Community-oriented Policing Research Articles

An Evaluation of a Community-Oriented Policing Program in Taiwan.

This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of a community-oriented policing (COP) by documenting results for 16 quantitative outcome variables, including crime incidents, crime clearance, residents' subjective feelings regarding police performance and community safety, and job satisfaction among police officers. The statistical techniques used to analyze the data involved ARIMA interrupted time series, t tests, the Wilcoxon paired signed-rank test, and Pearson's correlation. The quantitative results observed indicated that the program had a positive effect on resident's perceptions for some police performance outcomes and for job satisfaction among police officers. However, there was only a minimal program effect on crime occurrence, crime clearance, and residents' perceptions of crime. Using a combination of review of prior research and qualitative interview data collected from 10 local stakeholders, we provided insightful informed actor-based and temporal contextual explanations for the unexpected quantitative findings.

Social unrest and community oriented policing services

ABSTRACTSince 2014, there have been several, high-profile police-involved shootings that have captured the nation as a whole. The misunderstandings between culture, legal knowledge, and human behavior all come together to create an environment of social unrest that may lead to violence in the United States. Because we have a decentralized structure for policing services in the United States, the need for the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) educational initiatives could help close the divide of knowledge in our country. With grant assistance from the COPS office, law enforcement and community members could make an impactful change in our schools to educate children on concepts related to police operations and the perceptions of police misconduct by community members. By having a proper source of information to offset misunderstandings about police and minorities perpetuated by news media and social media, our youth and community members can critically evaluate the best way for communities to be served by law enforcement.

Policing through social networking

Researchers are starting to explore predictive models for departmental usage of opportunities to self-represent online. This is the first study to independently address police social networking in the US across a variety of social media platforms. Using the sampling frame of the 558 ‘self-representing’ municipal police department respondents in the 2007 Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS) data, I collected information concerning whether departments maintained active accounts on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube in 2014. The LEMAS data provides key independent variables concerning each department’s community-oriented policing commitment and technological sophistication. Ultimately, these organisational features are not predictive of departmental use of any of the three social networking sites.

Community-Oriented Policing: Hiring in the Spirit of Service

The authors of the focal article ask a very important question: “Baltimore Is Burning: Can I-O Psychologists Help Extinguish the Flames?” (Ruggs et al., 2016). The answer is yes, emphatically, yes. The applied science of industrial–organizational (I-O) psychology knows a great deal that can be brought to bear to help solve this real-world problem. As the title of this commentary indicates, personnel selection is one area that is highly relevant to this issue. Personnel selection is one of I-O psychology's specialty areas and is thought of by many around the world, including those in the U.S. legal system, as “owned” by I-O psychology. Other I-O specialty areas such as recruitment, training and development, onboarding/socialization, performance management, leadership, culture/climate, and culture/climate change also clearly have much to offer to help solve the problem. Others can address relevant research and practice in those areas; this commentary, however, is devoted to personnel selection. Revising a police department's hiring strategy is not a quick fix, nor is it, by itself, sufficient. Nonetheless, it is an important part of the package that I-O psychology has to offer.

Will ‘broken windows policing’ work in Trinidad and Tobago? A critical perspective on zero tolerance and community policing in a multi-ethnic society

Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) is a multi-ethnic Caribbean nation currently experiencing problems with disorder and violent crime. In response, practitioners have considered the merits of introducing broken windows policing. This article examines the literature on zero tolerance policing, also known as ‘broken windows policing,’ and explores the dangers of potentially harmful interpretations of this approach, particularly in the context of racial and political conflict in a developing society. It also explores whether broken windows can be effective in T&T, where there is social unrest and declining public support for police. Based on prior research, it is suggested that broken windows policing, when incorporated with targeted problem-solving approaches, could be successful in reducing crime in the short-term. Several problem-solving strategies that were effective in New York City and other American cities are also recommended. It is suggested that community-oriented policing strategies designed to increase citizens’ trust and confidence in police be properly implemented before the adoption of any of these problem-solving strategies.

