Community Policing Essay

671 Words2 Pages

Even though most of the decision-making authority is reserved by the police, a long-term relationship between the police and local residents can be created if police departments are responsive to community needs and accountable to the community for any actions they take (Gold-stein, 1987).
Evidence that community policing reduces crime is mixed. Early studies showed that crime declined in Flint, Michigan, as a consequence of foot patrol, but in Newark, New Jersey, crime levels remained unaffected. Similarly, after nearly two years of community-and problem-oriented policing in Joliet, Illinois, the total number of reported index crimes dropped precipitously (Rosenbaum et al.).
Journalist Resource explains, “Community policing is a strategy …show more content…

The researchers, based at George Mason University, Arizona State University, Hebrew University and the University of South Wales, sought to better understand the effects of community-oriented policing on crime, disorder, fear, and citizen satisfaction with and trust in the …show more content…

We also find no evidence that community policing decreases citizens’ fear of crime, despite positive outcomes for other citizen perceptions. Finally, our results do not suggest that the presence or absence of a problem-solving approach as part of COP strategies affect the impact on crime.” Ultimately, “these findings may reflect the complex relationship between informal social control, fear, disorder, and crime — disorder fuels fear of crime, which can lead to higher recorded crime rates as informal social controls break

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