COMMUNITY POLICING - What is Community Policing
Research studies suggest traditional patrol practice is not generally effective in preventing or responding to crime. .. the level of crime is not impacted by an increase in random police patrols, response times or proactive arrests.
Within traditional model of police practice, clearance rates are the percentage of cases in which an offence has been committed and a suspect identified, regardless if the suspect is convicted of the crime
Clearance rates are not a particularly good indicator of police effectiveness for a number of reasons
Police officers do not spend the majority of their time chasing criminals
Its hard to use crime rates as an indicator of police effectiveness
Police officers work in a variety of settings with different demands
Not all police officers are engaged in the same type of police work
With the framework of Community Policing there are a number of measures of police performance that can be used to measure effectiveness
Including the extent to which police have developed partnerships in the community and the attitudes of the community residents towards the police.
Three R’s of traditional Policing
Random Patrol
Rapid Response
Reactive Investigation
Community Policing can be defined as “a philosophy, management style and organizational strategy centered on police-community partnerships and problem solving to address problems of crime and social disorder in communities”
Three “P’s” of Community Policing
Prevention
Problem Solving
Partnership with Communities
Key provisions of Police Services Act that relate to community policing are sections related to :
Declaration of Principles, which emphasizes the importance of police-community relations.
Solicitor General, the agency responsible for policing services in the province
Community Policing Advisory Commitees (OPP)
Municipal Police Service Boards – overseeing municipal police services
Chiefs of Police
Police Officers
Regulations for standards of police service
Key Provisions of the Adequacy Standards (O-regs) that relate to community policing include those that direct police service to:
Provide community-based crime prevention initiatives
Establish procedures and processes on problem-oriented policing and crime prevention
Prepare a business plan every 3 years
Develop mechanisms to ensure compliance to the Police Services Act and Adequacy standards
Key Players in community policing includes elected officials, managers, police officers, their unions/associations and the community.
Community based strategic policing requires both strategic partnerships which consist often of multi-agency partnerships with police as well as strong cohesive partnerships with the community.