Community Policing
Describe the different views of communities utilized within "traditional" police-community relations and "contemporary" police-community relations.
When it comes to the proper scope, method, depth and breadth of community policing and how it should be done, there are a number of answers that should be provided and defined. The first question to be answered is the difference between "traditional" police/community relations and what is different about this relationship when it is modernized and made more current. The former is probably best defined by a laser focus on "catching the bad guy" and being suspect of everyone and everything, to a large degree. A more modern approach is to remain vigilant and ready to do the job but at the same time become approachable, willing to be warm and kind to people unless/until there is a specific reason not to and so forth (RAND).
What is police-community relations as described in textbooks?
Police/community relations as described in textbooks is often about a balance between catching criminals, focusing on the more severe and significant crimes (e.g. drug dealers more so than jaywalkers, etc.) and not typecasting or profiling certain groups as "automatically"...
This makes them part of the community rather than being against it, in theory or in practice. The community would be the non-officers in the community that support (or work against) the police . . . for whatever reasons such as being criminals, not trusting the police, and so forth (RAND).
Describe briefly the impact of police-community relations on the police system.
The impact to police/community relations on the job of the police is huge. An engaged and trusting community is more likely to work with police, provide tips of crimes and so forth (RAND).
Why is feedback necessary for effective police-community relations?
Feedback from the people, whether it be tips about crime or advice on how to be relatable to the community, is necessary because police cannot be everywhere and warrants and such are needed to detect or prove many crimes…
