A large body of evidence shows that people in communities that have collaborative partnerships with police feel safer
IntroductionPart 1Part 2Recommended Best Practices
Introduction
High-profile police shootings of unarmed Black men and other incidents of police misconduct, coupled with heavy enforcement of low-level offenses, have eroded trust in law enforcement in many communities — and especially in communities of color. This lack of trust strains police-community relationships and undermines public safety, but trust can be restored and safety improved with community policing.
Community policing is a process in which police departments actively build meaningful relationships with community members to improve public safety and advance community goals. It puts the community’s voice at the center of decision-making processes and ensures that it is reflected in departmental policies, practices, training, resource allocation, and accountability systems.[i]
Community policing does not mean simply delegating a handful of officers to show up at local events. It is an approach to law enforcement that is adopted and implemented across departments by all officers at all levels. Nor does community policing mean saturating neighborhoods with officers so they can get to know residents — only to increase law enforcement activity (such as stops, frisks, tickets, and arrests). Officers should get to know residents of the communities they police, but they should engage with them to understand how to best approach dealing with problems.
Community policing is grounded in the fact that police departments and communities with strong ties are better able to work together to support public safety and community wellbeing.[ii]It builds trust with communities, aligns with community values, and prioritizes community engagement. And it applies the principles of procedural justice (the way in which officers and departments treat the people with whom they interact) to all aspects of policing. Ultimately, it strengthens policing, improves safety, and enhances democracy.
The Final Report of the President’s Task Force on 21stCentury Policing (the President’s Task Force Report) establishes community policing as a pillar of trust between police and the communities they serve.[iii]The concept of community policing, however, is often misunderstood and misapplied — and doesn’t fully capture the deep and sustained role that communities can and should play in policing. This chapter aims to establish a unifying philosophy of community policing that can be uniformly implemented in all departments across the nation.
[i] President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing, Final Report of the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing 1, 3 (2015), https://cops.usdoj.gov/pdf/taskforce/taskforce_finalreport.pdf.
[ii] SeePresident’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing, Final Report of the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing 1, 5 (2015), https://cops.usdoj.gov/pdf/taskforce/taskforce_finalreport.pdf, 5 (“Trust between law enforcement agencies and the people they protect and serve is essential in a democracy. It is key to the stability of our communities, the integrity of our criminal justice system, and the safe and effective delivery of policing services.”).
[iii] SeeMaya Harris West, Principal Author, Community Centered Policing: A Force for Change, Policy Link 1, 93 (2001), http://www.policylink.org/resources-tools/community-centered-policing-a-force-for-change(click “download pdf” link) (community policing opens departments to traditionally underrepresented communities, engages them as partners in problem-solving, and holds departments accountable to the communities they protect and serve). Dr. Tracie Keesee, Deputy Commissioner of Training for the New York City Police Department, describes the “co-production of public safety” as community-police partnerships that balance power to give both sides a voice in defining what their policing will look like. Natalie Aflalo, What Does Co-Production Of Public Safety Look Like?, Everyday Democracy (Mar. 9, 2017) https://www.everyday-democracy.org/news/what-does-co-production-public-safety-look;see also, Tracie Keesee, How police and the public can create safer neighborhoods together, TED (June 2018), https://www.ted.com/talks/tracie_keesee_how_police_and_the_public_can_create_safer_neighborhoods_together/transcript?language=en(“ You bring people into the space that come with separate expertise, and you also come with new ideas and lived experience, and you produce a new knowledge. And when you produce that new knowledge, and you apply this theory to public safety, you produce a new type of public safety. . . It is called building relationships, literally one block at a time.”).
The History of Community Policing
Police departments have not been around since the nation’s founding. In colonial times, night watchmen, were responsible for maintaining order and “controlling” slaves.[i]In 1838, Boston created the first publicly funded, organized police department, and other cities followed.[ii]In the South, early police departments continued to focus on the preservation of slavery, as slave patrols apprehended runaway slaves and prevented revolts, according to crime historian Gary Potter.[iii]This emphasis continued during Reconstruction, as local sheriffs used their power to enforce racial segregation.[iv]
By the 1930s, officers were “professionalized” and narrowed their focus to crime control and criminal apprehension.[v]Technological advances, like the patrol car and radio dispatch, physically separated officers from their communities. Instead of immersing themselves in their communities, officers began to drive around to answer calls, which weakened relationships and ultimately undermined public safety. During this period, police officers continued to be a source of oppression for Black communities through the enforcement of “Black Codes” — laws restricting the rights of Black people — and Jim Crow laws, which mandated racial segregation.
