PRESENTATION ON COMMUNITY POLICING

MA CRIMINOLOGY (PREVIOUS-II) 2011. DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY UNIVERSITY OF KARACHI, 2011 COURSE INSTRUCTOR: MADAM RANA SABA SULTAN

Group Members

COMMUNITY POLICING
y Over the past two decades, Community policing has

emerged as a philosophy and a practice in which the police and the public forge a partnership in the fight against crime. y (Trojanowicz (1994)) defines it as a philosophy and organisational strategy that promotes a new partnership between the people and the police. y Peak(1997) points out that policing emerged as the dominant direction of thinking in crime prevention, which unifies the police and the community. He indicates that it is a philosophy and not a specific tactic. It is a proactive, decentralised approach designed to reduce crime, by involving officers in the community on a long term basis.

Cont.......


His definition is based on the premise that the police and the community must work together as equal partners to identify, prioritise and solve contemporary problems such as crime, drug abuse, fear of crime, social disorder and overall neighbourhood decay, with the goal of improving the overall quality of life in the area.

KEY FEATURES

Community based crime prevention

Decentralization of command

Increased accountability to local communities

Reorientation of police patrol activities to render non-emergency services

Does not mean cessation of police efforts to control crime. Investigating police has to continue side by side with Community Policing. To win community's trust, the police have to demonstrate its sincerity in seeking community's help in combating crime and disorder

Sir Robert Peel

Considered a father of law enforcement
Are his principles of policing still applicable today? Absolutely!

Sir Robert Peels Nine Principles of Policing

1. The basic mission for which the police exist is to prevent crime and disorder. 2. The ability of the police to perform their duties is dependent upon public approval of police actions. 3. Police must secure the willing cooperation of the public in voluntary observance of the law to be able to secure and maintain the respect of the public.

Sir Robert Peels Nine Principles of Policing (cont.)

4. The degree of cooperation of the public that can be secured diminishes proportionally to the necessity of the use of force. 5. Police seek and preserve public favor not by catering to public opinion but by constantly demonstrating absolute impartial service to the law. 6. Police use physical force to the extent necessary to secure observance of the law or to restore order only when the expertise of persuasion, advice, and warning is found to be insufficient.

Sir Robert Peels Nine Principles of Policing (cont.)

7. Police at all time should maintain a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition; the police are public and the public are the police. The police being only full-time individuals charged with the duties that are incumbent on all of the citizens. 8. Police should always direct their actions strictly towards their functions and never appear to usurp the powers of the judiciary. 9. The test of police efficiency is the absence of crime and disorder, not the visible evidence of police action in dealing with it.

A Change in Community Involvement: Community Policing



When Sir Robert peel established London s Metropolitan police Department, he stated The police are the public and the public are the police .

Community policing can be defined as that promotes community, government and

an

organization wide philosophy and management approach police partnerships; proactive problem solving; and community engagement to address the causes of crime, fear of crime and other community issues.

WHAT IS THE ESSENCE OF COMMUNITY POLICING?



Community Oriented Policing is a matter of giving people what they deserve. The innocent deserve the highest level of protection we can give. They also have the right to feel secure, and this may be as important as actually being secure. The guilty, on the Project Report Community Policing other hand, must feel that criminal acts will be discovered and prosecuted, or at the very least they will become an object of our unremitting attention In essence, levels of crime diminish as quality-of-life in the community improves.

THE POLICE AND THE PUBLIC/ COMMUNITY RELATIONS



Community relations is the corner stone of effective policing. Indeed, many observers argue that community relations is the role of policing. In this sense, the police are seen as the lubricants in the wheels of society, smoothing the passage of its citizens and intervening to resolve conflict and difficulty wherever it should occur. Many calls for our services touch upon the relationship, between the members of public - as victim or assailant as accuser or accused, as protester or object of protest, and every contact between police and public has potential to influence the wider aspect of community relations.

