Jared Hoffman

Mrs. Burr, Instructor

English 2010

28 March 2017

Evaluation of the Effects of Community Policing

Community policing is the general term used to describe the local system of police work

that most individuals are familiar with throughout the United States and much of the world.

Nearly all police forces in the nation, with the exception of some federal ones, describe

themselves as departments that engage in community policing. Community policing takes

different forms and styles but it, along with proper police training, is crucial for decreasing crime

and promoting healthy communities.

The police perform various services in our communities. Their main purpose is to administer

criminal law so that people do not go around hurting or stealing from one another. They also

render aid to injured or lost people. All of this allows the citizens of a community to live, work,

and raise children without fear. To best ensure a feeling of security, city police employ

community policing.

To understand community policing in its various forms as well as which forms are the

most effective it is important to understand the concept of community policing itself. To do this

one has to look at the types of law enforcement throughout human history as is shown in the

texbook by Cunningham et al. All the way back in the time of Hammurabi, the writer of the first

known law code, there was a group of early police officers called the messengers. The
messengers were tasked with both finding people who had violated the law and the punishment

of the offenders (3).

Later, the Assyrians, a group not well known for being particularly merciful, established

one of the first public court systems. The Roman Empire was the first place in the world to create

a civilian police force. This first civilian police force was called a vigil and they spent time

preserving order and safety for the people of rome and the lands nearby. Long after the fall of

rome on the english isles most law enforcement was done communally. This system wasnt very

effective so Sir Robert Peel created an act called the Metropolitan Police Improvement Bill. This

bill eventually was very effective in decreasing the amount of crime in England at the time by

establishing a professional police force (5).

Perhaps the most important thing Sir Robert Peel did to revolutionize law enforcement

was his understanding that the police forces of a community are the employees of the community

and should act as a part of it. He developed a list of nine Principles of Policing that serve as the

basis of community policing today. The principles are as follows:

1. The basic mission for which police exist is to prevent crime and disorder as an alternative

to the repression of crime and disorder by military force and severity of legal punishment.

2. The ability of the police to perform their duties is dependent upon public approval of

police existence, actions, behavior and the ability of the police to secure and maintain

public respect.

3. The police must secure the willing cooperation of the public in voluntary observance of

the law to be able to secure and maintain public respect.

4. The degree of cooperation of the public that can be secured diminishes, proportionately,

to the necessity for the use of physical force and compulsion in achieving police

objectives.

5. The police seek and preserve public favor, not by catering to public opinion, but by

constantly demonstrating absolutely impartial service to the law, in complete

independence of policy, and without regard to the justice or injustice of the substance of

individual laws; by ready offering of individual service and friendship to all members of

society without regard to their race or social standing, by ready exercise of courtesy and

friendly good humor; and by ready offering of individual sacrifice in protecting and

preserving life.

6. The police should use physical force to the extent necessary to secure observance of the

law or to restore order only when the exercise of persuasion, advice and warning is found

to be insufficient to achieve police objectives; and police should use only the minimum

degree of physical force which is necessary on any particular occasion for achieving a

police objective.

7. The police at all times should maintain a relationship with the public that gives reality to

the historic tradition that the police are the public and the public are the police; the police

are the only members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties

which are incumbent on every citizen in the intent of the community welfare.

8. The police should always direct their actions toward their functions and never appear to

usurp the powers of the judiciary by avenging individuals or the state, or authoritatively

judging guilt or punishing the guilty.

 9. The test of police efficiency is the absence of crime and disorder, not the visible evidence

of police action in dealing with them.

These principles for how enforcers of the law should act have remained crucial in

establishing good policing in the time since the principles were written all the way back in 1829

(Roufa). These principles focus primarily on how the police should handle and conduct

themselves for embetterment of the community. This primarily includes stopping crime and

developing a relationship with the community.

