Community policing is a philosophy that endorses organizational strategies, which support the orderly use of partnerships and problem-solving techniques, to proactively address the immediate conditions that give rise to public safety issues such as crime, social disorder, and fear of crime (Community Policing Defined, n.d.).
Customarily, police organizations have responded to crime after it takes place and, therefore, are planned to support routine patrol, rapid response to calls for service, arrests, and follow-up investigation. Community policing calls for a more strategic and thoughtful integration of these aspects of police business into an overall broader police mission focused on the proactive prevention of crime and disorder (The Role of Traditional Policing in Community Policing, 2008).
Community policing advocates for the strategic application of routine patrol that is conducted with an eye toward preferred outcomes. Rather than just conducting routine patrol because that is how it has always done it, routine patrol should be part of all-inclusive problem-reduction and community outreach strategies. Routine patrol, for instance, may be used purposely to increase police visibility to decrease fear of crime; or preventive patrol may be augmented in a particular hot-spot neighborhood as part of a larger comprehensive crime-reduction strategy (The Role of Traditional Policing in Community Policing, 2008).
Conventional policing activities are at the center of most police departments. These actions are not at odds with community policing; rather, community policing calls for a somewhat different viewpoint. Slight alteration and adjustments in perspective...
It teaches people how to help themselves by identifying and reporting suspicious activity in their neighborhoods. In addition, it provides people with the occasion to make their neighborhoods safer and advance the quality of life. Neighborhood Watch groups characteristically focus on surveillance and awareness as a means of preventing crime and utilize strategies that range from simply endorsing social interaction and watching out for each other to active patrols by groups of citizens (About Neighborhood Watch, n.d.).
The majority of neighborhood crime prevention groups is organized around a block or a neighborhood and is started with support from a law enforcement agency. Volunteers who contribute their time and resources are characteristically at the center of such programs, since several do not have a formal financial plan or source of funding. All Neighborhood Watches share the foundational idea that bringing community members together to restore control of their neighborhoods encourages an increased quality of life and decreases the crime rate in that area (About Neighborhood Watch, n.d.).
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