Neighborhoods and Police: The Maintenance of Civil Authority (From Community Policing: Classical Readings, P 283-296, 2000, Willard M. Oliver, ed. -- See NCJ-193347)

• NCJ Number: 193349
• Author(s): George L. Kelling; James K. Stewart
• Date Published: 2000
• Length: 14 pages
• Sale Source: Prentice Hall Publishing
• Publication Format: Book (Softbound)
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This chapter examined the effects of community policing in changing the role of neighborhoods and their reemergence as a source of governance and whether police then became agents or servants of neighborhoods.

Abstract

Within the community policing concept, there are various actors involved. A major objective of community policing is to involve the community which in turn redefines the role of community. This chapter states that neighborhoods should act as a polity and be responsible for defending themselves. Three questions were addressed focusing on three aspects of neighborhoods: (1) the neighborhood as polity; (2) the ability of neighborhoods to defend themselves against crime without losing civility and justice; and (3) alternate visions of the role of local police in neighborhoods. In restructuring police and increasing their accountability to neighborhoods, they become servants of neighborhoods. In addition to protecting neighborhood values, police protection must be distributed fairly across cities, police must be able to maintain organizational integrity, and they must defend minority issues and civil rights. A neighborhood’s need for police assistance may vary from neighborhood to neighborhood. However, the need exists in the control of crime, fear, and disorder. The police must view their role in neighborhoods as a means of reestablishing the neighboring relationship and strengthening those institutions that make a community competent to deal with its problems. References