Cont..
Handling issues of community relations therefore calls for a policing strategy which recognizes the allembracing nature of the relationship between police and public  The success in revitalizing community relations, in raising community consciousness, and in improving the relationship between community and police depends on police loosening some of their control of policing in the widest sense. This requires consultation, understanding, negotiation and co-operation between the community and the police. Whether it be Officers out on the streets or at policy levels, there is a need for all involved to be working at that end.


A PHILOSOPHY of full service, PERSONALIZED POLICING, where the same officer PATROLS and works in the same area on a PERMANENT basis, from a decentralized PLACE, working in PARTNERSHIP with citizens to identify and solve PROBLEMS.

Six Factors Necessary To Improve Police-Community Relations

15

Membership
1. 2. 3. 4.

Appropriate cross-section of members Mutual respect, understanding, and trust Members see that collaboration is in their best interest. Members develop an ability to compromise.

16

Environment
1. 2. 3.

Political and social climate are favorable. Collaborative group is viewed as a leader in the community. There is a history or evidence of collaboration or cooperation in the community.

17

Process/Structure
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Members are invested in the process as well as the outcome. Clear roles and responsibilities Flexibility Adaptability Equal decision-making authority is held by each member regardless of rank, authority, or place in the hierarchy.

18

Communication
1. 2. 3. 4.

Members learn to listen and allow venting. There is open and frequent communication. Members disclose self-interest at first meeting. Members establish informal and formal means of communication.

19

Purpose
1. 2. 3.

Concrete, attainable goals and objectives Shared vision Desired results and strategies

National Crime Prevention Council 2006

20

Resources
1. 2. 3.

A skilled and unbiased convener Staff time and volunteer time Sufficient funds

21

Why is Community Involvement Important?

When members of a community are involved with each other, they know: Their neighbors  The daily goings-on in the neighborhood  When something is wrong  One great way to perpetuate community involvement is

through the Neighborhood Watch program.

22

Successful

implementation

of

community

policing requires that both the community and law enforcement understand the underlying philosophy and have a true commitment to the community policing strategy.

ADVANTAGES OF COMMUNITY POLICING

Breaks down anonymity of policing and diminishes psychological distance between the police and the public-puts faces in uniform. It minimizes the police over-reaction, transforms police officers from being agents of law to the upholders community values

Increases job satisfaction for the police in ongoing community programmers

The police become more accountable and effective.

PRACTICAL PROBLEM WITH THE IMPLEMENTING OF COMMUNITY POLICING

The most significant aspect of community policing consists in breaking down the barriers separating community and the police. The problem of community policing is both of theoretical and practical nature.


First, much of the discussion of community policing has tended to overlook the politically ambivalent role of the concept that it poses for the police.

Cont


Second, the high degree of individualism which characterizes the cities where the opportunities of crime are multiplied in the anonymity of the city streets, the factory, and the market place, is going to limit the effectiveness of any form of policing which relies heavily on the collective endeavors of the community. Since social and geographical mobility have created relationships that cannot be governed by informal controls so, same is true about the concept of community policing as it is entirely based on collective efforts of police and the community.

Third, another obstacle to the development of community policing is the collaboration of police with other agencies in the communities. Here problem canaries regarding the sharing of information between agencies, the accountability of different agencies and their respective responsibilities.  Fourth, the men who join police are often very young in age as well as in maturity of temperament and judgment. Training in the use of force and authority to use it, combined with youth of most police officers, can well inhibit the capacity of a police officer to emphasize with the situation of those being policed in ethnically diverse and low income neighbor hoods. Community policing requires effective interaction between police and ordinary citizens so, community policing demands a degree of emotional maturity more likely to be present in somewhat older officers. Thus, the youth of police recruits appear to be less inclined towards the job of community policing.


HOW DOES COMMUNITY POLICING MAKE POLICE MORE EFFECTIVE?

y

Crime is a complex social problem that cannot be solved by any single agency. When we recognize the complexity of the crime problem, we also acknowledge the police are not solely responsibility for its solution. We realize it would be unfair to hold an individual officer, or even a police department, responsible for the crime rate. We are then confronted with a dilemma as to where responsibility should be assigned. Unfortunately, the traditional approach to crime control invests all anti-crime efforts in the police The police embraced the role of crime-fighter but retreated from responsible for rising crime rates. The police were often quick to take credit for success but shun responsibility for failure..

