COMMUNITY POLICING IS A PROBLEM

Community Policing is a problem and needs to be fixed to restore connections between

officers and the citizens

Isaac J. Holliday

Appalachian State University

RC 2001- 180

Dr. Kevin Young

March 23, 2022

Abstract

There are many hot topics currently going on and being talked about in the world and some of

these matters have been around for a long time. One of those said topics is the police; they have

been a subject of discussion from many different viewpoints and opinions. Ranging anywhere

from appraisal and positive remarks to downright disgust and strong distrust and abhorrent

towards the mere thought of the departments themself. However, like all hot topics and

discussions of great controversy there are specific things within all matters that get their own

individual spotlight. Which is the case for this paper, the subject at hand that has garnered great

attention is the thought and actions of community policing. The police in and of itself has been a

concept that’s been around for the last several hundred years and started as a watch group in

America in the 1600s. With that in mind community policing is still fairly new even though it

has been around and practiced since the 70s-80s. Over the last few decades there has been a large

amount of mixed opinions regarding not just the efficiency of it but why it is and isn’t working.

For the initial part of this paper we will delve into what the issues with community policing are

and the mixed opinions regarding the practice. Leading into what my thoughts and proposals are

on fixing the practice of community policing or at the very least improving it.

Keywords: Community policing, law enforcement, discrimination, inequality, public,

government, concern
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Community Policing is A Problem and Needs to be Fixed to Restore Connections Between

Officers and The Citizens

Policing has a long and extensive history behind it, spanning from the Praetorian Guard

created by the Roman Emperor Augustus to the Vigiles being the first firefighters who also

patrolled the city of Rome at night. This early evolution of policing continued to the twelfth and

thirteenth century when the Maréchausée was created as a night watch that later turned into the

Gendarmerie Nationale which is still the police patrolling outside of major French cities today.

Going a few centuries ahead you have Sir Robert Peel having established the first English police

department in 1829 titled the London Metropolitan Police. Even earlier than those police systems

and versions you had, many nations and kingdoms had their own type of police; whether that

was a night patrol, a watch, and ward, a horse patrol, foot patrol, etc... Further on throughout the

years better and more readily available forms of police systems were established up until now.

The improvements are anywhere from simple watches and patrols that would lock up or just

report anything to the person in charge, without any rules or codes to go by. Now they have

many different codes that one can call in and back up to ask for and just ways of handling

different situations.

The police of today are also better equipped and are able to respond to situations faster

and better. To match that they have also come up with many strategies and implemented several

plans that will help not just with their jobs but also make relations and interactions flow

smoothly between themselves and citizens. One of those very important plans is Community

Policing; which is law enforcement systems where officers build and maintain active, reinforcing

relationships with local stakeholders, including citizens and community leaders. In fact “Interest
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in community policing in the U.S. dates back to the 1960s and 1970s, a period of high tension

and clashes between law enforcement and protesters against the backdrop of the Civil Rights and

Anti-War movements. By the 1980s, the more formalized concept sought to train officers to

police and interact with communities in new ways, said Tracey Meares, a professor and founding

director of the Justice Collaboratory at Yale Law School. (Norwood, 2020, pg. 1) This brings us

to the controversy and mixed feelings/opinions regarding community policing; while it is a very

great plan that the police has come up with, it hasn’t achieved the results that it potentially could.

This is due to not only the way that this plan is being approached as a whole across the country

but also because of the history of the police itself within the US, closely linked with citizen

interactions.

The police is a body that was formed by the government to enforce the law and keep the

citizens of the country safe and to take those that have the opposite interests off the streets and

behind bars. This is the basic idea behind the goal of law enforcement; they are to ensure citizens

stay safe and that the law is being enforced. Sadly though there are many officers throughout the

nation that think they are the law itself and use their power for their own needs and desires;

which is not what police departments were created for. Which shows “An additional concern that

an increase in the decision-making autonomy of line officers and closer police-community

relations will provide the police with greater opportunities for abusing their authority and

corruption. (Mastrofski et al.,1999, pg 1). From that, one can realize that just the surface of the

bad side of police history makes people already view them in a negative light. Generally

speaking the police are supposed to fight for and represent virtue, yet they seem to be

representing corruption… I would say that in this sense and current time period the idea of

corruption and virtue go hand in hand when it comes to policing; it's kind of like a give and take
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situation, you can't have one without the other. There’s the fact that “Lawmakers frequently

discuss community policing as if it is a cohesive set of recommendations that can bring about

police reforms. In reality, community policing can mean whatever individual police departments

decide. (Norwood, 2020, pg. 2) Although, while I would say that a majority of cops are good and

therefore I want to go with the idea of virtue dominating policing. It's not that easy to shrug off

and choose, because even though I believe that a large part of the police is honest and morally

right, it is highly possible that just as many are corrupt. For argument's sake though even if only

a small portion is corrupt it can still leave a big negative impact on any police department that

gets caught having a corrupt cop. With that impact spreading to the public and how they view

law enforcement.

