Tuesday, January 8, 2019

Basics Of Effective Community Policing Programs

By Brenda Thompson


Communities that have joined law enforcers in addressing security issues have continued to enjoy calm and order. Tension between people and police has reduced, enabling greater cooperation in securing neighborhoods. However, community policing programs do not work automatically. They need to be founded on some of the strongest pillars that integrate law enforcement and the role of people in the scheme of things.

The program should enhance trust between police and the community. Law enforcement agencies should trust in the words of the citizens and allow them deal with some of the issues. People should also trust that the engagement and information they give to police officers will enhance security and well-being in their neighborhood. In the absence of trust, there will be tussles with law enforces and people will fail to report crimes of confrontations.

Align the policies of your program with values of your community. Each neighborhood is unique. It values certain routines and levels of engagement. Officials should help officers understand local cultures and traditional values. Police should know issues to intervene and those that are solved locally. This knowledge helps them to understand a neighborhood better. However, these values should not violate national norms or be too extreme that they endanger the lives of other people.

Technology should form part of an effective program today. People should be allowed to call police and report incidences. Police should be ready to use body cameras to record incidences in order to enhance trust and transparency. Recorded videos should be admissible as evidence with a particular threshold. Technology makes everyone a partner in enhancing civility in the society.

Police should make it a priority to engage people in the neighborhood while people also engage police on their concerns. Issues should not be allowed to blow out of proportion as those police are non-existent. Police do not appear as lords or the people. In reverse, people do not view police as peers because they have a responsibility. It is mutual engagement that will ensure that the dignity of both people and police institution is preserved.

Peaceful co-existence between people and police is enhanced through intense training and awareness creation. The aim is to make people understand the role of police officers and police to be cognizant of expectations from citizens. Awareness of boundaries and the responsibilities that come with these boundaries helps to de-escalate issues since everyone is aware of his or her place.

The dignity and regard of policemen and other law enforcers must be preserved at all times. People and police officers must see institutions whenever these officers are in neighborhoods. The enforcers must also follow the code of conduct that guides the institutions they serve. Such relationships lead to mutual respect and helps in the avoidance of confrontations. Officers can be respectful to their seniors while still serving the populace in the deserved manner.

Community policing is supposed to solve localized problem. At the bottom of your program, you should have the issues that bother your neighborhood in mind. Understand the role of police and responsibility of citizenry. When both parties are engaged, it is easier to develop an effective program.




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