NCJ Number
114354
Date Published
1988
Length
28 pages
Annotation
Within the law enforcement community, there has been a growing dispute between those groups advocating community policing and those emphasizing the use of technology and management to enhance the equity, effectiveness, and efficiency of law enforcement.
Abstract
But technologies developed in the past 10 years complement and facilitate a new type of community policing -- integrated, information-rich policing. This approach incorporates the needs and desires of the community with the realities of responding quickly to life-threatening emergencies. Operational requirements for this approach include: (1) making large, unbroken time segments available to patrol officers for productive patrolling and problemsolving; (2) scheduling meetings with community groups and members to negotiate and adjust local policing priorities; (3) incorporating these priorities in an online data base of the '911' computer-aided dispatch (CAD) system; and (4) integrating foot and motorized patrolling. In addition, departments will have to assure dispatch availability of nearby patrol cars to respond rapidly to the 10 to 15 percent of service calls that are life-threatening or likely to result in arrest of a felon. Finally, with proper technology and training the '911' call-taker can serve as triage agent, the dispatcher can serve as a real-time manager of resources, and the patrol officer can act as mobile autonomous professional. 1 footnote and 42 references.