Models of Policing

Order maintenance policing (OMP), community-oriented policing (COP) and reactive policing are three different models of policing that are used within law enforcement agencies in the U.S. This paper will compare these three models of policing. It will also discuss which models would benefit the most from effective crime analysis. OMP is a model of policing that stems from the theory of “broken windows” defined by Wilson and Kelling (1982). The broken windows theory states that if a community allows itself to be physically neglected, it will attract crime.

Graffiti, litter, abandoned buildings and broken windows are all signs that a community is negligent and therefore will not put forward much effort to oppose a criminal element in its midst. First, the crime will be small—acts of vandalism and theft; then it will escalate to drug dealing and violence. In order to prevent communities from falling to this type of environment, the OMP model of policing was implemented as a preventive measure.

Some critics have charged that this type of policing is racist, as it tends to target mainly ethnic communities. However, OMP has been shown to be a model of policing that actually helps to reduce crime rates in communities that suffer from negligence—neighborhoods that would otherwise allow crime to flourish based on the broken windows theory.

As Fagan, Geller, Davies and West (2009) have shown, “in the decade since the first study on OMP, stop rates have increased by 500 percent while crime rates have remained low and stable” (p. 1). In short, OMP allows officers to stop more people on the pedestrians and announce their presence more visibly—which in effect prevents neighborhoods from becoming overrun by a criminal element.

COP is a model of policing that encourages police to build relationships with the community and to work with community leaders to address issues within the neighborhoods. The objective of this model is to bridge the gap between the police department and the community, facilitate the establishment of trust and respect between the two spheres, boost communication, and strengthen the community overall.

Community members are encouraged to report suspicious or unruly behavior to police and police are expected to interact with the community more openly, visibly, and in a positive and friendly manner so that the human face of both the police department and of the community can be better recognized, valued and appreciated by both (Saint Claire, 2018).

Reactive policing is also known as traditional policing and this model is based on the idea that police wait for a call to come in before being dispatched to the community to address a situation. As opposed to COP, wherein police are already established actively in the community and are daily interacting with community members, reactive policing puts a distance between the community and the police, who do not appear in the community until a crime has been committed.

A patrol may exist but it is mainly to ensure that the community is in order is less oriented towards engaging with community members than with actually doing surveillance. In the reactive model of policing there is little interaction between the police and the community unless there is a reason for police to get involved—i.e., a crime has been committed or there is reason to suspect a person of committing a crime.

This model also differs from OMP in that it does not focus on preventive strategies but rather is wholly reactive. It operates on a kind of “supply and demand” structure in the sense that if there is no demand for policing, the police will not make their presence known. In the OMP and COP models, police make their presence known in different ways and for different aims, but both promote visibility and interaction between the police and the community (Saint Claire, 2018).

All three models would benefit from effective crime analysis, as all three are models that have been or are presently used in policing. Studies that establish the effectiveness or lack of effectiveness of reactive policing, for example, could help to show police departments why preventive models like OMP might or might not be a better approach to policing. Likewise, an analysis of crime rates in areas where COP is utilized might or might not help to show why this method is effective.

Crime analysis helps to give quantitative support to policing models and therefore should be conducted for all models that are implemented. In conclusion, order maintenance policing, community-oriented policing, and reactive policing are three models that law enforcement agencies use today. Order maintenance policing is a preventive model that is based on broken windows theory and is used to prevent crime.