must secure the community and ultimately the state, and, in so doing may have to rely on the support of the military. This presents unique challenges not least because the military are not trained for the civilian policing role, and, as the insurgents reside in and draw support from their community they do not offer an identified armed group which can be easily targeted. The task is conflict resolution (including action against the insurgents) rather than a singular focus on security policing to combat the insurgents. The policing experience of Northern Ireland, for example, during ‘The Troubles’ was a conflict resolution approach and provides a case study on how the police should balance security policing with community oriented policing. The lessons identified in this section are also applicable to communities (not yet in armed conflict) that lack trust in the state institutions and the police can still function without military support.

Community Policing Defined

In this area, a meaning of Community Policing is available: A philosophy of policing and associated strategies based on strong community collaboration and partnership, a problem-solving methodology involving the community, and strong relationships (and thus legitimacy) between police officers and the community.

Key concepts of community policing

Community policing is a new philosophy of police work, based on the idea that police officers
and citizens work together, resolving in various creative ways problems at the level
of the local community relating to crime, fear of crime, various forms of social deviance
and other safety challenges. Underlying this philosophy is the belief that in order to achieve
these objectives, the police must develop new quality relations with law-abiding citizens,
whereby these citizens will have the chance to define priorities, get involved in various activities
so as to enhance the overall quality of life in the area where they live.

Community policing follows the premise that the police and the community must work together
as equal partners in order to identify and define priorities, and resolve current problems,
with the aim of improving the overall quality of life in the local community.

Some authors try to define the concept of community policing in terms of a real action,
emphasizing that it consists of four key elements which lend a new dimension to policing.
These elements include: consulting, adaptation, mobilisation, problem-oriented
approach. See, for more information, Seagrave J, “Defining Community Policing“, American Journal of Police, 2/1996, p. 6.

• Consulting implies setting up joint bodies of the police and the local community, within
  which safety-related decisions are made.
• Adaptation implies adapting of the police to specific conditions in the local community.
  This requires the decentralisation of the police organisation, division of the territory of police sectors into smaller territorial units and making responsible individual police officers
  for the state of safety in a particular territory.
• Mobilisation means that the police mobilise citizens, institutions, potential local communities, contributing to a multi-agency approach with the aim to raise the level of crime prevention in the local community.
• Problem-oriented approach means that the police, together with the local community, try
  to detect and resolve the issues contributing to crime and other issues jeopardising the
  community and diminishing the quality of life of its citizens.

Therefore, the community policing concept shifts the focus from responding to citizens’ reports
to joint pro-active resolution of problems.

Creation of the community policing concept

The classic approach to resolving safety issues has not yielded the desired results as – despite
the development of new methods of work and organisational units of the police, the
number of offences has not been reduced. Instead, with social progress, it has increased,
with the appearance of new forms of criminal offences. As shown by a number of researches
(carried out primarily in the USA, Canada and Great Britain), the current concept
of policing is insufficiently efficient and has many weaknesses.10 With their engagement
in the field, the police have become alienated from citizens, creating about themselves an
image of authority strictly and professionally enforcing law, while at the same time having
a distanced and neutral attitude towards citizens.

Community policing appeared as a response to citizens’ demands for a police service
which is more accessible and more visible “in the street”, and which will be in direct contact
with citizens, while respecting their rights. After the police responded to demands of
the public and citizens, trust has been enhanced, the sense of safety improved and cooperation
developed, resulting in more efficient police work.

Source: Community Policing Manual, Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Serbia