Police Partnerships Research Articles

Can Community Policing Help the Truly Disadvantaged?

Community policing advocates argue that reforms designed to break down barriers between police and citizens can produce favorable outcomes. The authors test a series of related hypotheses in a multivariate context by using four independent data sources— community surveys, patrol officer interviews, Census Bureau, and police crime records— to estimate hierarchical linear models. The results show that citizens who perceive police partnerships favorably report fewer problems related to incivilities and also express higher levels of safety. Findings from models including cross-level interaction terms indicate that the positive outcomes associated with police partnerships are not restricted to citizens residing in affluent neighborhoods. In our ecological analysis, we find that police-community collaboration is associated with higher aggregate quality of life assessments and that community policing as a form of public social control mediates the adverse effects of concentrated disadvantage. The findings support social-psychological and ecological theories on which community policing practices are partially based.

Book Review: Policing and Community Partnerships

Book Review: Policing and Community Partnerships

School-Based Police Officers: What Can the UK Learn from the USA?

This article is based on the author's experience as Britain's first school-based police officer and his subsequent experience of policing schools in the USA. It outlines the current practices of the Metropolitan Police Service in its quest to introduce the concept of placing police officers on a full-time basis in schools. This is in response to the alarming number of young people becoming involved in crime and is part of the package of measures being taken forward by the Prime Minister's Street Crime Action Team (Home Office, 2003) to combat street robberies and related crime. It highlights the strengths and weaknesses of such a scheme as experienced by the author and the strategies used to address the problems of youth violence and compares and contrasts these findings with those of his experiences in several schools in the US over a five-month period as an observational evaluator. The article also endeavours to look at the different ways in which the work of the schools officer is perceived in the two countries and the support structure which is available in each. The challenges which need to be met in order to form partnerships are outlined. Such efforts can collectively tackle the issue of juvenile delinquency through a common vision. In addition the need for a comprehensive training manual to be developed and implemented to assist these processes is discussed. The paper concludes by considering the extent to which, by combining the good practice from the US with those successful elements of the UK model, school police partnerships can moveorward and embrace the notion of school-based police officers in a positive light.

Organising and Controlling Payment Card Fraud: Fraudsters and their Operational Environment

This paper discusses how payment card fraud has changed and how it is organised in relation to the prevention efforts of the card business and retailers. Various techniques have had a significant impact on the ease with which genuine cards can be obtained and used, and recent rises in counterfeits and Internet/mail-order frauds look disproportionate because these other areas are better controlled. Variations in social and intellectual capital affect crime and its organisation. To the extent that ‘plastic’ fraudsters can remain relatively unobtrusive, unconnected with ‘heavy’ crimes such as drugs and robbery, there is no need for them to ‘get organised’ in order to enjoy a profitable career: it is easy and quick for British criminals to operate in different regions of the country, or even on the Continent. The implications of smart cards plus PIN are explored, along with other key areas of public-private partnership policing.

The Role of Crime Victims in American Policing: Findings from a National Survey of Police and Victim Organizations

The role of victims in enhancing community policing has received little scholarly attention. This paper adds to the current state of knowledge about the role of victims in policing and the relationship between victim organizations and police departments as part of community policing. Relying upon a national survey of police departments and victim organizations carried out by the Police Foundation and the National Center for Victims of Crime, we present a broad snapshot of community policing partnerships that draw from the experience and knowledge of victims and victim service providers. Our research indicates that while a majority of police executives believe there are benefits to involving victims in community policing, most also report that when it comes to problem solving and crime prevention it is more useful for officers to interact with community members without special attention to who has been a crime victim. Regardless of this view, a large proportion of police agencies report supporting abroad set of practices that focus on crime victims. Finally, our study reinforces the position that the broad approach and policies of a police agency toward victims play a central role in the development of partnerships between police and victim organizations.

Women and Men Police Officers: Status, Gender, and Personality

Introduction: Women and Men in Policing The Status Model of Gender Stereotyping Status Characteristics Theory and the Gender-Stereotyped Personality Traits Description of the Study: The Sample of Police Partners and Measures Status and Personality: The Dominating, Instrumental, and Expressive Traits Coping with Low Status: The Verbal-Aggressive and Submissive Traits Police Officers Who Violate Gender Norms: The Bipolar Traits Self-Esteem: The Impact of Status and Personality Traits The Patterning of Traits within Individual Personality Status, Gender, and Personality: Towards an Integrated Theory Implications for Policing Appendix Notes References Index

Implementation Issues in a Community and Police Partnership in Law Enforcement Space: Lessons from a Case Study of a Community Policing Approach to Domestic Violence

Community Policing theory is personified by law enforcement organizations serving as catalysts for social change by enabling and empowering community-led involvement in the creation and maintenance of safety and order. Evidence suggests, however, that this personification is overshadowed by a reality marked by expanded law enforcement power and limited community involvement. A prominent explanation for a lack of significant community involvement is that community members are less than willing to put forth and sustain, or buy into, the effort required of effective collaboration with law enforcement. Although the lack of community buy-in offers a valid explanation, it may also oversimplify the complexity associated with coordinated responses to community and social problems. A case study of a community policing response to domestic violence is used to deconstruct the process of implementing a community and police partnership in law enforcement space. Several factors are identified that undermine both law enforcement and community involvement with the partnership.

Police and the Policed: A Comparison of Value Orientations and Ideological Perspectives

The local foundations of law enforcement, public schools, and numerous types of special purpose governments are intended to ensure a close relationship between prevailing community values and policy preferences. Community policing is one of such attempts to promote police and resident partnership in reducing local social disorder and crimes. This article makes use of Rokeach's theory of human values and his survey instrument and analytical methodology to assess the degree to which the values and ideological perspectives of police officers differ from those of the citizens they serve in a typical medium-sized city (about 170 000 population) in the Western region of the United States. The results reported here indicate that there is a substantial difference in value orientations and in ideological perspectives between police officers and citizens in this city. The implications of these findings are discussed with respect to the successful implementation of community policing.

Partnership policing: A role for the private security industry to assist the SAPS in preventing crime?

(1999). Partnership policing: A role for the private security industry to assist the SAPS in preventing crime? African Security Review: Vol. 8, No. 2, pp. 43-59.