COMMUNITY POLICING - The Community Police Officer

The Community Police Officer

Diversity is a key component in policing today and is particularly relevant in any discussions of community policing. The principle – first set out by Sir Robert Peel – that a police service should reflect the community being policed has provided the impetus for proactive efforts on the part of police services to recruit women, Aboriginals, and members of visible ethic minorities as well as officers from a variety of backgrounds.

Hiring quotas require police services to give hiring priorities to certain groups of applicants over others, most often women, Aboriginals, and visible minorities. There is considerable debate and disagreement about whether hiring quotas should be used to increase the diversity of police services. This discussion has come to the forefront with the key principle of community policing being that the police service should reflect the community being policed.

Components of the Justice Institute of British Columbia Recruit Training Program for Constables include:

Driver Training and Traffic

Firearms

Arrest and Control

Investigation

Patrol Techniques

Legal Studies

Physical Fitness

Foot Drill

The Social Sciences

Use of Force

Tactical Communication

Officer Safety and

Contemporary Issues, including ethics, racism, violence against women

Basic Qualifications for police recruits include :

Canadian Citizenship

Minimum age : 19

Physical Fitness

High School Diploma with some post secondary education

History of proper conduct

Common Sense

Good Judgment

Preferred Qualifications

Knowledge of second language

Volunteer experience

Post-Secondary Education

Competency-based training focuses on the acquisition of specific, measurable skills and knowledge that can be transferred to the operational level.

Operational field training is that component of recruit training during which the recruit will learn to apply the basic principles taught at the police academy. Under the guidance of a field training officer, the recruit is exposed to a wide variety of general police work.

In-Service training is training provided to police officers during the course of their career and includes refresher training, re-qualification training, advanced training and career development training.

The working personality of police officers is the set of attitudinal and behavioral attributes that develop as a consequence of the unique role that police officers play and the duties they are asked to perform. The tendency of the occupational subculture of police officers to isolate officers from the communities they serve is reduced through the implementation of the principles and programs within a community policing model

Referring to police officers as generalists with a community policing model of service means that line level officers have the authority , discretion, and skills to develop police community partnerships in the areas to which they are assigned and to apply various strategies to prevent and respond to crime and social disorder