Linking Educational Institutions with Police Officer Training Programs

Community partnerships that are formed through Community Oriented Policing help to assist law enforcement officers with academy education and post academy education. The training offered in the academy and the post academy Field Training Officer Program traditionally places little to no emphasis on critical thinking, professional self-regulation, communication skills or problem-based learning. In the last several years a new approach has been spawned. The Police Training Officer Program (PTO) is an innovative form of education that focuses on problem based learning for post academy graduates. The PTO Program emphasizes adult education, problem solving, emotional intelligence, and conflict resolution. This education is necessary to assist officers in de-escalation strategies within their communities and can lend to the reduction of civil disturbances. However, currently, relatively few agencies are offering this education to their post academy graduates and none are offering it to their academy recruits due, in part, to a lack of qualified instructors. PTO instructors must be proficient and fully trained in problem based learning techniques. Through Community Oriented Policing, law enforcement agencies can address this instructor shortage by partnering with university educational institutions to secure instructors who are competent in andragogy, critical thinking, and problem-based learning.

Improving Law Enforcement Cross Cultural Competencies through Continued Education

<p class="abstract">Over the last thirty years Community Oriented Policing (COP) has spawned advancements in creating community partnerships with law enforcement agencies. Agencies that focus on such partnerships have served to reduce crime and resolve conflict. However, community opinions towards law enforcement have become increasingly negative due to recent civil disturbances throughout the United States. Multiculturalism is rapidly expanding within our American communities. The lack of cross-cultural leadership has lent to increased societal conflict. Within law enforcement agencies, annual continued education in the effective interaction and communication with citizens from diverse backgrounds is increasingly necessary. Agencies who form partnerships with educational institutions create opportunities for annual education on cross-cultural leadership. Annual continued education for law enforcement in critical thinking creates opportunities for improved professional self-regulation, decision-making, problem solving and proper analysis of various plausible outcomes. Annual continued education geared towards interpersonal skills creates opportunities for increased communication, enhanced community rapport, and improved potential for de-escalation of hostile events.</p>

‘You don’t want people knowing you’re a copper!’ A contemporary assessment of police organisational culture

Police organisations have recently experienced a number of significant transformations, including changes to police officer demography, the adoption of community-oriented policing models and increased accountability requirements. The impacts of these changes upon the dominant police organisational cultural characteristics have been speculated upon, but have not been empirically assessed. Via the use of the cultural web methodology applied in both interviews and focus groups with N = 42 sworn police officers, this research assessed the key dimensions of contemporary police organisational culture. The results indicated the existence of five dominant police organisational culture characteristics: the police family, control, us versus them, masculinity, and subcultural differences. We also identified two dominant themes regarding the key changes to the police culture: reduction in social rituals and increased scrutiny. We discuss how these results both support previous descriptions of the core components of police organisational culture and update previous findings by identifying significant changes to police cultural norms and practices.

Politie en burgers: van informatie delen naar volwaardige samenwerking

Community oriented policing (COP) can be seen as a co-production between citizens and police (and other stakeholders) in increasing public safety. There is a broad range of projects to cooperate with citizens. We ordered these projects along two dimensions: level of co-production (informing/consulting, advising and co-creation) and domain (prevention, law and order, investigation and quality of life). Today, most initiatives are at the lowest rungs (informing and consulting), but social media provide new possibilities to involve citizens in a more direct and fast way. The effects of the various projects are mostly limited to psycho-social factors like experienced safety, feelings of control and legitimacy. However recent studies show that these factors may have an indirect effect on crime rate. Furthermore, as reducing crime rate was not the only goal for introducing COP effect studies should not be limited to crime rate but incorporate a broad range of indicators.

Federal funding and the local political culture

This study explored the behavior of police administrators in the face of the pro-federalism environment of 2009. Using an institutional theory framework, specifically coercive isomorphism, this research sought to determine if the local political environment influences the behavior of local-level police administrators to access federal grants. Data were provided by the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Office, supplemented with congressional records and public voting results for the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections. When county-level presidential voting results are used to operationalize the local environment, an equal number of Republican and Democrat police agencies received COPS grants. Findings suggest that crime and economic interest trump political ideology.

