Community Policing

1. Community Policing • What “Model” of Criminality do Police Strategies Reflect? • What model of crime causation does a crime control approach reflect? What is the underlying logic or assumption of criminality? • Advent of Community Oriented Policing (COP) reflects a sociological model of crime: Social Disorganization Theory • Chicago School Emphasizes Ecological Elements in the Urban Area (Develop. & Maintenance of Neighborhoods)

2. Social Disorganization & Comm. Policing • Shaw & McKay Map incidents of delinquency (55,000 in 30 yrs) • Spatial patterns in places where delinquency is clustered • What about the spatial pattern of the population in these high crime areas? • Lots of turnover; low population stability • But several stable features: • Economic depression • Single parent households • Dilapidated housing • High % of renters • Crime rate

3. Social Disorganization Theory Feedback Loop

4. Community Policing Keys to Solving the Crime Problem? • Focus on Internal Community Organization • Increase Informal Community Controls on Crime • Develop a sense of community obligation • Partnerships Questions for Police: • Are you set up to contribute to this process? • What can police do to contribute to informal control mechanisms in communities?

5. Community Oriented Policing Broken Windows Theory (Kelling and Wilson) What does a broken window symbolize? What are the consequences of broken windows for a community? Skogan (1990) Urban Disorder/Decay is a spiral. Disorder takes 2 forms: Physical Human Consequences of Disorder: Signals would-be criminals that crime/misbehavior is tolerated Increases resident fear of crime Implies that a Community-focused Police Response is most appropriate for addressing crime problems

6. Community Oriented Policing Indicators of need to shift previous policing approach • Citizen fear more closely tied to neighborhood disorganization (disorder) than real crime Police should consider fear of crime as a measure of effectiveness • Police Role should be Broadened • More emphasis on • Minor violations • Keeping order • Community organizing • Community satisfaction • Aggressive law enforcement: increase strict law enforcement, saturate hot spots, numerous citations, make many arrests.

7. Community Oriented Policing Mobilization of Community: Examples? Community Watch, Crime Stoppers, etc. Serve to provide deterrence, increase neighborhood cohesion, educates community and police about crime Civil law to address quality of life issues in neighborhoods: City officials, landlords, zoning, etc. Effectiveness of Community Policing: Foot Patrol: no impact on crime, but improves perceptions about crime & about police relations Crime Watchers: little impact on crime, SES of neighborhood

8. Community Oriented Policing: 3 Considerations • Organizational/Philosophical Perspective of Police • Input from Community/Citizens • Expansion of Police Mission/Role (Decentralization) • Service Orientation 2. Strategic Implications • Interactive/Engaging Police Operations • Geographic Focus • Neighborhoods >> Beats • Beat Assignment >> Ownership – Familiarity & Accountability • Crime Prevention: Focus beyond incidents & apprehension • Tactical Consequences: Putting it in Action? • Quality Citizen Interaction (and Public Opinion) • Police-Community Partnership • Problem-solving

9. Problem Oriented Policing Goldstein (1979) Modern outgrowth of comm. policing movement Information Age (Postmodern Era): Information is a resource How do you measure overall police productivity? UCR data? Problems with Traditional Policing? Police role is defined with vague categories: crime, order maintenance, service Take categories & break them into discrete problems with specific responses to each one Police were prisoners to their communications systems: Reactive (calls for service) No planning involved for underlying problems

10. Problem Oriented Policing (Goldstein) Police are too concerned with the ends—incidents. Police need to become focused on the means—the underlying problems that cause the incidents Example: 60% of calls from 10% of addresses. 10% of victims account for 40% of crimes. 10% of criminals for 55% of crimes. 3 Elements: Define problems specifically, not in terms of incidents or crime caregories. Research the problem. Look for alternatives to present responses. Crime prevention, civil law, community groups, services of other governmental agencies. Requires that the police become partners with citizens. Improves the working environment of the police, & should increase job satisfaction.

