Community Policing Strategies For Reduction of Crime Rates And Police Mistrust
Community Policing
Introduction/Background
The problem of the prevalence of crime is a global problem affecting all societies and communities in any given geopolitical location. Societies experiencing high crime prevalence have factors catalyzing high crime rates, including unparalleled social disorders, trivial trust across all organs, systems and persons in the community, economic disadvantage, and life instability, especially in underserved communities . The modern civilization of Statehood vests the power to maintain law and order with the security organs which involve local police to manage social order and foster peaceful residence and livelihood . Therefore the traditional policing methods and foundational objectives are to prevent crimes, investigate crimes and remove criminal elements within the society through the power to arrest and detain (Wallace 2012, 61). As early as in the 1970s, studies in the United States indicated that conventional policing practices often referred to as “police professionalism,” which involve aggressive policing techniques, did not translate to reduced or reduced crime rates . This means that even where there are more police officers, the number of police officers if trained in the traditional aggressive policing techniques did not affect the rate of crime in any given community but often leads to increased crime rates. This study is relevant in the United States and globally that more policing is not directly proportional to reduced crime rates.
As observed back in 1979, policing methods and objectives are often a political decision rather than the rational decision that may explain the scientific findings relevant to date . In Sweden, for instance, Lindstrom conducted a study to test the efficacy of political promises in 2006 to increase the size of the Swedish police force by 10% by 2010. The findings show that even on simple crimes like burglary, there was only a decrease of 2%, accounting for changes in the community and demographics, thus making an inference that more police presence does not result in reduced crime rates generally . Another study finds that even where police activity levels in arresting criminal elements in society increase, there is no direct increase in perception of risk of arrest . Therefore, this means that community trust and cooperation are not built using the conventional powers of policing.
In Trinidad and Tobago, despite public relations declarations of application of community policing, demonstrates that the problem is beyond policing techniques as community trust and perception levels are extremely low. Recently, researchers and stakeholders in security sectors worldwide agree that the most significant cause of successful policing is building trust with the community . Yet stakeholders and researchers argue that empirical data does not demonstrate reduced crime rates simply the presence of police trust in the community. As a result, progressive societies seek to enhance their trust-building strategies within the society and the policing institutions to achieve safer and secure societies . Primarily, Kääriäinen and Sirén observed that. In contrast, trust does not translate to safer societies; social confidence within the community and trust in the police must link adequately to bring the overall trust in policing measured against the willingness to report crimes .
Accordingly, community policing has emerged as a vital trust-building strategy that ensures maximum and all-rounded trust within society and policing institutions. Yet, community policing’s success has not been statistically significant, raising concerns about whether researchers’ theorization translates to actual and practical results . Therefore, this means that there is a need to investigate the statistical significance of community policing and interrogate and recommend better mechanisms of community policing. It must also include questions of whether the public is contributing to reduction of crimes and trust-building. This has a more significant task of maximizing the output of community protecting as a trust-building strategy becomes a problem requiring more profound research.
Research question
Whether social interaction community policing strategies are the most effective in policing
Problem Statement
Community policing is multi-faceted and different police departments in the United States and beyond have differing interpretations. The other understanding and definition is often the result of differing community policing practices across different geopolitical locations. For instance, Rukus, Warner and Zhang in their study on the effectiveness of community policing, found that the difference in the impact in community policing depends on the location where community policing is least effective in rural America since the local leadership interprets community policy only as youth engagement .
The Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS), established under the United States (US) Department of Justice, provides a clear and inclusive definition of community policy . The summarized purpose is that community policing entails the society’s partnership with law enforcement to create a realignment of policing institutions to identify and address law and order problems.
In Trinidad and Tobago, however, the police service strategic plan for 2017-2019 barely mentions community policing thus showing the lack of commitment in community policy. This perhaps explains the inadequacy and failures in the rolling out of the strategic plan and application of community policing strategies.