In the 1950s, civil rights activists organized to end legal discrimination, but they faced strong opposition — including from law enforcement. This police function grew increasingly problematic, as it widened the distance — both physical and psychological — between officers and community members. In response to civil unrest in the 1960s, President Johnson formed two presidential commissions — the President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice (the Crime Commission) and the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (the Kerner Commission) to improve law enforcement practices and reform the criminal justice system.
Both noted the divide between communities and the police. The Crime Commission argued that “[p]olice agencies cannot preserve the public peace and control crime unless the public participates more fully than it does now in law enforcement.”[vi]In the initial draft of their report, the Kerner Commission’s social scientists concluded that the country was deeply divided along racial lines, with law enforcement as “symbol and enforcer of white power.”[vii]The bipartisan commission, however, ordered the scientists to change the report, and the final draft submitted to the president watered down its criticism of police.[viii]
It wasn’t until decades later that community policing began to crystalize into a clear philosophy. In 1989, Lee Brown, the first Black chief of a major city department (Houston’s), vividly described the approach that came to be known as community policing. He said police should recognize “the merits of community involvement” and decentralize authority to allow officers to “interact with residents on a routine basis and keep them informed[.]”[ix]He also encouraged “power-sharing” to enable community members to participate in decisions about policing.[x]
The concept of community policing took hold in the early 1990s and has since been adopted by hundreds of departments — but not in the same way.[xi]Indeed, community policing programs vary widely in their approach; some treat it as a philosophy that underscores all enforcement activities, while others treat it as a set of discrete and discretionary programs and practices.
Even leaders who express a commitment to community policing sometimes view it as separate and distinct from “real” law enforcement. Some delegate the task of cultivating community relationships to a handful of officers and assign others to patrolling streets and responding to calls. To be clear, community policing is not the responsibility of a few officers; it is an approach that all officers should take in their work. It is rooted in the idea that all members of police departments — from new recruits to chief executives — should work in partnership with communities to define community problems and coproduce solutions to public safety.
[i] Dr. Gary Potter, The History of Policing In the United States, Part I (June 25, 2013), https://plsonline.eku.edu/insidelook/history-policing-united-states-part-1.
[ii] Dr. Gary Potter, The History of Policing In the United States, Part I (June 25, 2013), https://plsonline.eku.edu/insidelook/history-policing-united-states-part-1.
[iii] Olivia B. Waxman, How the U.S. Got Its Police Force, TIME (May 18, 2017), http://time.com/4779112/police-history-origins/.
[iv] Olivia B. Waxman, How the U.S. Got Its Police Force, TIME (May 18, 2017), http://time.com/4779112/police-history-origins/.
[v] George L. Kelling & Mark A. Moore, The Evolving Strategy of Policing, Perspectives on Policing, Nov. 1998 5, https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/a614/21a27a6c4fa0e25962ef30e95a22371c1b9c.pdf.
[vi] The President’s Comm’n on Law Enf’t and Admin. of Justice, The Challenge of Crime in a Free Society 100 (1967), https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/42.pdf.
[vii] See generallyKerner Comm’n, The Kerner Report, The 1968 Report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (1989), https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/8073NCJRS.pdf; Nicole Lewis, How a landmark report on the 1960s race riots fell short on police reform, The Kerner Omission (Mar. 1, 2018), https://www.themarshallproject.org/2018/03/01/the-kerner-omission.
[viii] Nicole Lewis, How a landmark report on the 1960s race riots fell short on police reform, The Kerner Omission (Mar. 1, 2018), https://www.themarshallproject.org/2018/03/01/the-kerner-omission.
