How To Build Cooperation Between Community And Police Research Proposal

How to build cooperation between community and police

Building a strong cooperation effort between the community and police is important as the community relies on the officers for protection and the officers rely on the community as well. Community based efforts have been the new strategy of officers to stop crime in local populations in the recent years. Neighborhood watch programs are just one way that the community can interact with police for a combined purpose of crime prevention. Through these communities based programs the community is able to participate in keeping their neighborhoods safe from all different types of criminal activity. At the forefront of crime are gangs which pose a threat not only to the community but to officers as well. Gangs bring drugs into communities and search for new recruits usually young children to run the drugs. Once a gang has a hold on the community many people will be afraid to talk about any criminal activities going on because they will be repercussions if they do. When police establish contacts within the community they are able to receive valuable tips that will help them to bring down the gang members and make arrests that are meaningful and will stick. This will allow the community to reestablish a safe place that they can raise their children that is free of gang activity that can be dangerous for everyone. Many gangs are now involved in cooperating with dangerous drug cartels stepping there criminal level up to include distribution of drugs, money laundering, contract killing and other dangerous crimes. Innocent people who do manage to stay out of the gang involvement are still not safe if these activities are in there community as often times disputes with rival gang members can mean blood shed not only for the conflicting gangs but innocent bystanders that are caught in the crossfire as well.
Community based policing also allows officers to establish trust in the communities between the officers and the members of the community. This is crucial as so many people have been raised to fear or hate the police. This fear causes a person to keep things from the police even if it might be something that takes a violent criminal off of the streets. Recent news events have shown many officers attacking innocent people, or at least people that proclaim they are innocent. This paints police officers as a whole as people who should be feared and not trusted. Reestablishing the connection between the community and officers through things like community fundraisers and small fairs where the officers allow the children and adults to learn more about them personally brings back the reality that the officers are people too. This new approach even has some departments changing their mottos and names. For instance some mottos are to protect and serve which lets the community know that the officers are there to help. In some instances and cities task forces have been renamed as well to establish a new identity that makes the officers less of something to fear and more community oriented. This trust goes far between the citizens and the officers and also gives the citizens a sense of accomplishment. Allowing citizens to participate in tip lines and community watches helps them come together and feel a sense of doing well together. Not just together bonding as a community but a community bonding with the officers protecting it. Officers also have a chance to establish familiarity with the people in the community which enables them to communicate with the local trouble makers on a personal level and offer the resources needed to make changes in their lives before these citizens turn to criminal activities. For instance if officer x knows Sam the local drunk he knows how to talk to and detain this person with less violence than if he did not know Sam on a personal level.