Community Policing in the United States: Survey and Evaluation (From Police and the Community: Contributions Concerning the Relationship Between Police and the Community and Concerning Community Policing, P 106-116, 1990, Thomas Feltes and Erich Rebscher, eds.)

• NCJ Number: 129778
• Author(s): J R Greene
• Date Published: 1990
• Length: 11 pages
• Sale Source: Felix-Verlag
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: German
• Country: West Germany (Former)

Annotation

Nine community policing programs in the United States were evaluated in terms of the community concept, leadership, community input, and police training.

Abstract

The programs rarely clarified what they meant by "community"; however, in most programs the term referred to a police precinct rather than a close-knit neighborhood. Even in San Diego, Calif., where police officers had been instructed to identify neighborhoods by observing resident and business interrelationships, the divisions coincided mainly with existing police precincts. In addition, only three programs left leadership and responsibility with the community policing time. In the other programs, the community officers reported to the traditional police hierarchy. Furthermore, in most programs the police seemed to direct the program with little input from the community. Contacts in programs with more interactions were limited to the police supplying information about crime prevention and local crime problems. Lack of adequate training for community officers was another major problem. Results indicated that previous community-oriented approaches to policing have received identical criticism and that the hastiness with which new policing approaches are implemented prevents the police from learning from previous mistakes. 13 references