NCJ Number
195137
Journal
Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management Volume: 25 Issue: 1 Dated: 2002 Pages: 190-200
Date Published
2002
Length
11 pages
Annotation
This article describes two process evaluation studies of policing reform in Finland.
Abstract
Community policing has been implemented in Finland systematically since 1996. The model was based on the problem-oriented approach, and the main principles were crime prevention, proactive policing, and multi-agency cooperation. Community policing has placed new obligations on the police to cooperate in the development and implementation of local crime prevention and security strategies. The formation of partnerships and networking with other agencies has been the main objectives. The process evaluation of the implementation of community policing in Finland is qualitative, based on content analysis of administration documents in 1995-2000 and on interviews of 47 senior police officers (middle managers) that were in charge of the implementation. The management of change was unsuccessful because there were no additional resources for community policing, no strong pressures for reforms, and no proper training and education. The evaluation of the networking and strategy making process in Tampere, the second largest city in Finland, was based on documents collected from the planning group and interviews of the participants of the group, and the continuous monitoring of the process. Finding showed that, as a network, the planning group was effective and coherent enough for the security policy making. Information exchange and knowledge sharing worked well and all members also found the process beneficial to their own fields. The synergy advantage was significant, especially among the police, social authorities, church, and environmental planning authorities (architecture, buildings, and parking places). Commitment of the police to the planning was seen to be good but on a narrow personnel basis. One reason for implementation failures at the beginning of the process was that police managers could not answer the question “why?” posed by their staff. The whole process of implementation of the community policing strategy was a process of learning by doing. The result is now a more systematic, holistic, and strategic approach to local policing. Although no longer called community policing, there exists a coherent strategy of partnerships and networking. 2 notes, 23 references