The Police: Organization, Role, and Function

1. Chapter 6 The Police: Organization, Role, and Function

2. Recent Changes to Police Work • Kansas City Patrol Study • Broken Windows Policing • Community Policing • Problem-oriented Policing (POP) • Intelligence-led Policing (ILP)

3. Kansas City Patrol Study • Variations in patrol techniques appeared to have little influence on citizen’s attitudes toward the police, their satisfaction with police, or their fear of future criminal behavior • Why do you think that is?

4. Broken Windows Policing • The role of the police as maintainers of community order and safety • Three key points • Neighborhood disorder creates fear • Neighborhoods give out crime-promoting signals • Police need to aggressively target low-level “quality of life” crimes • Some people perceive broken windows policing as harassment because the police are focusing on lower level petty crimes and not the more serious problems

5. Community Policing • For generations, police agencies have been trying to gain the cooperation and respect of the communities they serve • Initially, police-community relations programs were implemented to improve relationships between police departments and the public, making citizens more aware of police activities. Community-oriented policing includes programs designed to bring police and the public closer together and create a more cooperative working environment • Help patrol officers reduce the level of fear in the community • Some studies have shown this method reduces crime • Implementing community policing • Foot patrols were the first community policing initiatives that were aimed at forming a bond with community residents by acquainting them with individual officers

6. Problem-oriented Policing (POP) • Police management that stresses proactive problem solving instead of reactive crime fighting • Requires police to identify particular long-term community problems and develop strategies to eliminate these problems, and relied on local residents and private resources • Concentration of police resources on the hot spots of crime • Criminal acts, criminal places • Problem-oriented strategies are being developed that focus on specific criminal problem area, specific criminal acts, or both • Combating auto theft • Some police departments have invested in bait cars, which are parked in high-theft areas and are equipped with technology that alerts law enforcement when sto

7. POP, continued • Reducing violence • The most well-known problem-oriented community policing technique is Operation Ceasefire which aimed at reducing youth homicide and youth firearms • Success of street level problem solving efforts must be interpreted with caution • Gauging the effectiveness of problem-oriented policing is difficult • There is a possibility of displacement (crime just moves to another neighborhood)

8. Intelligence-led Policing (ILP) • Since 9/11 policing has experienced a fundamental philosophical change • Combination of homeland security focus with advances made in community and problem oriented policing • ILP is the collection and analysis of information to reduce terrorist activities • Emphasized information sharing, collaboration, and strategic solutions to crime problems

9. ILP, Continued • Relies on: • Confidential informants • Offender interviews • Careful analysis of crime reports and calls for service • Suspect surveillance • Community sources of information • Emphasizes a top-down managerial approach by which administrators set priorities for crime prevention and enforcement, and then pass these priorities down through the agency • Relies on residents as part of the intelligence gathering process