The definite geographical location of Laventille has been the subject of many debates, with some advocates encompassing all of the settlements which exist in the area of South East Port-Of-Spain as part of its territory, while others argue of the distinction between East Dry River, an area of settlement near to the river located at the foot of the Hills, and Laventille (Ryan, Mc Cree, & St. Bernard, 1997)
Similar to the difficulty in determining an exact geographic position of Laventille, is the interplay between policing strategies and effective resolutions of dealing with youths in this urban area has garnered the attention of this article. Prior to delving into resolutions and recommendations one must first understand the background of the community of Laventille.
During the slave era, although Laventille contained a number of cocoa and coffee estates, it was rejected as a residential area: it was hilly and regarded as unhealthy because of its proximity to the swamp on the southern side. Subsequently, in the post-emancipation era Laventille became a heaven for landless ex-slaves coming into Port-Of-Spain from the rural estates and for immigrants from other Caribbean territories (Ryan, Mc Cree, & St. Bernard, 1997). According to the historical analysis put forward by the book entitled “Behind the Bridge” the myriad of social challenges facing Laventille today really began after Emancipation from August 1, 1838. Ryan, Mc Cree and St. Bernard indirectly concurred that all that has changed are the means of terror and some of the criminal activities. Ryan places emphasis on the replacement of the razor and knife to more sophisticated weaponry, the gun and highlighted criminal activity as now revolving particularly around the sale...
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...een echoed by residents. Fear of police, however, should not replace fear of crime. The importance of citizen perception of a respectful police force is particularly relevant, as many studies have shown minimal correlation between public support for the police and their perceptions of the size of the crime problem and their concern with possible victimization (Mc Cree, 1998)
Effectively addressing the antagonistic issues of policing in Laventille has to take into account community policing initiatives which emphasizes problem-solving methods that recognize crime reduction as an important police activity. Nevertheless many urban centres face declining confidence and trust in the police particularly among minority communities sagging police morale and heightening the difficulty in retaining and hiring police officers under assault (Silverman & Della-Giutsina, 2001)
Policing is a very difficult, complex and dynamic field of endeavor that is always evolves as hard lessons teach us what we need to know about what works and what don’t work. There are three different Era’s in America’s policing: The Political Era, The Reform Era, and The Community Problem Solving Era. A lot has changed in the way that policing works over the years in the United States.
When police officers are perceived as being racially motivated, where certain groups of people are being targeted, it undermines the social goals of policing, weakens residents’ cooperation with police and raises questions about the legitimacy of law (Fagan & Davies, 2000). Supporters also back up this claim with statistics that show an association between racial/ethnic groups and crime (Harris, 2003). The arg...
In order for the police to successfully prevent crimes, public cooperation is needed. Various community policing programs have been implemented and it is important to discuss the benefits and limitations of these programs. Community policing allows the community to be actively involved and become a partner in promoting safety. This partnership increases trust of police officers and helps citizens understand that the police are on their side and want to improve their quality of life (Ferreira, 1996). The role of the police officers goes beyond that of a “crime fighter” and expands to multiple roles including that of a victim-centered
Yero, A., Othman, J., Samah, B., D'Silva, J., & Sulaiman, A. (2012). Re-visiting concept and theories of community policing. International Journal Of Academic Research, 4(4), 51-55. doi:10.7813/2075-4124.2012/4-4/B.7
Undoubtedly race and ethnicity plays a key role in whether perceptions of law enforcement is positive or negative. Most of the research presented finds that police contact with white’s vs blacks shapes their attitudes. Although contact with police plays a role, it is not the only component. Perceptions of police not only come from contact with police officers but from hearsay and media portrayal. As stated by (Callanan & Rosenberger, 2011) “most citizens are probably not likely to establish their opinions of law enforcement solely based on an occasional encounter, but also from other sources of information about the police, which for most members of the public is chiefly derived from the media.” Also, minorities are more likely than whites to believe that minorities are treated worse by police, and minority communities receive inferior police services (Graziano, Schuck & Martin 2010).
