Community oriented policing as a strategy for reducing youth violence

Community Oriented Policing: A Strategy for Reducing Youth Violence

Youth Violence
Youth violence is a complex issue with causal factors that extend well beyond the province of law enforcement, touching upon factors as disparate as social exclusion, individual psychology, exposure to stressful or traumatic events, community features, and family characteristics (Bushman, Coyne, Anderson, et al., 2018). Nevertheless, law enforcement remains a primary stakeholder in the youth violence issue, and law enforcement has a direct responsibility to provide individuals and whole communities with services and solutions that promote public safety, mitigate risk factors, and improve overall quality of life. Because community policing is an inherently systemic approach to law enforcement, it is a model that should prove particularly effective in addressing many of the causal variables implicated in youth violence.
Because youth violence is pervasive in the United States, law enforcement does need to address the multiple issues at stake using evidence-based models. Youth violence is not a singular phenomenon. Most youth violence incidences occur at home and in school, as opposed to in the general community (Turner, Shattuck, Finkelhor, et al., 2016). However, “polyvictims,” youth who have been victimized in multiple settings, are at the greatest risk for developing the symptoms of trauma and for engaging in delinquent or criminal acts themselves (Turner, Shattuck, Finkelhor, et al., 2016, p. 208). Addressing youth violence requires a community oriented policing approach, which takes into account relationships between families and individuals in the community. Community oriented policing also entails forming lasting strategic partnerships with other community organizations, from faith-based organizations to schools and after-school programs. Furthermore, community oriented policing can be combined with a broader approach that encourages community empowerment.
Community Policing and Youth Attitudes
One of the functions of community oriented policing is to change public perceptions of law enforcement. Research shows that young people tend to hold the most negative attitudes towards police than citizens of any other age cohort (Leroux & McShane, 2017). Because non-white youth are more likely to come into contact with police in their communities, young people of color tend to hold the least favorable attitudes towards law enforcement (Leroux & McShane, 2017). Racial profiling and other pernicious problems plague relationships between law enforcement and the young people they serve (Giwa, James, Anucha, et al., 2014). Community policing strategies can help young people change their attitudes, through a process of ongoing dialogue, engagement, and especially through dramatic changes in law enforcement leadership and organizational culture. These changes can occur within a community oriented policing framework, potentially impacting the young people most vulnerable to youth violence as well as to adverse encounters with law enforcement.
Community oriented policing can address youth attitudes towards law enforcement, rebuilding bridges between children of color and law enforcement especially. However, police officers and law enforcement leaders also need to work with the entire community to address attitudes and beliefs. Adults help shape the values and beliefs of the youth in their midst. Teachers and parents alike also need to be included in open forum discourse related to how law enforcement can better serve every member of the community, improving modes of communication, strengthening trust, and creating a model whereby individuals become accountable and responsible to their neighbors. Given that much youth violence begins in the home, and is perpetuated through peers at school, law enforcement can begin by partnering with public health organizations that address domestic violence and bullying. Community oriented policing does demand strategic outreach and partnerships with organizations that can provide education and outreach services, thereby gradually changing public perceptions of the role of law enforcement.
Strategic Partnerships
Rather than operate as a distinct entity, law enforcement works within a collaborative public health and safety system. The collaborative model of law enforcement is only possible when community oriented policing models are being implemented. A pilot program conducted in several American cities including Chicago, Baltimore, New York City, Phoenix, and Pittsburgh revealed the effectiveness of a community oriented policing partnership with a Cure Violence model (Butts, Roman, Botswich, et al., 2015). The pilot program not only revealed the efficacy of community oriented policing in shifting values and norms, but also the role law enforcement plays when working with other agencies equally as committed to safe streets. Community oriented policing changes the ways public health organizations, social service agencies, schools, and other major stakeholders communicate with the police and coordinate interventions that help target the root causes of youth violence.
Community oriented policing may be needed most of all in communities of color, where relationships between individuals and community organizations and the police have become fragile, broken, or nonexistent (Brunson, Braga, Hureau, et al., 2013). To restructure and reorient law enforcement in communities of color, law enforcement leaders need to honestly analyze the needs of the citizens and identify the organizations that promote community resiliency and stability. In many African American communities, the organizations that are most significant for promoting community cohesion are faith-based organizations (Brunson, Braga, Hureau, et al., 2013). Pilot projects in Boston showed that when law enforcement agencies work together with members of the clergy in their respective neighborhoods, the partnerships lead to reductions in youth violence and overall improvements in public perceptions of law enforcement as a whole (Brunson, Braga, Hureau, et al., 2013). In addition to working directly with members of the clergy, law enforcement leaders can reach out to intermediary agencies and organizations, as well as to small business owners. Strategic partnerships create or strengthen social networks that promote resilience, increase vigilance about youth-related issues like delinquency, and mitigate the risk factors leading to violence.
Community-oriented policing is not a single strategy but encompasses multiple approaches to building alliances. Other approaches to crime reduction or safety promotion have failed where community oriented policing has succeeded, precisely because youth violence is a systemic problem. For example, research shows that aggressive policies that antagonize residents, or which use racial profiling, or resort to “zero tolerance” approaches to crime lead to no tangible reductions in crime rates or incidences of delinquency (Braga, Welsh, Schnell, et al., 2015, p. 581). Instead, when police form “stable relationships” with members of the community, including businesses, churches, and community organizations, they are more likely to witness positive results and outcomes such as lower rates of youth violence (Braga, Welsh, Schnell, et al., 2015, p. 581). Community oriented policing welcomes input from key community agencies and organizations, with the ability to collaborate on solutions that benefit all stakeholders. Forming collaborative relationships builds trust, and also enables resources sharing, which is helpful for all parties too.
Opposing Views
Unfortunately, not all attempts at introducing community oriented policing have been successful. Community oriented policing models have tended to work well in areas with already low rates of youth violence and crime, as opposed to areas with greater problems and more at risk youth (Rukus, Warner & Zhang, 2017). Suburban and rural regions do, in fact, receive the vast majority of community oriented policing initiatives and youth related services but these are not necessarily the jurisdictions that need community policing the most (Rukus, Warner & Zhang, 2017). It is essential to develop community oriented policing models that are responsive to the unique challenges of each individual precinct, rather than impose a predetermined set of strategies. Community oriented policing will be implemented differently in different areas, depending on factors like demographics, funding, and incidence rates of specific types of youth violence.
Community Policing and Community Empowerment
Using a systemic view of crime and public safety, community policing can also contribute to the overall improvements in quality of life that should ultimately be the goal of all public services. Community oriented policing does require focus on the strategies law enforcement specifically can use to forge strong relationships with families, faith-based organizations, business owners, schools, and other stakeholders. However, community oriented policing also has the potential to revitalize and empower disenfranchised communities and communities with large populations of at risk youth (Aiyer, Zimmerman, Morrel-Samuels, et al., 2014). Using a multidisciplinary approach to community oriented policing, law enforcement leaders can work with state and federal agencies dedicated to the empowerment of individuals through programs stimulating entrepreneurism or educational advancement.