Community and the Police How to Work Together

Community Participation
1. Define community participation. Community participation is the involvement of members of the community in working with law enforcement to achieve common goals for the benefit of the community.
2. Why are some communities more desirous of control than other communities? Community-identity and esteem play a large role in the extent to which some communities seek a larger role in defining the overall community status.
3. How has the federal government become a part of community participation in police agencies? The federal government provides grants and subsidies to communities that participate in policing. For example, the DoJ’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) supports community policing initiatives.
4. Contrast several different methods of community participation in the criminal justice system. Within the criminal justice system, there are several methods of community participation: community policing, community cleanup, community oversight committees, community watches, community events, and so on.
5. How is police organization a factor in police resistance to community participation? Police organization can be a factor in police resistance to community participation in the sense that it is its own hierarchical entity with a chain of command inside the organization, which does not want oversight or interaction with a third party or community group because it leads to bureaucratic obstacles.
6. Compare the effectiveness of different styles of community participation. A citizen advisory board is effective at letting officers know what community members want. A volunteer is effective at helping to police and organize (International Association of Chiefs of Police, 2016).
7. Why are volunteers important to the criminal justice process? They demonstrate good will between the community and the police force.
8. Investigate the various types of programs available in your community. There is a volunteer watch group and a community advisory board available in my community, as well as young person’s club for people who want to join law enforcement later on.
9. Why is policing too important to be left to the police? Policing is too important to be left to the police because it is really a community issue. If a community gives up its sovereignty to a third party that is not accountable to the community itself, the community essentially makes itself subservient to the police body.
10. What is meant by the globalization of crime and criminal groups? Globalization of crime and criminal groups means that criminal organizations operate beyond the boundaries of nations and states. Thanks to the Internet they can coordinate and work in ways never before possible, so there are criminal organizations that will stretch internationally.
11. What is meant by the globalization of protest issues and protest groups? Because globalization has really united people and nations all over the world, due to the interconnectedness of issues (such as environmental issues, human trafficking, financial corruption), protests and protest groups are now international.
12. What are some of the possible effects of September 11? Terrorism has spread, the Middle East has been destabilized through ongoing wars, the U.S. has become a surveillance/police state in many ways (the TSA, the NSA), and rights have been given up for “safety”.
13. What do the police do for their communities? Police help to protect their communities by patrolling them, investigating crimes, and assisting in the criminal justice process.
14. Why are problem-oriented policing and community-policing not the solutions for all police-community relations problems? Not all communities are the same. Some require different approaches in order to solve problems, just like people who need counseling will benefit from different methods because of who they are what they need.

References
International Association of Chiefs of Police. (2016). 10 ways community members can
engage with law enforcement. Retrieved from https://theiacpblog.org/2016/08/12/10-ways-community-members-can-engage-with-law-enforcement/