It is easy for police to get caught up in the idea that it is them against the rest of society (Barkan, 2012). Many citizens in today’s democratic society have a negative or fearful view of our law enforcement. Think back to grade school, who was that one kid in class that everyone was annoyed by or despised? Most people would answer the teacher’s pet or the tattletale. We have grown up from a young age to have a negative view towards those that get us into trouble when we think we can get away with something we know is wrong. In the adult world, the police force can equate to those tattletales.
The researchers, who were 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
Third, problem-oriented policing entails a greater and closer involvement by the public in police work. Communities must be consulted to ensure that police are addressing the...
Community policing is a strategy used by various departments in order to create and maintain a relationship between the law enforcement agency and the community being patrolled. Community policing is composed of three critical components, community partnerships, organizational transformation, and problem solving (Gardiner, 154, 2016). Community partnerships are pivotal in community policing since they increase public trust and create am improved relationship in law enforcement agencies better serving the community (Gardiner, 87, 2016). These partnerships not only offer public input but also encourage the public to cooperate with law enforcement agencies in order to minimize crime within the community (Gardiner, 88, 2016). Unlike, the traditional strategies of policing, community orientated policing has been adopted by two-thirds of agencies in order to improve public safety and control crime. (Gardiner, 148, 2016).
Community oriented policing has been around for over 30 years, and promotes and supports organizational strategies to address the causes, and reduce the fear of crime and social disorder through problem solving tactics. The way community policing works is it requires the police and citizens to work together to increase safety for the public. Each community policing program is different depending on the needs of the community. There have been five consistent key elements of an effective community oriented policing program: Adopting community service as the overarching philosophy of the organization, making an institutional commitment to community policing that is internalized throughout the command structure, emphasizing geographically decentralized models of policing that stress services tailored to the needs of individual communities rather than a one-size-fits-all approach for the entire jurisdiction, empowering citizens to act in partnership with the police on issues of crime and more broadly defined social problems, for example, quality-of-life issues, and using problem-oriented or problem-solving approaches involving police personnel working with community members. Community oriented policing has improved the public’s perception of the police in a huge way. Community policing builds more relationships with the
A decrease in public control has to happen in order to increase social organization within the community. According to Groves (1989), poorer communities have higher petty crime rates due to higher police concentration (p. 776). Groves (1989) also states that the community type changes the actions taken by police (p. 776). In poorer communities, police are more likely to make an arrest, no matter the type of crime committed (Groves, 1989, p. 776). It is easy to conclude that this change in policing causes distrust of the police across the community. The distrust then leads to more social
Many of the citizens never had a one on one altercation with the law they only base their opinions on experiences with the police influence from other citizens, and that where they get their general image of the police. Many study indicates that police courteousness/friendliness in the direction of the citizen in a recent contact with police exerts the most powerful influence on the citizen’s general assessment of the police. However more studies have indicated that people’s previous overall views of police have sturdier influence on their evaluation of a succeeding specific contact than their evaluation of a specific contact has on subsequent overall views of police. The majority of the American public has not had face-to-face contact with a police officer. Most people respect the mass media as their primary source of information about the many crimes that go on around them, and crime news is the background for most mass media interpretations of police work. The implied message of much crime news is the lack of ability to catch offenders. A trend that is rising in a major way is in the news media. They are using it to focus their attention on a few
In our times, the police have become the criminals. Some police are using their power to do bad things, and society has come to fear police. The law enforcement system needs change. The courts have failed the police, and the police have turn to other means of justice. We must stop the corruption in the police force.
Kappeler, V.E. & Gaines, L.K. (2009). “Community policing: a contemporary perspective.” Fifth Edition. Newark, NJ: Matthew Bender & Company.
The key characteristics of community policing are as follows: Police officers are usually called upon to be particularly thoughtful, creative problem solvers. They are asked to listen to the concerns of community members, to logically reason out the roots of problems, to identify and research potential answers, to implement solutions, and to assess results. Police officers work in partnership with concerned citizens. The second characteristic is that police officers are visible and accessible component of the community and work with youths and other community members top address delinquency problems. On the third characteristic, police officers patrol a limited number of jurisdictions on foot. The so-called foot patrol officers are believed to be more approachable and offer a comforting presence to citizens. The fourth and last characteristic that will be mentioned on this paper is that the community policing have decentralized operations, which allows officers to develop greater familiarity with the needs of various constituencies in the community and to adapt procedures to accommodate those needs.