Origin of Community Policing:
Modern law enforcement originally began in 1829 in London, England which transpired with the forming of the London Metropolitan Police District where Sir Robert Peel became the first chief of this police district. This concept was created in hopes to helping bring the crime rate down in and around England. The reasoning behind this concept was due to many factors such as illegal immigration, poverty, urban growth, radical political groups etc. Sir Robert Peel implemented many newer methods and models on community policing which consisted of calling his officers “boobies”, determining the effectiveness of the police by using crime rate and the importance of having a police headquarters that is located in the center of the community and accessible to the community and also the importance of having his boobies be recruited, selected and trained in the proper way. Also he implemented the concept of regular patrol area which is known for “beats”. Beats was known for getting these Bobbies out onto the streets to walk the neighborhoods and get to know and interact with the community. Based off his concept he believed that by assigning his Bobbies to specific areas that this will reduce the crime rate and also establish a relationship between his Bobbies and the community. As time went on Sir Robert Peel concepts of community policing began to show effectiveness and later it began to flourish over to the United States. By the 1930’s to 1960’s community policing was beginning to surface. There were many and newer traditional methods being used for policing such as the use of motorized patrol cars, newer methods of technology, accurate and efficient response times and also organized and operational infrastructures. At first people believed that this method was efficient but as time went on it proved to be effective until the late 1960’s when the riots began. As a result of this people began to say that the relationship between the police and the community was diminishing because there were no more police officers walking the beats and interacting with the community. As time went on during the riots crime increased and so did social disorder and gang violence. As a result from the riots police administrators had to regroup and figure out a better way of policing the community. They came to the realization the way to gain back control of the communities was to go back to the old model and method of community policing which meant to go back into the neighborhood and walk the streets and interact with the people again. As a result of this idea many officers did not like it but they knew they had to restore order and that this was the only way.
Developing and Implementing Programs:
Over the years there has been many different programs put in place to make community police efficient and effective. The goals for these programs was to establish a relationship with police and citizens in the community to identify, address and solve the issues dealing with crime that was occurring within the neighborhoods. By doing so police officers knew they had to go back and use the old model methods which were beat patrol. 1) They had to go back into the neighborhoods to investigate what crimes were being committed and to find a resolution for these crimes in an effective manner. 2) Police officers had to start back building a relationship with the community and show their presence more. By doing so police officers knew they would have to stop motorizing patrol (being in the cars) and start back walking the beat (example. motorcycle, foot, horse, bike patrolling) by any means necessary. As time went on many officers were establishing relationships with the community there were efforts being made to create a program called “The Neighborhood Watch”
It's such an obvious common-sense idea, that those whose mission is to protect and to serve their communities ought to actually enter into and be a part of those communities. I do hope the current DoJ is as committed to the program as its predecessor.
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