Preventing crime with ten principles of community policing

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Abstract

Community policing is a practical, effective means of helping law enforcement and citizens identify crime and its related problems, in order to reduce or prevent problems in the future. This effective practice is excerpted from a brochure produced by the Ohio Crime Prevention Association.

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Issue

Community policing requires the energy and input of everyone in the community to effectively combat crime.

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Action

Crime prevention is a way of thinking and acting that focuses on reducing crime and the opportunity for crime. It emphasizes citizens and law enforcement engaged in collective problem solving and building effective partnerships as they mobilize toward the common goal of a safer, more caring community.

The following ten principles identify some important elements of a successful community policing partnership.

  • Philosophy and Organizational Strategy
    Community policing is both a philosophy (a way of thinking) and an organizational strategy (a way to carry out the philosophy) that allows the police and community members to work closely together in creative ways.
  • Commitment to Community Empowerment
    Everyone in the police department must investigate ways to translate the philosophy of power-sharing into practice, which includes challenging and enlightening community members in the process of policing themselves.
  • Decentralized and Personalized Policing
    Community policing officers must be freed from the isolation of the patrol car and the demands of the police radio so that they can maintain direct, daily contact with the people they serve in a clearly defined beat area.
  • Immediate and Long-Term Proactive Problem Solving
    As law enforcement officers, community policing officers respond to immediate calls for service and make arrests, but they also develop and monitor broad-based, long-term initiatives that can involve all elements of the community.
  • Ethics, Legality, Responsibility and Trust
    A new relationship between the police and the citizens they serve, offers hope of encouraging mutual accountability and respect. Citizens are given the power and responsibility to resolve more minor concerns as law enforcement teams with them on long-term solutions to major problems.
  • Expanding the Police Mandate
    A vital, proactive element is added to the traditional reactive role of police, resulting in a full-spectrum police service.
  • Helping Those with Special Needs
    Explore new ways to protect and enhance the lives of those who are most vulnerable — juveniles, the elderly, minorities, the poor, the disabled, the homeless.
  • Grass-Roots Creativity and Support
    Promote the judicious use of technology, while recognizing that nothing surpasses what dedicated human beings, talking and working together, can achieve.
  • Internal Change
    A fully integrated approach involves everyone in the department, with community policing officers serving as generalists who bridge the gap between the police and the people they serve. Once community policing is accepted as the long-term strategy, all officers should practice it. This could take as long as ten to fifteen years.
  • Building for the Future
    Community policing recognizes that the police cannot impose order on the community from the outside, but that people must be encouraged to think of the police as a resource for meeting local needs and priorities as they change over time.

(Based in part from The Ten Principles of Community Policing by Robert Trojanowicz.)

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Context

Founded in 1977 by a group of crime prevention officers in Columbus, the Ohio Crime Prevention Association is committed to the development and advancement of a continuum of educational opportunities in crime prevention and community policing, to ultimately improve the quality of life in Ohio communities.

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Citation

Trojanowicz, Robert & Bucqueroux, Bonnie. Community Policing: A Contemporary Perspective. Cincinnati, OH: Anderson Publishing Co., 1990.

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Outcome

Communities can help keep themselves healthier by forming partnerships within the community and with law enforcement. Through these united efforts, citizens take ownership in their neighborhoods and build safer communities for the future.

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Posted On

June 2, 2004

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Resources

Review of Community Policing: A Contemporary Perspective (3rd edition), by University Community Initiative, University at Buffalo.

Related Practices

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Related sites

Ohio Office of Criminal Justice Services

National Crime Prevention Council

Topic Areas

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