The impact of community policing has not been the subject of widespread study and research. The studies on community policing’s theoretical objectives leave many law enforcement officers and administrators skeptical of the efficacy of community policing. For instance, relying on the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) data and the Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics survey in 2002 across numerous US cities, research showed that there was little correlation between community policing and the reduction of violent crimes with the investigation going as far as attributing the success in making communities safer to proactive policing . Moreover, in Trinidad and Tobago, the borrowed community policing strategy of setting up a community policing committee became a total failure. It did not lead to building trust and reduced crime rate .
Yet the skepticism of conservative police officers is not entirely unjustified. In Trinidad and Tobago, the recent rise in crime rates is mostly attributed to the proliferation of criminal gangs and illegal firearms. This then begs the question how could police officers sustain community policing strategies when members of the community are secretly members of criminal gangs or related to them? It suffices that the mistrust of police is justified.
These studies demonstrate a standard limitation that few researchers pay attention to the exact modalities and strategies applied in community policing. This leaves administrative officials guessing the best mechanisms and may contribute to overall distrust in community policing. Whereas community protecting methods are questionable to achieve maximum value in trust and crime reduction, it is not in doubt that community policing is critical for reform from unpopular traditional policing . Conversely, administrative officers in the department of justice and elsewhere worldwide must shift their focus from establishing community policing to applying the most effective community policing strategies.
Aims and objectives
This paper aims at identifying the most effective community policing strategies to further contribute to reduced crime rates. This paper’s more significant objective is to argue for community protecting plans that include the residents at all stages of policing and to incorporate law enforcement officers as part of the community as a mechanism to reduce crime rates.
Hypothesis
This research presupposes that traditional policing techniques are not suitable for any progressive and modern society as it accumulates mistrust. Thus, this research paper proceeds on the assumption that the best and most influential community policing plans incorporate residents and community members in protecting at policy and social control measures development. It further presupposes that another more significant strategy for influential community policing is through the law enforcement officers’ involvement in non-security-related affairs of the community. This builds public trust significantly and increases the chances of reporting crime. However, these efforts may be hindered by residents who actively conceal criminal offenders.
Theoretical framework
This research is based on Shaw and McKay’s social disorganization theory in 1969, which presupposes that communities with higher ethnic homogeneity experience lower crime rates . Thus, community policing becomes more critical, especially in heterogeneous societies, as it allows law enforcement officers to develop trust with the community members of diverse backgrounds who may, in many circumstances, have experienced historical injustices in police treatment.
The research further incorporates the socio-institutional approach theory. The socio-institutional approach theory is an adaptation of Schaap’s community policing strategy which suggests that community policing is best attained through the legitimate authority of the law enforcement institution achieved through a trust by the community hence creating a dialogical character . The legitimacy of law enforcement institutions is attained through various applicable strategies.
Literature Review
Reisig argues that community policing has been a significant contributor to the radical changes in crime rates across all societies. He further argues that community policing must entail actively initiated by the security agencies consultations with the community’s influential sectors and organs during the development and adoption of policing policies. However, community relationships with police officers are limited to their enforcement duty hours, which he suggests should include longer on-foot patrol hours and assignment to specific neighborhoods to identify with their needs .
Wallace argues that the cause of failure in community policing is implementing strategies that convey the message that community policing is a soft mechanism on crime replacing the conventional aggressive policing. This, Wallace (2012b, 16) argues, is a result of tools borrowed from Western nations that do not reflect societies’ social dynamics in diverse settings .
Peyton, Arevalo, and Rand conducted a randomized study in New Haven in Connecticut. The study’s key objective was to establish the individual impact of direct engagement between law officers in uniform with the community in a non-official capacity. The scholars found that wherever there were an individual and natural meeting between police officers and the general public, it resulted in an objective and immediate increase in the general public’s positive attitude . The scholars, therefore, argued that based on these findings, police officers should be encouraged to engage in more extraordinary nonenforcement activities with the public .
