NCJ Number
151304
Journal
American Journal of Police Volume: 12 Issue: 3 Dated: (1993) Pages: 79-88
Date Published
1993
Length
10 pages
Annotation
This analysis of two proposals for improving police efficiency and the effectiveness of crime prevention by increasing community involvement concludes that both proposals deserve to be tested in the field.
Abstract
Greg Givens proposes to use citizen groups to handle certain calls for service. This innovation would be relatively inexpensive to implement and would rely largely on volunteer citizens. The revised call-handling system would continue to be managed by the police, who would experience benefits in terms of reduced or better-managed workloads. The proposal of Rosenfeld and Decker focuses on preventing youth violence. This strategy would be more labor- intensive and presumably more costly. The police would have a role in this program, but this innovation would require extensive multiagency cooperation and collaboration as well as citizen involvement. It is not immediately clear who would manage this program. Testing of these programs would indicate whether citizen responders can handle many calls for service and whether a coordinated approach to youth violence in high-risk neighborhoods can be more effective than current efforts.