Police Role in the Community. CJ Chapter 4

Transcription

1 Police Role in the Community CJ Chapter 4

2 Community Oriented & Problem Solving - COPPS Community Policing Basic Principals A fundamental aspect of CP has always been that the public must be engaged in the fight against crime and disorder. Sir Robert Peel s s Principals of Policing The police are the public, and the public are the police. CP emerged in the early 1980s as the dominant direction for thinking about policing. There is no one CP model.

3 Traditional vs. CP Question Who are the police? What is the police role? How is efficiency measured? What determines effectiveness? What do police deal with? Traditional Government agency responsible for law enforcement. Solving crime. Detection and arrests. Response time. Incidents CP Police giving full-timer attention to the duties of citizens. A broad problem-solving approach. Absence of crime & disorder. Public cooperation. Citizne s problems and concerns.

4 CP is a long-term process involving fundamental institutional change. It is a paradigm shift. It goes beyond implementing programs such as bicycle patrol or storefront precincts, ALL personnel, cop to chief, need to break away from the incident-driven driven style.

5 Traditional policing is Incident driven Reactive in nature CP is IDs problems Proactive in nature See Figure 4: Page 66

6 Problem Solving Early beginnings Not a new approach, just refined. In the past there was little or no guidance on how to solve problems. Problems were often times left at the door, littl or no follow through. POP is a strategy that puts COP into practice. Theoretically, the two are grounded on different principals. Problem-solving helps police to ID problems, analyze them, develop response strategies, and assess results. Herman Goldstein is the principal architect.

7 The link Goldstein was frustrated with the practice of police judging efficiency based on response time and what they did when they arrived. Goldstein linked the use of the telephone as a driving force in determining the relationship between the public and the police. The telephone, more than any public or internal policy, dictates what a police agency does. And that problem has been greatly aggravated with the installation of 911.

8 Towards improvement Police must be equipped to define more clearly and to understand more fully the problems they are expected to handle. The police must develop a commitment to analyzing problems. Police must be encouraged to conduct an uninhibited search for the most effective response to each problem. Police must acquaint themselves with some of the conditions and factors that contribute to problems.

9 The SARA Model Originated with Newport News, VA police. A process involving Scanning Analysis Response Assessment

10 Scanning Means problem identification. What is a problem? It has been defined as: A group of two or more incidents that are similar in one or more respects, causing harm and therefore of concern to the police and public. Similarity of incidents includes Behavior Location Persons Time Events

11 Analysis This is the heart of the problem solving process. The purpose is to learn as much as possible about problems in order to ID causes. Information is obtained from internal and external sources. Complete analysis includes ID the seriousness of the problem, persons/groups involved and affected, all causes of the problem, and assessing current responses and their effectiveness. Be realistic. Do not assess on a massive scale, think locally.

12 The Problem Analysis Triangle Offender Problem Victim Place

13 The three elements Offender Victim Location must all be present for a problem to occur. The problem then results in harmful behavior or a crime. When these elements occur over and over in patterns of recurring problems the pattern can be interrupted by removing one or more of the elements.

14 Third parties These are the people who can help or hurt the chances associated with the problem- solving effort. Handlers or Controllers Guardians Managers

15 Response After the problem has been clearyl defined and analyzed the ultimate challenge becomes the search for the most effective way of dealing with it. Responses will often be tailored based on a review of the crime triangle.

16 Potential responses 1. Totally eliminate the problem. 2. Reducing the number of incidents the problem creates. Reduce the seriousness of the harm. 3. Reduce the seriousness of the harm. Dealing with the problem better. 4. Dealing with the problem better. 5. Remove the problem from police consideration.

17 Assessment Here the police evaluate the effectiveness of the response. Some nontraditional measures to use to see if a problem has been reduced or eliminated: Reduced instances of repeat vicitmization Decrease in related crimes and incidents. Neighborhood indicators. Increased citizen satisfaction. Reduced fear related to the problem.

18 Collaboration CP & POP share important characteristics: Decentralization Geographically, rather than functionally defined units Close interaction with the local community Both rely on a proactive philosophy that promotes solving problems that are criminal, affect the quality of life, increase the fear of crime, as well as other community related issues. The result is Community Oriented Policing and Problem Solving (COPPS).

19 COPPS In order for COPPS to succeed the following is required: Conduct accurate community needs assessment Mobilize all appropriate players Determine appropriate resource allocations Develop and implement innovative, collaborative, comprehensive programs Evaluate programs and modify approaches as needed.

20 Crime Analysis It is important to understand How When Where Why criminal events occur, rather than to merely respond to them. Crime analysis if defined as a set of systematic, analytical processes providing timely and pertinent information to assist operational and administrative personnel.

21 Types of Crime Analysis Three types: Tactical Strategic Administrative Four kinds of functions: Crime series/pattern detection Suspect-crime crime correlation Target/suspect profiles Crime potential forecasts

22 Where does the function belong? One of the first challenges is to determine Sworn Civilian Assigned personnel need good verbal and written skills. A social science degree is recommended Computer literacy is important Assign the unit where the services will be most beneficial. Patrol Investigative

23 Crime Mapping A technological advancement of an age- old practice Pin mapping Takes a more global approach in involving the community in addressing problems by identifying neighborhood trends. Today, it combines geographic information with computerized statistics often using software such as CAD.

24 Other sources of information Police reports Capture exact descriptions of locations. Calls for service Provides an extensive accounting of what calls the public makes. High reliance on CAD. Surveys Helps to identify and clarify problems.