Palmiotto and Unnithan propose that in applying the concept of community policing, we should incorporate sociological perspectives which encourage partnerships more than consultations. This, they argue, introduces a philosophical approach to community policing as the community is involved in nurturing the social control policies making it acceptable and increasing the trust levels in the law enforcement departments . Community policing should not be interpreted to include circumstances where police officers on patrol engage with the public. Therefore, influential community policing strategies must determine the law enforcement’s understanding of community protecting and the activities included to avoid using community policy to christen traditional policing techniques such as stopovers during on-foot patrols, contrary to the argument by Reisig.
Carcach and Huntley further advance this argument by Palmiotto and Unnithan by suggesting that influential community policing strategies should go beyond the foundational concept of involvement in shaping protecting by the community . The rationale they argue should be that the law enforcement officers should be seen as part of the community and not the community being part of the law enforcement.
However, Palmiotto and Unnithan critique the stance by Carcach and Huntley by arguing that in most cases, law enforcement officers are answerable to a higher authority and therefore, it may be seen as undermining their objective to investigate crimes and maintain law and order if they become too friendly with the community.
Moreover, Watson et al. suggest that there is a negative perception amongst police officers that communities are often illiterate and naturally born criminals especially residents of low-income areas in Trinidad and Tobago. Therefore this police cynicism threatens to ever create any cordial relationship between the police and the community through community policing.
Discussion
Community policing is an essential component for successful enforcement of the law and reduction of crime prevalence rate. Indeed, Wallace conducted a study for community policing’s efficacy through interviews of police officers in Trinidad and Tobago. The result indicates that only a meager 8% of the interviewed police officers state that crimes can be resolved and crime rates reduced without the community’s involvement .
However, the community policing concept has not been very successful in reducing crime, and some studies conclude that there is little correlation between community policing and the reduction of crime rate in many communities globally . Some scholars from societies such as Trinidad and Tobago attribute the failure of their community policing strategies to cut and paste culture from communities in the US and the United Kingdom. However, it appears that other scholars’ theses demonstrate inadequate understanding of the concept of influential community policing. For instance, Reisig’s thesis that community policing includes instances where police officers speak to the general public during their traditional policing activities demonstrates sufficient reason why many community policing strategies fail to yield the desired outcome . These forms of so-called community policing strategies do not even satisfy the basic definition of community policing, including partnerships with the community for consultation (Community Oriented Policing Services n.d). Effective community policy is distinguished from any form of traditional police procedures, whether aggressive or meek in Trinidad and Tobago or elsewhere.
Certainly, the failure of the application community policing can also be blamed on the community themselves through active engagement in criminal gangs and concealment of intelligence. This is perhaps fueled by the cynical perceptions within both aisles where police perceive communities in low-income areas as criminals while those people also mistrust the police due to historical injustices.
Studies show that in Trinidad and Tobago, criminal gangs are proliferating with as many as 100 gangs currently in operation. Moreover, these gangs seemingly, from empirical studies, have total control over certain areas and locations especially in the Port of Spain area. This would definitely make it difficult for police officers to enhance positive community policing measures.
Therefore, law enforcement proponents and scholars propose that community policing’s most effective means is through partnerships with local communities and service agencies to protect and develop social control rules and principles that govern law enforcement officers. A study on the impact of community policing in crime rate reduction in small urban areas in the United States finds that where government agencies through COPS increasingly partner with local communities, civil society and groups, not only does this inversely affect the rate of violent crimes in those communities but also uplifts the welfare of the youthful members of the communities prone to violent crime . Even though this study is abstract in its argument of what entails the partnerships, it is clear that the relationship between law enforcement and the community ceases to be formal and adversarial. Each stakeholder sees the need for the other’s presence.