Status and improvement plan of the community-or iented policing to prevent juvenile crimes

Status and improvement plan of the community-or iented policing to prevent juvenile crimes

Police Officers’ Attitudes Toward the Implementation of Community-Oriented Policing in Turkey

The current study aims to analyze the historical development of community-oriented policing (COP) in Turkey as well as exploring officers’ attitudes toward COP and examining factors related to their attitudes. The current research is based on a survey of 405 Turkish police officers. We focused on officers’ demographic characteristics, work orientation, training, the level of participation in decision-making, and perception toward public as a way of understanding officers’ attitudes toward community policing. Our research suggests that majority of organization members have favorable attitudes toward community policing and support it in general and in their own department. The results indicate a positive relationship between participation in decision-making, service work orientation, officers’ relationships with citizens, and police officers’ attitudes toward community policing. Furthermore, the study assesses the effects of police culture on officers’ attitudes in a highly centralized police agency and discusses the policy implications of our findings.

Law Enforcement Officers in Schools: An Analysis of Ethical Issues

The use of law enforcement officers in American schools has rapidly expanded since its inception in the 1950s. This growth can in part be attributed to the Safe Schools Act of 1994, the establishment of the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Office, and tragic events that have occurred in our nation's schools. Law enforcement officers in the school environment traditionally have primary roles of protection and enforcement, although many have ancillary roles of educating and mentoring students. However, the use of police in schools has also been associated with the formalization of student discipline and the criminalization of minor misconduct. Specifically, an increase in the number of officers in schools has mirrored an increase in the number of arrests and citations for relatively minor offenses. We argue that officers' socialization and training create role conflict in that the duty to enforce the law competes with other duties to mentor and nurture students. We present several hypothetical dilemmas and then illustrate how the “right thing to do” is determined by the perceived duties of the school safety officer. We conclude by presenting some modest suggestions on how to address the potential role conflict experienced by law enforcement officers working in schools.

The Innovation of Community Policing and the COPS Office: Does Diffusion of Innovation Theory Hold in a Manipulated Environment?

Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) theory provides prescribed stages for an innovation to traverse, in order to obtain field adoption. This study utilised DOI theory to demonstrate the impact a manipulated environment may have on diffusing public policy. Data were provided by the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (the COPS Office). Analysis found that DOI theory does not hold in a manipulated environment. This research provides two considerations for adjusting DOI theory: financial incentives and politics. First, organisations with few resources may have equal access to innovations via government grants. Second, political agendas can be integral to diffusing an innovation.

Community-oriented policing to reduce crime, disorder and fear and increase satisfaction and legitimacy among citizens: a systematic review

Systematically review and synthesize the existing research on community-oriented policing to identify its effects on crime, disorder, fear, citizen satisfaction, and police legitimacy. We searched a broad range of databases, websites, and journals to identify eligible studies that measured pre-post changes in outcomes in treatment and comparison areas following the implementation of policing strategies that involved community collaboration or consultation. We identified 25 reports containing 65 independent tests of community-oriented policing, most of which were conducted in neighborhoods in the United States. Thirty-seven of these comparisons were included in a meta-analysis. Our findings suggest that community-oriented policing strategies have positive effects on citizen satisfaction, perceptions of disorder, and police legitimacy, but limited effects on crime and fear of crime. Our review provides important evidence for the benefits of community policing for improving perceptions of the police, although our findings overall are ambiguous. The challenges we faced in conducting this review highlight a need for further research and theory development around community policing. In particular, there is a need to explicate and test a logic model that explains how short-term benefits of community policing, like improved citizen satisfaction, relate to longer-term crime prevention effects, and to identify the policing strategies that benefit most from community participation.

An integrated theory for the practical application of “governance-based policing”

Purpose– This paper aims to reconcile the different theoretical approaches of the next stage of community policing – third-party policing, post-modern policing, community-based policing, public self-policing, community governance and public safety governance – into a cohesive theoretical framework through the integration of the new governance of public administration, systems theory and community development theory.Design/methodology/approach– This paper reviews the existing literature of community-oriented policing (COP) and the concepts of new governance of public administration, then reconciles the two to create a management framework of governance-based policing.Findings– COP falls short in many areas because it represents a natural system orientation and a technical-assistance approach to community development. The next stage of community policing requires an open system founded in the self-help approach to community development and new governance principles.Practical implications– This work addresses the shift from hierarchies to networks as well as detailing the responsibilities of police management to transcend the shortcomings in the current iteration of community policing. It brings a modern public management view (new governance) into policing more cogently and completely than it has been done before.Originality/value– This work is unique to the community policing literature through the application of new governance, systems theory and community development theory to understand the shortfalls of COP and formulate a more cohesive theory of the next evolution of police service delivery.