Due to this it’s only further complicated the enactment of community policing because of

how the bad side of law enforcement has impacted the viewpoints and thoughts held by citizens;

the very people that officers are supposed to make feel safe and secure. Bringing us to a very

heavy matter that needs to be addressed and accomplished if community policing is to be a

successful plan. The matter at hand being racial inequality and discrimination “Despite the push

for community-based approaches to law enforcement in the 1980s and 1990s, policing in practice

showed “extreme inequality,” said Daniel Lawrence, a principal research associate in the Urban

Institute’s Justice Policy Center. “Individuals from communities of color – specifically Black

communities – instead experience dehumanizing behaviors repeatedly in their interactions with

police officers.” (Norwood, 2020, pg. 3) This is the very core of the problem that needs to be

fixed if we’re wanting to move forward. Just to further emphasize the point there is the

irrefutable fact that “Even though community policing promises to benefit everyone, specific

programs may favor particular community interests (such as those of local business owners) and
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dominant (white, middle-class) groups. In poor and high-crime neighborhoods, residents may be

distrusting of the police and rates of community participation may be very low. (Skogan; Lyons,

pg. 1) Showing that currently not only has there been a long period of time of racial inequality

and descrimination but that over the years and decades it has fed into why minority

communities/citizens view and react to the police the way they do. This also goes for individuals

not in minority communities but that support them. The fight for fixing these several smaller

issues in order to fix a big problem is a long one but it can be done and once it is, things will

change drastically. In fact if this could be fixed it wouldn’t just make community policing work,

it would also solve an entire societal issue. Now personally I both know and am aware that this

isn’t going to change overnight or happen anytime soon. However, it is a feasible solution to

fixing a societal issue and the way that community policing is being done.

Policy Proposal

Where this leaves the matter at hand, is that there are and have been many thoughts and

solutions as to how community policing can be fixed or improved upon. Although, I will say

many of them don’t work that well either due to not enough effort and emphasis put into them or

that there was no funding or backing from the community or the departments to keep it going.

This is where the government needs to come in with the police department and they both need to

listen to the citizens of the country as a whole. There are three key factors that will play into

fixing community policing which can also be conveyed as three policies that I thought of

improving that would potentially change things for the better overall. Those three factors are

sticking to a plan/solution, listening to feedback, and making the extra effort to ensure

satisfaction from both sides.

To further accentuate, when I say to stick to a plan/solution I mean that when something

is brought to the table and is initiated with the idea of fixing the issue it needs to be seen to the

end. With that in mind it doesn’t mean to continue doing things that don’t work or that are

making things worse; what I mean is that if a possible solution has been found and implemented

it needs to continue being used to see how it progresses and if it actually works. If it indeed ends

up working it needs to be backed and funded in order to continue being used. There have been

quite a few instances through the years where a possible solution has been found and started to

make things better but lacked the funding or back from either the department or government in

order to keep it around long enough to actually make a significant change. Next it’s really

important that every individual community's police departments listen to its citizens and what

they have to say. One thing I have noticed from the news over the years and from my classes is

that the departments hear you but they don’t listen and that’s a very fundamental step to making

the changes that are needed. By that I mean that yes everyone’s voices are being heard but the

reason not much is being done or changed is due to them not listening to what the concerns and

feelings are towards things that are happening. The moment that every department makes sure

that they are not just hearing people within a community out but also really listening to what’s

being said then we’ll start to see some big differences in how they handle situations and the

results regarding those changes. Lastly the insistence on effort is key here for making this stick;

because one can sit there and follow through with a plan and hear and listen to what’s going on,

but if no effort is put in then honestly there’s no point to it all. This should make it apparent that

in order to have success these three key factors need to be achieved and maintained. I cannot

stress enough how important these are; there truly isn’t any room for a perfunctory effort.

Conclusion
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In conclusion, the practice of community policing has had not only mixed opinions but

also a wide range of results, making it far from a perfect idea that can be implemented. However,

with everything being said and shown I think that if those policies could be enacted in a way that

both individual police departments and citizens surrounding those communities around the

country would agree on, it could make a huge difference. With the very potential to change all of

the controversial thoughts that people have had towards the police and their own safety. This

may just be the thing that could bring in a new wave of not only trust but rather a sense of

coming together as people as a whole. It might really be just the thing that this nation needs in

order to make everyone feel more at home and secure with the areas they stay at.
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References

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How to establish Community Trust. Police1. (2021, September 14). Retrieved March 23, 2022,
from
https://www.police1.com/community-policing/articles/how-to-establish-community-trust-
1BZFZlmyujjaIP0v/
Norwood, C. (2020, September 18). Calls for reform bring renewed focus to community
policing, but does it work? PBS. Retrieved March 23, 2022, from
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