Whereas community policing’s core objective is to reduce crime rates, the intermediate and enabling purpose is to increase the community’s trust levels towards the police . Therefore, to achieve the highest level of trust, it is essential to increase the contact points between the police and community members in person or the direct groups. As Carcach and Huntley observe, the level of social interaction determines the level of trust, unity, and affinity for collegiality between the community and police officers . Since it is rare for social interaction to be attained informal meetings with the police where the overarching theme is policing, the better mechanism of social interaction would be to invite police officers to engage in community activities and services such as sports, education and mentorship, community service like attending to nursing homes among others. This may be an effective means in Trinidad and Tobago where police-community relations are strife especially in high-crime areas where gangs control the geographical area. The police must not be seen as enforcing the law during these engagements hence translating to less contribution of the community to crime.
Rosenbaum et al. conducted a study to establish how social interactions could be used to measure policing performance rather than using crime data per officer in the US across 53 police departments. The study findings suggest that social interaction is quantifiable and specific criteria to measure police-community interface is through the level of empathy demonstrated in individual incidents . This study shows the ability to rate the performance of police officers by social interaction levels. Still, it also indicates that social interaction levels measurement can be adopted at the departmental level to assess the community’s partnership level in non-policy related interactions. This could significantly affect police departments’ mode of operation, thus moving them closer to the communities.
However, critics of community policing have made several counterarguments to the overemphasis of community policing. Firstly, it is argued that there is little evidence that community policing delivers on the core objective in specific demographics; hence it is not always more practical and efficient than traditional policing. Rukus, Warner and Zhang found that community policing seems to encourage community participation only in low community areas in America. It delivers little in communities with high population influx and high crime rates. However, the authors admit that community policing improves relations between all societies, although it may not translate to an actual crime rate reduction . This argument is alive in Trinidad and Tobago where attempts to use community policing is predominantly black neighborhoods has failed to yield results. Often the argument is that prevalence of criminal gangs is very high in these areas therefore police relations and the community are strife.
Secondly, having established that community policing through police social interactions improves the level of trust in law enforcement, certain intervening circumstances affect the ability to deliver on the intermediate objective and eventually the core objectives. In a study involving 253 interviews with black and Latino Americans. Novich and Hunt found out that where a member of the minority groups has a rough and unjustifiable experience with the police, their trust levels in the police reduce significantly and does not increase with the increase in positive police social interactions . This is often the case for marginalized communities in western countries that have suffered racial discrimination at law enforcement officers’ hands. Admittedly, this is a persistent problem that needs to be addressed, given that the most significant social group with mistrust of police officers is the minority groups.
Thirdly, community policing experience in non-western and global south communities differs significantly from those in western countries even when those strategies or initiatives are locally designed, a good case being Trinidad and Tobago, as a report by Wallace . Moreover, Blair et al. in an experimental study of local community policing models across different countries in developing countries involving policy agencies, finds that those models fail to reduce crime or improve citizens’ attitudes towards law enforcement . The suggestion has been chiefly that even with radical and progressive community policy initiatives in developing countries, the absence of structural reform of policing institutions deters objectives. The COPS manual provides that structural reform of police departments is integral at the initial stage for any change to be realized through community policing, even in developed countries like the US.
Conclusion
Community policing is a progressive policing method whose efficacy in policy change earns enormous praise. Not only does community policing lead to efficient and quality policing mechanisms, but also it increases the level of public trust in law enforcement agencies. However, there is limited wide-scale data on the theoretical benefits of community policing. This is owing to the diverse application of the concept of community policing across communities in any given geopolitical jurisdiction. The biggest challenge has been the abstract implementation of community policing without a clear outline of the intention to create strong partnerships with local communities. An effective mechanism is to apply community policing through increasing social interaction of the police beyond their institutions to build trust as an intermediate objective for reduced crime rates in the long term, hence affirming this research’s hypothesis’s bottom line. However, this paper’s hypothesis is challenged by criticisms that demonstrate that it is impossible to successfully implement community policing through social interactions without institutional restructuring, especially in developing countries and without considering the overall trust level determinants, especially in minority groups in western countries that suffer from systemic discrimination. The hypothesis that community policing is effective when applied through police-social interactions fails to that extent.
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