Community Policing Today
Frank Borelli
Editor-in-Chief
Officer.com
I remember, oh so well, in the early ’90s when “Community Oriented Policing” became the new buzzwords in law enforcement how so many agencies all of a sudden started teaching classes for the subject. As a person who had been a municipal police officer for my entire police career to that point, I couldn’t for the life of me figure out why agencies who dealt with HUGE jurisdictions felt they should be teaching classes on something COMMUNITY oriented. Let me explain.
Freely admitting that I was never around to see beat cops walking their couple of blocks of a given jurisdiction I can only assume that this was the closest a cop ever came to true Community Oriented Policing. These cops intimately knew the neighborhood they patrolled; they knew the good guys, bad guys, problem kids, challenged parents, friendly shop keepers, dodgy liquor store owners, etc. The key was that they KNEW what they needed to know and could therefore spot anything out of place before it became a big problem.
Those police officers were well known in their areas and had earned respect from those they protected and served. Whether it was respect based on fear or respect based on appreciation and character, they were respected. That respect from the people gave the officers the ability to arbitrate problems and disagreements. It also gave them the ability to ask citizens to do things that could ultimately make the area safer and more friendly - or at least avoid problems before they arose.
Why do I bring this up now? Because the big push for Community Policing is a decade and a half old and it may be more valuable to us now than ever before. Why? Because now more than ever our police officers and other law enforcement officials need to be intimately familiar with our neighborhoods; their patrol sectors, beats, etc.
With acts of mass violence escalating (mall, church, bus and school shootings?), the local cop is in a much better position to know about the problem person BEFORE that person flicks off. The local cop is in a much better position to say, “Hey - we’d better watch this guy. Sarge? Make sure everyone is wearing their plates tonight and has their rifle loaded.” The local cop KNOWS.
And it doesn’t just apply to the “random actor” of violence. It also applies to the professional criminal, the terrorist forward observer, the local psycho, etc. The strength of the Community Oriented Police officer is what he knows and how well he knows it - without having to stop and analyze a bunch of correlated data gathered from other officers. He knows instinctively because he’s there day in and day out and he FEELS what is going on.
For that very reason I just didn’t get it when the State Police - who primarily do highway patrol work in my state - were teaching Community Policing. It didn’t make any more sense to me than the FBI teaching it. It’s not that either organization isn’t top notch (because they are) but how much does either do in small neighborhoods? How many of the instructors teaching the program had actually walked (or rode) a beat that encompassed ten square blocks or less for any significant period of time? To me, the municipal cops who worked small towns ALWAYS were doing community oriented policing. It was the nature of having a small jurisdiction.
So, as I sit working on a manual about immediate response to critical incidents, intended for the patrol officer, I have had to consider the value of community oriented policing today and how it can be applied. Certainly School Resource Officers are the equivalent of a Community Oriented Police Officer in the school. They know their neighborhood. They know the good, the bad and the ugly. They know who will cause problems before the problems occur. Most of the time they can prevent those problems. Small town cops all over our country face similar situations - and all of them are perfectly positioned to prevent problems before they occur.
However, they ALL have to be empowered to do so. What do I mean? Their policy, general orders, standard operating procedures, leadership, management, etc. - everything they take into consideration when they make decisions has to support their ability to take whatever legal action is necessary to prevent a problem from occurring, most especially if the “problem” will involve the death(s) of anyone.
With all that said, what do you think? If you’re a cop, does your agency empower you to take the necessary action(s) to prevent or resolve such “problems”? If you’re a citizen, does your local public safety agency (police or sheriff) empower their patrol troops to prevent or resolve such “problems”?
Please share your thoughts on this issue.
Stay safe!
I liked the article. I do feel that my agency does empower me to take the necesary actions to prevent & resolve such problems. I’m not sure what state you are from. However, as far as the SP’s teaching the community policing course I can say that here in New York we work very closely with the feds, county & local agencies. There are many areas in the State that we (the State Troopers) are the main L.E. agency & we do everything. NYSP is a full service L.E. agency. With all that said I understand your point. That was just an FYI, even wihin NYS there are people who think all we do is write tickets & it’s only part of what we do. Thanks for your time.
In many of the counties in Maryland the state police are a full service agency. In many counties though the state police are purely highway patrol. The point I was trying to make - and I appreciate your comment to spur me to further clarify - is that “community oriented policing” is essentially what small town agencies have done since inception. It seemed slightly backwards to me to have a HUGE agency teaching a topic that might better be taught by those who have been doing it by default since their creation.