11. Problem Identification in Action: Proactive Police Strategy: The “SARA” Model Scanning: Identify problems in the beat review calls for service in service area consult with residents Analysis: Collect information from inside & outside the agency. Collect data about the problem to id nature, extent, scope Response: Data used to design a response Emphasis on using tactics that have an impact Assessment: Evaluate the effectiveness of strategies Feedback from citizens Multiple evaluations Hot Spots of Crime (GIS analysis) Tends to be relatively effective in reducing crime

12. Community Oriented Policing Today Very Popular among modern police departments: How well do PDs understand COP/POP? Popular strategies: Foot patrols, Police substations, ID neighborhood problems, deal with disorder, community meetings, Surveys Major change in the Role of Police: Emphasis is away from traditional mission of crime control Police role is expanded to include issues related to fear, order maintenance, conflict resolution, area decay, disorder Police must create relationships with community (Co-production) Maguire (from B&B):

13. COP: Rhetoric or Reality 1997 BJS survey of 700 police agencies. 63% county & 61% municipal agencies have COP plan 65% larger departments form problem solving relationship with local community groups. 55% encourage officers to engage in problem solving relationships using COP concepts. Maguire (1997): 236 large metropolitan PDs 44% had adopted COP 47% planning or implementing stage 9% no plans to adopt community policing

14. COPS & Crime Prevention Police legitimacy: the public confidence in the police as fair and equitable • Strongly related to citizen willingness to obey the law. • Milwaukee Domestic Violence Experiment (Paternoster et al 1997) • If police act in a procedurally fair and respectful manner, the rate of subsequent domestic violence went down. Crime prevention and community • Changes include: • Organizing communities to improve and strengthen relationships. • Change building/neighborhood design to improve surveillance/guardianship • Improving appearance to do decrease image it is vulnerable. • Develop activities that give a more structured or supervised environment • Re-integrative Justice (Community justice & shaming offenders) • community-accountability conferences. • Led by trained police officer. • Offender has to admit guilt. • Make sure everyone has a say, especially victim. • Agreement on repaying the cost of the crime. • Research on victims and offenders indicates greatly increased respect for police and perceptions of justice.

15. COPS & Crime Prevention Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) • Basic elements: target hardening and territorial reinforcement (informal control of environment). • Some areas: cities require police input on building design. • Goal: provide employees and residents with a better view of surroundings and reduce places to hide. • Public health and crime prevention. • Public health: more concerned about risk factors than criminal intent. Three categories of risk: • Structural or cultural: poverty, television violence. • Criminogenic commodities: the availability of guns, drugs, and alcohol. • Situational risks: unresolved disputes between family members, landlords and tenants, gangs.

16. 3 Ways to “do” COPS

17. Criticisms of COPS? • Iron fist in a velvet glove is still an iron fist “Political Economy of Policing” (Barlow & Barlow) • Shift to COPS was driven by image maintenance and a crisis in legitimacy • legitimacy of police institution • Creates the perceptions of a warm, fuzzy police • Little strong evidence to support this imagery • COPS innovations hit police industry in 1980s/1990s – war on drugs heyday.

18. Barlow & Barlow: Political Economy of Community Policing • From Broken Windows to Image Management? • Postmodernism • “Hyper-reality”: images become reality • “A new tool in the drama of control” (Manning 1991) • “Circumlocution whose purpose is to conceal, mystify, and legitimate police [force]” (Klockars 1991) • Iron Fist & Velvet Glove • PPUs/Specialized Units • Overall growth of CJ complex: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/glance/exptyp.htm • Social Control though Image Control

19. Social Disorganization in 21st Century • Collective efficacy has replaced disorder as the characteristic that is thought to distinguish organized from disorganized communities. • Implications: • Police should re-focus on generating partnerships • Enhance community efficacy • Continue addressing disorder, but there is a dark-side to zero-tolerance versions of COPS • NYPD • Compstat • Low quality arrests; increased police violence