Transcript Community Oriented Policing

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)
Social Disorganization & Comm. Policing
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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:
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Economic depression
Single parent households
Dilapidated housing
High % of renters
Social Disorganization Theory
Socioeconomic
Selection into
Neighborhoods
Feedback
Loop
Social
Disorganization
Crime
& Fear
Decay
Social
Disinvestment
& Inadequate
informal
social control
Community Policing
Keys to Solving the Crime Problem?
1. Focus on Internal Community Organization
2. Increase Informal Community Controls on
Crime
• Develop a sense of community obligation
• Partnerships
Questions for Police:
1. Are you set up to contribute to this process?
2. What can police do to contribute to informal
control mechanisms in communities?
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:
1. Physical
2. 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
Community Oriented Policing
Indicators of need to shift previous policing approach
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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
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Minor violations
Keeping order
Community organizing
Community satisfaction
Aggressive law enforcement: increase strict law
enforcement, saturate hot spots, numerous citations, make
many arrests.
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
Community Oriented Policing: 3 Considerations
1. Organizational/Philosophical Perspective of Police
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Input from Community/Citizens
Expansion of Police Mission/Role (Decentralization)
Service Orientation
2. Strategic Implications
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Interactive/Engaging Police Operations
Geographic Focus
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Neighborhoods >> Beats
Beat Assignment >> Ownership – Familiarity & Accountability
Crime Prevention: Focus beyond incidents & apprehension
3. Tactical Consequences: Putting it in Action?
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Quality Citizen Interaction (and Public Opinion)
Police-Community Partnership
Problem-solving
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
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:
1. Define problems specifically, not in terms of incidents or crime
caregories.
2. Research the problem.
3. 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.
Problem Identification in Action:
Proactive Police Strategy: The “SARA” Model
Scanning:
Analysis:
Response:
Assessment:
Identify problems in the beat
review calls for service in service area
consult with residents
Collect information from inside & outside the
agency. Collect data about the problem to id
nature, extent, scope
Data used to design a response
Emphasis on using tactics that have an impact
Evaluate the effectiveness of strategies
Feedback from citizens
Multiple evaluations
Hot Spots of Crime (GIS analysis)
Tends to be relatively effective in reducing crime
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 (Coproduction)
Maguire (from B&B):
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
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:
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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)
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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.
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.
3 Ways to “do” COPS
COP
Quality of Life
POP
Zero-Tolerance
Empirical
Orientation
Watchman
Community
Responsiveness
Law & Order
Scientific Analysis
& Strategy
Discretion:
Informal Solutions
Discretion reflects
Analysis
Aggressive
Crime Control
Discretion:
Formal Solutions
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.
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
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 darkside to zero-tolerance versions of COPS
• NYPD
• Compstat
• Low quality arrests; increased police violence