You’re right Frank & I’m all for community oriented policing because it helps bridge gaps, improves understanding & empowers the people to help themselves in our communities that we are here to protect. But, I work as a PD Sgt. at a college in the N.E. & several years ago (10-15) we got a civilian director who caused a lot of problems for us & a few years ago (8?) we got a new, very liberal president & vice presidents who simply do not support The College Police Dept. although they “say” that the safety of The College & people are their first priority. I’m sure that they do not want to have people injured or killed, but, they do not want any complaints about the police officers ticketing or arresting people for the violations the people commit. So, they put the pressure on the cops to stop them enforcing the laws rather than supporting the police & putting the pressure on the “citizens” to change their poor behavior & obey the laws for everyone’s benefit. Our brilliant “citizenry” hasn’t figured out yet that if they support the people who are risking their lives to protect them & if the “citizens” do their part then the whole “community” would be safer. It’s a shame to think that so many of them have spent so much money & time on their liberal educations & they just don’t understand the basics. Anyway, they have hired a new Chief for us who seems like a great guy, but, now he/they are creating lots of other “responsibilities” for us that will keep the cops in our understaffed little PD (14 cops total instead of 25) more busy, in addition to responding to incidents/reports, so that the cops don’t notice the M.V. violations & give people tickets. I’ve dealt with several of the “complaints” & after reviewing the patrol car video tapes & interviewing the cops it was clear that the officers were always doing their job professionally & the vocal minority of faculty/staff/students/parents were just whining to get out of the tickets & to give the officers a hard time. Unfortunately, I see The College Admin. pressuring the new Chief to use it (COP) as a tool to keep us busy off the road rather than hiring the 11 cops we so desperately need & having 1-2 Det.’s or other officers perform the COP Admin. functions like presentations, etc. I understand that COP is not just a “program” but rather a methodology of policing. Here they seem to be going to the other extreme by letting people lie & demonize the officers & then expecting the officers to play nicely with our aberrant &/or liberal population who don’t seem to care about right & wrong or the laws of NJ in the first place. Of course they say they do, but, they don’t back it up by supporting the police. They just automatically assume that their darling little student or wonderful professor or parent is naturally honorable & was unjustly/rudely accused, oppressed & persecuted by the “EVIL” campus police!! Oh well, I think COP is a good idea, but, the governing body (Our college Admin. or the civil government) must support their law enforcement or there will be problems of at least confusion or perhaps even chaos & anarchy. As a brief aside, as my wife said to our daughter after the cops bagged her trying to get in a bar at age 20, “If you say that you want to be treated like an adult, then you’ll have to act like one, go to court like one & explain to the judge like an adult why you broke the law. Then, you can pay the penalty like an adult too!” I had to struggle to not burst out laughing or faint because my wife is a recovering liberal. I asked her later if she would go on duty for me that night & we had a good laugh. Thanks again for the thought provoking Op-Eds. & keep up the great work. D.
Good column, Frank.
Any officer who is not connected with his jurisdiction and its persons and players is just not policing smart. All good cops want the problems in their areas to go away. All good cops have always been that way. Period. We never needed academics or others with zero street knowledge to tell us that.
Community policing, as it was initially presented, was all about programs, feel good projects and fluff. We absolutely lost our way. Cops were told we were now into order maintenance. Arrests? Gee, that’s so reactive…so stone age…! Kinder gentler. Hug-a-thug! He might hug you back! Here, have a kool-aid!
Politically correct and driven by Federal grants, it was all the rage. Everybodys doin’ it!!
That era has died a quiet death as PD’s return to law enforcement. For a “philosophy not a program” it sure dried up with the Federal funds. Good riddance. Community policing platitudes are mainly only found in a Chief’s message on a PD web page, followed by the usual buzzwords.
It was not a TOTAL failure, however, since there is always some good with the bad, there was some good in CP. Policing is keeping closer touch with the public, which is good. And we have found out the public wants us to be the police, not social workers; which defines our mission even more. Make the streets safe. Put criminals in jail. Now law enforcers can get off that self-loathing guilt trip we were on for a while.
There is some enpowerment in policing these days, and there was little in the past. If thats a CP hold-over, then thats good, too.
I agree about the large agencies and the Feds. Great people, committed and trying to help. But for the Feds to outline how to police a municipality, well… no. No more than I would presume to tell them the ins and outs of interstate crime.
Somtimes I think the majority of people think COP is based on the “Mayberry theory”. I dont beleive it is at all because Mayberry is not the reality that L.E. sees everyday and puts their life on the line for. However, the fact that a community could benefit a great deal of having a force of COP , and that it has been a concept of decades in small town America , why then if crime is such a problem , and we can partially prevent some lives being lost and so forth , why hasnt our government ever with the exception of the educational standpoint ever paid officers enough , even back when they were on a beat.Sociey forgets that money may have not been the motivator for the small town syndrome in policing , but you could walk down a lot more streets safer in those town . Until the big “Buba” Cheif comes along and the crime isnt really going down although the citizens are told that it is for the reason of COP is present and so restricted , that officer do feel like social workers and not L.E.O. So why can’t we have both , the only reason a citizen would understand in this society is that it has not been a political platform yet, and our government will never pay officers enough , or grant enough money to all at once to implement the program as a whole as well as the mobile units. But we have spent billions on getting our sons, fathers, grandfathers, etc killed over in Iraq and other places of war. We are not the strong independent nation we use to be. yesterday in the paper we had 277 smash and bashes in a month and over 700 for the year. Now I dont know about officers these days or where you might be but I do not make enough money to replace the parts on the vehicle, replace the contents were stolen, but it could have probably been prevented with a few community police officers in the area. They just gave our town commisioner a 7000.00 bonus , the only one any one remembers the town commissioner ever getting that was on top of the automatic increase cost of living last month which was 2500.00 more ,total salary , 175,00.00 per year, for what , shuffling paper , brought one commerce contract into area while five moved out, school teachers , where are their raises, this society really needs to get back , way back to the basics if you will. Great points you made frank . They probably do not pay the small town L.E. or the educated L.E. officer as much as they do the FBI that teaches . God Bless, Stay Safe, I am from Maryland too, and live in N.C.