Police culture, individualism, and community policing: Evidence from two police departments

2000 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 575-605 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eugene A. Paoline ◽  
Stephanie M. Myers ◽  
Robert E. Worden
Author(s):  
Megan O'Neill

Police Community Support Officers: Cultures and Identities within Pluralized Policing presents the first in-depth ethnographic study of Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) since the creation of the role in 2002. Situated within the tradition of police ethnographies, this text examines the working worlds of uniformed patrol support staff in two English police forces. Based on over 350 hours of direct observation and thirty-three interviews with PCSOs and police constables in both urban and rural contexts, the book offers a detailed analysis of the operational and cultural realities of pluralized policing from within. Using a dramaturgic framework, the author finds that PCSOs have been undermined by their own organizations from the beginning, which has left a lasting legacy in terms of their relationships and interactions with police officer colleagues. The implications of this for police cultures, community policing approaches, and the success of pluralization are examined. The author argues that while PCSOs can have similar occupational experiences to those of constables, their particular circumstances have led to a unique occupational culture, one which has implications for existing police culture theories. The book considers these findings in light of budget reductions and police reforms occurring across the sector, processes in which PCSOs are particularly vulnerable.


Author(s):  
Matthew A. Jones ◽  
Melchor C. de Guzman ◽  
Korni Swaroop Kumar

Community policing is intended to empower citizens who are plagued by crime and disorder. Scholars have considered community policing as a proactive measure that addresses issues of disorder to prevent the occurrence of more serious crimes (Goldstein, 1986; Wilson & Kelling, 1982). In a digital age, people are increasingly interacting socially via web platforms. This digital interaction includes governments, which can interact with the citizens in their society to co-produce effective responses to criminal activity. Social media applications such as Facebook, Twitter, blogs, iPhone applications, and Nixle provide new media for citizens and police interactions. Using a sample of 163 municipal police departments, this chapter examines the level and type of participation among municipal police departments using these resources. It is argued that Web 2.0 social media applications allow for a more fluent and dialogic relationship between citizens and police to work together to reduce crime and increase community livability. Policy and practice recommendations related to participating in and enhancing social media presence for police are also provided.


1987 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
John E. Eck ◽  
William Spelman

Current police practice is dominated by two, competing strategies—“community policing” and “crime control policing.” Both are limited: they each apply a standard set of police tactics to a wide variety of differing circumstances; they focus on incidents, rather than the underlying problems which cause these incidents. Recently, two police departments have developed an alternative. Through “problem-oriented policing,” officers focus on these underlying causes. They collect information from numerous sources, and enlist the support of a wide variety of public and private agencies and individuals in their attempts to solve problems. Case studies in these departments show that use of the problem-oriented approach can substantially reduce crime and fear. In the long run, problem-oriented policing will require changes in management structure, the role of the police in the community and the city bureaucracy, and the limits of police authority.


2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 305-325 ◽  
Author(s):  
PETER J. BOETTKE ◽  
JAYME S. LEMKE ◽  
LIYA PALAGASHVILI

AbstractElinor Ostrom and her colleagues in The Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis at Indiana University in Bloomington conducted fieldwork in metropolitan police departments across the United States. Their findings in support of community policing dealt a blow to the popular belief that consolidation and centralization of services was the only way to effectively provide citizens with public goods. However, subsequent empirical literature suggests that the widespread implementation of community policing has been generally ineffective and in many ways unsustainable. We argue that the failures are the result of strategic interplay between federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies that has resulted in the prioritization of federal over community initiatives, the militarization of domestic police, and the erosion of genuine community-police partnerships.


Author(s):  
Megan O'Neill

Chapter 1 examines exiting research on policing pluralization, community policing, and police culture. Early studies of police occupational culture found that community policing and other types of ‘soft’ policing methods (such as partnership work) were not highly valued within the organization. However, this method was to revolutionize policing in the twenty-first century. In addition, ever more aspects of ‘police’ work are now undertaken by other actors in both the public and the private sectors. Consequently, what was once an insular and guarded organization is now more open to collaboration with outsiders, and it seems to appreciate better the ‘soft’ side of policing. However, as Police Community Support Officers are employees of police forces with a police-like mandate, these staff have been seen to present a greater danger to job security and the ‘purity’ of the police officer’s role.


1997 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 345-357 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jihong Zhao ◽  
Quint C. Thurman

Data from a national survey of police departments are presented to explore the progression of American policing from a traditional orientation to a community policing model. Despite widespread support for the idea of community policing and its service-centered orientation, the authors' findings suggest that crime control remains the primary mission of most police agencies. We infer from these data that the demonstrable transition of police agencies from a professional model to a community policing one typically is moving at an evolutionary pace rather than a revolutionary one in most places.


2014 ◽  
Vol 63 (14) ◽  
pp. 1946-1967 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bulent Uluturk ◽  
Ahmet Guler ◽  
Musa Karakaya

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.


2002 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 592-618 ◽  
Author(s):  
John M. MacDonald

In recent years, sharp declines in violent crime rates have been recorded across major American cities. During this time period, many police departments have shifted from a traditional reactive form of policing to a community-oriented approach. It is unclear whether these changes have any causal relationship with the control or reduction in violent crime. To examine this issue, this study used the Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics survey, the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports, and city-level census data to examine the economic and political determinants of robbery and homicide rates in 164 American cities. Findings indicate that community policing had little effect on the control or the decline in violent crime. Proactive policing strategies related to arrest had an inverse effect on violent crime measures and were related to reductions in violent crime over time. Implications of these findings for criminal justice policy are discussed.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Vagle

This Article examines how military automated surveillance and intelligence systems and techniques, when used by civilian police departments to enhance predictive policing programs, have reinforced racial bias in policing. I will focus on two facets of this problem. First, I investigate the role played by advanced military technologies and methods within civilian police departments. These approaches have enabled a new focus on deterrence and crime prevention by creating a system of structural surveillance where decision support relies increasingly upon algorithms and automated data analysis tools and automates de facto penalization and containment based on race. Second, I will explore these militarized systems, and their effects, from an outside-in perspective, paying particular attention to the racial, societal, economic, and geographic factors that play into the public perception of these new policing regimes. I will conclude by proposing potential solutions to this problem that incorporate tests for racial bias to create an alternative system that follows a true community policing model.


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