Community Policing: Enhancing Law Enforcement Efficiency

This article discusses community policing and its impact on law enforcement manpower. It explains how community policing officers interact with citizens to prevent crime and reduce stress on law enforcement manpower. Effective communication between police and citizens is also discussed. The article highlights the need for police to understand the socio-economic, political, and cultural background of the population they are serving. It also suggests strategies for improving communication between police and citizens.

Community Policing
1

Table of Contents
Community policing and different types of service requests.....................................................3
Community policing reduces the stress on law enforcement manpower...................................3
Effective communication between police and citizens..............................................................4
References..................................................................................................................................5
2

Community policing and different types of service requests
Community policing in simple terms can be understood as a law enforcement philosophy
which has been existing in the United States since 80s. Under this policing, police officers
continually try to engage and interact with the community people of a specific area, in order
to develop a strong bond with the citizens of that community. This helps in preventing a
crime before it takes place (Schubert, 2018). Community policing is a concept that has the
ability to change the future of American law enforcement and it has become successful to a
great extent. In order to provide other services and community policing at the same time,
police officers have put many efforts and have also joined hands with social workers in order
to deal with the community problems. The US is a country which has rich cultural as well as
ethnic diversity. As a result, police officers need to understand and identify the needs of the
victims and also provide necessary strategies in order to cope with issues. Hence, in order to
manage both the community policing along with other service requests, officers critically
analyse the socio- economic background, political and cultural background, racism, etc. of
the population they are serving (Lamin, Teboh, & Chamberlain, 2016).
In order to ensure safety of the people of the society and enhance their quality of life, the
movement of community policing in the recent times has gained momentum. There are a
number of approaches both practical and philosophical which can be used to support
community policing. The approach to be used depends upon the requirements of the society
involved. Strategies framed depend upon the responses of people and their needs of safety.
Thus, it can be said that the level of the crime as well as its nature in the United States are
becoming major reasons because of which the police forces in the United States are searching
for alternate methods of enhancing the efficiency of community policing strategies.
3

Community policing reduces the stress on law enforcement
manpower
Community policing Consortium comprises of various associations from police department
which allows the police department, members of the community and the policymakers in a
better assessment and implementation of law enforcement. It is true as a result of community
policing there has been a great reduction in level of stress faced by the law enforcement
manpower. It is because the community policing programs help to a great extent to reduce the
criminal activities within a community. Because of the continuous interaction with the
citizens of a specific community, the community policing officers come to know about any
suspicious activity well before it takes place. Hence, this helps in combating a criminal
situation in a very effective manner with less efforts and minimal use of manpower. The
increased police presence in a specific area develops a sense of fear among the criminals and
because of this, the crime rate falls thereby reducing the stress faced by the law enforcement
manpower (City of Baton Rouge, 2017).
Effective communication between police and citizens
It has been seen that today, citizens’ expectations are rising, which imposes challenge as well
as opportunity in front of the police forces. It mandates the need for police to effectively
communicate with its citizens in order to know their expectations and fulfil them. The
Community Policing Consortium can helps in facilitating a dialogue between police and
community and also provides assistance to community policing officers in the form of
training and using technology. Furthermore, community policing consortium acts as a
resource for the state and the country.
4

Also, communication can be improved by establishing a citizen portal through which,
citizens can compliant about emergency as well as non -emergency situation with great ease
and convenience. It is believed that when citizens will know that they are being heard and
also, they get response from the police force, it makes them feel safer and secure. Digitization
has taken place in almost every field and this technology should be utilized by police forces
as well to interact with their citizens and to respond to their queries and complaints (Weis,
2015). Using more transactional models for communication and also by actively listening to
the citizens, there will be a reduction in the communication gap between citizens and police
officers. Two way communication is very important and therefore, it is not necessary that
always the citizens initiate the communication rather police officers can also approach and
interact with the citizens to ensure low crime rate in the society (Loving, 2014).
References
City of Baton Rouge. (2017). Reducing crime and strengthening communities. Retrieved
from Brla.gov: https://www.brla.gov/1419/Reducing-Crime-and-Strengthening-
Communi
Lamin, S. A., Teboh, C., & Chamberlain, J. M. (2016). Police social work and community
policing. Cogent Social Sciences, 2(1).
Loving, K. (2014). 3 Ways For Law Enforcement To Improve Public Relations and Trust.
Retrieved from Criminaljusticedegree.com: https://www.criminaljusticedegree.com/3-
ways-for-law-enforcement-to-improve-public-relations-and-trust/
Schubert, J. (2018). What Is Community Policing? - Definition, History & Strategies.
Retrieved from Study.com: https://study.com/academy/lesson/what-is-community-
policing-definition-history-strategies.html
5

Weis, J. (2015). Citizens to Police: Let’s Work Together. Retrieved from
Huffingtonpost.com: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/jody-weis-/citizens-to-police-
lets-w_b_7126788.html
6