NCJ Number
82745
Journal
Police Review Volume: 90 Issue: 4650 Dated: (March 26, 1982) Pages: 582-586
Date Published
1982
Length
5 pages
Annotation
Concepts of police organization designed to assist community policing are presented, based upon the author's experience as chief constable in Greater Manchester, England.
Abstract
Police efforts to prevent civil disorder in a community should be based in the following three policies: (1) every police force should have a broad, comprehensive, and intricate network of firmly established contacts, formal and informal, at the heart of every section of the community, from which the police can obtain information; (2) police officers of every rank should be trained to interpret potential threats to social order in what they observe in their daily patrols; and (3) police leadership and management at every level should serve the early recognition of community problems, the rapid analysis of all signs of trouble, and a speedy and effective response. Overall, police organization should ensure that decisions based on the best possible information are made at the right level at the right time and that all matters which are politically sensitive or contain a larger threat of any kind are brought to the attention of the chief constable and senior officers. Good communication and speedy and decisive action are the marks of effective police management. Some efforts which purport to increase the effectiveness of community policing are nothing more than attempts to gain control of the police by local political parties. This appears to be part of a long-term strategy to destroy the proven structures of the police and turn them into an exclusive agency of a one-party state. A way should be found to remove the police entirely from local politics. Police Committees should be abolished and replaced by nonpolitical police boards.