Cont
Community policing seeks to address crime without being overwhelmed by the effort. The crime problem is de-constructed into manageable pieces. Officers become responsible for smaller geographic areas and projects. By narrowing the approach, trouble spots can be identified and problem-solving progress measured. Officers work with, rather than against, the public. They develop relationships with community members and become accountable to the community, as well as to their departments y AS officers address problems of social and physical disorder, criminogenic conditions diminish. The cumulative effect of improving quality-of-life in the community reduces the levels of crime. In the process, the police become more effective crime-fighters.
y

IMPEDIMENTS TO COMMUNITY POLICING IN PAKISTAN



The role and concept of community policing in Pakistan stems from the principle of the system of criminal administration which again is based on public order/disorder, depending upon various social and economic variables. The ideal would be that we have a system which conjures forth the objective respecting police-public relationship wherein a police figure, whatever rank and status should be regarded by every law abiding Citizen as a wise and impartial being acting as protector against every conceivable threat. Factually speaking the Pakistan police.

COMMUNITY POLICING MODEL IS FRAUGHT WITH FOLLOWING DEMERITS: The Criminal Procedure Code ( Cr. PC ) governing the exercise of police actions is based on a legislative act devised by Britishers in 1898. Hardly countable amendments might have been made in the act, Although various chapters/sections/provisions of the act comprehensively deal with the administration of criminal justice but when put together with Police Rules 1934, scarcely delivers the good. ii. The system of police personnel training in Pakistan depends primarily on the social and cultural fixations of the instructors who run the academies/institutions of training. Devoid of intellectual investigation and proper psycho-academic case study of problems the Pakistani system steps into any given situation through illequipped operational techniques.
i.

iii. Lack of funds and poor working conditions from an ordinary constable to the Inspector General of police promote sickening functional environment wherein reformatory part of community policing barely comes in, iv. Brutalities, violence and infringement of basic human rights in Pakistan is another source of malady attached with the system of policing. Financial corruption at every tier is an additional factor taken note of in the system. v. Insufficient sophisticated training of police officers, both preservice and in-service, in subject matter of human relations plus in-effective administrative policies and supervision relative to police misconduct are noticeable factors. vi. Serious credibility questions regarding internal discipline and investigative procedures besides inadequate statistics/data relative to citizen complaints always lacks in the system.

HOW TO IMPROVE COMMUNITY POLICING IN PAKISTAN



i. ii. iii.

iv. v.

Before suggesting measures to solve the problems of police community relations, we must accept this fact that no program oriented towards the betterment of police -community relations can be successful without improving the basic service conditions of the police officers. Recruitment on merit. Improvement in training programs according to the present day requirements. Public must be fully informed regarding their police, the service rendered and the improvements made to build up a better and cordial image of police. Frequent visits of the area by police officers in non-emergency times. Participation in local social functions.

vi. Encouragement of respectable of the area to visit police stations. vii. Projection of police activities through proper press relations. viii. Visits of schools and colleges by police officers to build up their

respect in the minds of the students for having better community relations in future. ix. Police officers must scrutinize their working, their behavior and their own point of view. x. Improving community relations involves not only instituting programs and changing procedure and practices but re-examining fundamental attitudes. With this police officers will have to learn to listen patiently and understandingly even to the people who are openly critical of them, since, they are the people with whom relations need to be improved. xi. The desired relation ship between the police and the community is impossible to attain unless both have suitable attitude. Public thinks that only police is responsible for good community relations, which is wrong. Community policing is a matter of shared responsibility and total involvement of alt citizens, whether or not they wear badges.

CONCLUSION
 Community policing is the responsibility of both law enforcement

AND community members. community policing.

BOTH have important roles in

 There are many ways to involve the community in crime-reduction

and problem solving, including community meetings and citizen police academies.
 Police and local citizens are ALL members of the community.21

Resources
y Community Policing Consortium

www.communitypolicing.org y Volunteers in Police Service www.policevolunteers.org y Citizen Corps www.citizencorps.gov