The Coercive Impact of Federal Grants: COPS Grants and the Diffusion of the Community Policing Philosophy

The diffusion of an innovation occurs when it is communicated to other organisations or markets. This study employs institutional theory, focusing on coercive isomorphism, to examine the diffusion of the community policing philosophy via federal funding from the US Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing. Data was derived from the FAST grant programme designated for the hiring of police officers serving smaller jurisdictions. Findings reported that less than half of the possible organisational field accessed a FAST grant, indicating a modest impact of coercive efforts via COPS grants. In addition, while the bulk of FAST grants were awarded during the earliest stages of the grant programme, analysis indicates this behaviour is not what would be expected. Consequently, while most grants were awarded quickly, institutional or occupational isomorphism was not achieved with regard to diffusing the community policing philosophy via a federal grant programme.

The Weed and Seed Program

The Weed and Seed program was created to target high-crime neighborhoods with sustained and intensive enforcement and community restoration resources. At present, however, no nationwide assessment of crime outcomes has yet been conducted comparing all jurisdictions that implemented this program with those that did not. This study conducted a series of panel data analyses to compare every Weed and Seed jurisdiction with 250 randomly selected, matched comparison locations nationwide from 1990 through 2004 to assess the impact of this program on Uniform Crime Report Part I felony offenses. In this first evaluation of crime outcomes among all Weed and Seed jurisdictions nationwide, results from five different quasi-experimental and panel data analyses indicated that the program was associated with reductions in robbery, burglary, and vehicle theft. In addition, the level of impact of the Weed and Seed program was similar to more expensive Department of Justice programs from the Office of Community-Oriented Policing, and Local Law Enforcement Block Grants.

Police Reform in Thailand Post-2006

The study analyses the operation and culture of Thai policing and the intersection between policing and politics framed by the recommendations of the Police Reform Committee (PRC), 2006—2007. The PRC’s priorities were: devolving police administration, especially budgets and personnel management; increasing accountability, especially establishing an Independent Complaints’ Committee; and civilianization. Those priorities were seen as clearing the ground for development of community-oriented policing longer-term. Interviews were conducted with senior members of the PRC. Afterwards non-commissioned officers’ opinions were established through a countrywide survey and follow-up in-depth interviews. Their station chiefs were also interviewed. According to PRC members and serving officers’ accounts the barriers to reform of police administration were political interference and nepotism, especially corruption of appointments, nominations, promotions and transfers. Local policing often involved further interference by informal networks of officials, politicians and business. The PRC’s recommendations were shelved due to an unfavourable political climate. The paradox was the PRC’s strategies for ‘democratic’ police reform were well-informed and well-founded but its establishment had been politically motivated and it was not immune to interference by competing political factions. The study contributes to debates about moving away from authoritarian policing models in the developing world by analysing barriers to the reform of police administration in the Thai context.

Are Block Watch volunteers different than volunteers in community-oriented policing programs? Findings from a mature COPS setting

A number of studies have examined the correlates of citizen volunteerism in crime prevention programs, but few studies have systematically compared volunteers in Block Watch and community-oriented policing (COP) programs. This study has two goals. First, this study evaluates the impact that a number of theoretically hypothesized factors have on citizen volunteerism in crime prevention programs, and second, assesses whether the determinants of citizen volunteerism in Block Watch programs differ from COP programs. Results from an urban Western city (n = 850) show that race, victimization, and positive attitudes toward the police are significant predictors of citizen participation in COP programs. Whereas income and perceptions of inadequate police services are significant predictors of citizen participation in Block Watch programs. Contrary to other findings in the literature fear of crime and social cohesion were not significantly associated with participation in either program.