Community Policing

Community policing is a strange beast that seems to be getting a lot of headlines lately.   Community policing is basically a strategy that promotes a type of organizational strategy which brings together a partnership as well as problem solving techniques to address crime conditions in local neighborhoods all over the country (Trojanowicz, R,   Bonnie, B, 1990).   In other words a partnership between the public and law enforcement to proactively   address current conditions that deal with public safety issues with crime.   During the 1980s community policing was all the rage and sort of a buzz word which replaced terms such as police community relations (Trojanowicz, R,   Bonnie, B, 1990).   The idea at hand is to help law enforcement gain a better identity with the public in the form of trust.   Community policing is also to improve relationships with local businesses in helping address and increase the levels of security by things such as training business employees on how to handle emergency situations and improving communications with local law enforcement to help combat crime.   Although a great idea Mr Trojanowicz points out some of its advantages as well as some of its downfalls.
Although a great idea in theory, community policing according to Trojanowicz claims that community policing cannot address the bigger picture when it comes to more serious crimes, such as gang activity and the never ending war on drugs (Trojanowicz, R,   Bonnie, B, 1990).   In a time when cops use to walk the beat and essentially know the entire area of a neighborhood and all the people that reside there, some areas have become too large for this type of relationship to exist.   The idea was   not to address the small rural towns of the country, but yet the more larger communities where law enforcement and minorities were not having the best relationships.   Trojanowicz is also quick to point out that he does not want to dismiss the many will-meaning people that have tried their best to try and...