One of the most important ways to develop a relationship with the community is to

become a part of it. Police are assigned to places in which they themselves understand the local

subculture and can relate to the people within it. By understanding the community they develop a

feeling of trust which seriously decreases crime. I spoke to former police officer and trainer Jim

Hoffman about community policing and how it affects the rate of crime in any given community.

Officer Jim Hoffman started in the police force in 1996 as a patrol officer. During this

time standard policing was experiencing some changes to a more community based approach.

After his service as a patrol officer he went on to the vice unit. The vice unit he served on was

primarily responsible for policing violations to laws relating to alcohol use, prostitution, and

gambling. Soon thereafter he went into the narcotics division working undercover or operating

confidential informants who would buy drugs in order to catch drug dealers. At some point he

went on to traffic policing and served five years in the accident division before becoming a

detective for theft of property training (Hoffman).

 The ultimate goal of police work is to prevent crime and to protect peoples natural

rights. This sentiment is reflected in Jim Hoffmans answer to the question as to what the most

important part of his job was: crime prevention.

The prevention of criminal behavior takes several different forms. The first is trying to

catch people in the act of committing a crime. This includes catching burglars in houses or bank

robbers in banks. Oftentimes however the police catch criminals who have recently committed a

crime and they book them into jail. Deterrence of crime is an essential part of policing and one of

the best deterrents of crime is a criminals fear of being caught or otherwise hindered by the

police. The police need to be always ready to stop criminal action (Wilson).

Another way crime is prevented is in capturing people who have committed crimes

sometime in the past and placing them in jail so they do not go on to commit more crimes.

People who have warrants out for their arrest are likely to be eventually caught and prosecuted.

Criminals, when placed in jail or prison, are unable to further cause harm to society at large and

hopefully can be rehabilitated to become productive members of society.

Maintaining order is another important skill necessary in preventing crime so that law

abiding people can go about their lives without fear of criminal actions. By maintaining order

there is a sense that criminal behavior will not go unpunished and also makes people less fearful

for the safety of themselves and property. Less crime and greater economic activity results from

the maintenance of public order. One well known form of maintaining public order came into

being in during the 1980s. It was called broken windows policing or just broken windows for

short. The premise of broken windows policing is that major crime will decrease if the police

spend time to stop lesser crimes that creates a sense of disorder (Kelling). The example originally
used in the justification of this sort of policing policy is if there is a broken window that isnt

fixed and similar minor problems there will be a feeling of disorder that will, very indirectly lead

to more serious crimes to be committed in a community (Broken). There has been some criticism

of broken windows policing, namely that it can antagonize residents if the police

spend

their time policing many minor infractions, the original creators of the broken windows theory,

of course, didnt intend to have this be the focus of their sort of policing (Childress).

Preserving orders is a necessary goal of any community policing operation as is

generating a mutual feeling of trust between the police and the community they serve. By

training officers well and by having them focus on meeting the needs of the community crime

can be reduced and economic activity flows more freely.

 Works Cited

"Broken Windows Policing." Broken Windows Policing | Center for Evidence-Based Crime

Policy. George Mason University, n.d. Web. 15 Mar. 2017.

Childress, Sarah. "The Problem with 'Broken Windows' Policing." PBS. Public Broadcasting

Service,

28 June 2016. Web. 28 Mar. 2017.

Cunningham, Paul, and Et Al. Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Career and Technical

Education Student Manual. 2015 ed. Salt Lake City: Utah State Office of Education,

2015.

Print.

"Hoffman, Jim." Telephone interview. 29 Mar. 2017.

Kelling, George L., and William J. Bratton. "Why We Need Broken Windows Policing." City

Journal. N.p., 27 Jan. 2016. Web. 15 Mar. 2017.

Roufa, Timothy. "How Police Can Help Restore the Public Trust." The Balance. N.p., 9 Nov.

2016.

Web. 30 Mar. 2017.

Wilson, James Q., and George L. Kelling. The Police and Neighborhood Safety (n.d.): n. pag.

Web. 14 Mar. 2017.