[ix] Lee P. Brown, Nat’l Inst. of Justice, U.S. Dep’t of Justice, Community Policing: A Practical Guide for Police Officials 5 (Sept. 1989), https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/118001.pdf.
[x] Lee P. Brown, Nat’l Inst. of Justice, U.S. Dep’t of Justice, Community Policing: A Practical Guide for Police Officials 5 (Sept. 1989), https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/118001.pdf.
[xi] See Edward R. Maguire & Stephen D. Mastrofski, Patterns of Community Policing in the United States, 3 Police Q. 4, 5 (2000).
Benefits and Challenges of Community Policing
A large body of evidence shows that people in communities that have collaborative partnerships with police feel safer.[i] Positive relationships also encourage cooperation and improve neighborhood safety. Research shows that foot patrols — police officers who patrol neighborhood “beats” on foot rather than by car — improve community life. To quote one study, foot patrols “reduced fear, increased citizen satisfaction with police, improved police attitudes toward citizens, and increased the morale and job satisfaction of police[.]”[ii]
Research also suggests that officers solve more crime by gathering and sharing information with community members. “If information about crimes and criminals could be obtained from citizens by police …investigative and other units could significantly increase their effect on crime.”[iii] In other words, when communities and police departments trust each other and interact positively, public safety improves because people are more likely to cooperate with police to address problems.
Community trust and confidence in police lay the foundation of community policing.[iv]Police tactics that disproportionately and negatively affect certain communities, especially those of color,[v]erode trust and confidence in police, fray police-community relationships, and impede criminal investigations.[vi]Cultural differences and language barriers also contribute to misunderstanding and distrust.[vii]Officers should understand that they earntrust — and can restore it — through actions that reflect the principles of community policing.
[i] See, e.g., Michael D. Reisig & Roger B. Parks, Can Community Policing Help the Truly Disadvantaged?, 50 Crim. & Delinq.139 (Apr. 2004); see alsoL.A. Police Dep’t, Report of the L.A. Police Dep’t on the Prevention and Elimination of Biased Policing 138 (Nov. 15, 2016), http://www.lapdpolicecom.lacity.org/111516/BPC_16-0391.pdf(recommending various tactics to reduce fear of crime and noting that “[m]aking people feel safe is a primary function of any police agency”); VERA Inst. of Justice, U.S. Dep’t of Justice, Cmty. Oriented Policing Servs., Police Perspectives: How to Support Trust Building in Your Agency 41 (2016), https://storage.googleapis.com/vera-web-assets/downloads/Publications/police-perspectives-guidebook-series-building-trust-in-a-diverse-nation/legacy_downloads/police-perspectives-guide-series-building-trust-diverse-nation-diverse-communities-building-trust_1.pdf(recommending the development of community partnership programs in part to “provide community perspective” and make communities safer).
[ii] George L. Kelling & Mark A. Moore, The Evolving Strategy of Policing, Perspectives on Policing, Nov. 1998 10, https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/a614/21a27a6c4fa0e25962ef30e95a22371c1b9c.pdf.
[iii] George L. Kelling & Mark A. Moore, The Evolving Strategy of Policing, Perspectives on Policing, Nov. 1998 10, https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/a614/21a27a6c4fa0e25962ef30e95a22371c1b9c.pdf.
[iv] President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing, Final Report of the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing 9-18 (2015), https://cops.usdoj.gov/pdf/taskforce/taskforce_finalreport.pdf.
[v] President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing, Final Report of the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing 5-9 (2015), https://cops.usdoj.gov/pdf/taskforce/taskforce_finalreport.pdf (noting that “non-Whites have always had less confidence in law enforcement than Whites, likely because the poor and people of color have felt the greatest impact of mass incarceration, such that for too many poor citizens and people of color, arrest and imprisonment have become an inevitable and seemingly unavoidable part of the American experience”) (internal quotations omitted)).
[vi] SeeJennifer Fratello, Andrés F. Renigfo & Jennifer Trone,VERA Inst. for Justice, Coming of Age with Stop and Frisk: Experiences, Perceptions, and Public Safety Implications 2 (2013), https://storage.googleapis.com/vera-web-assets/downloads/Publications/coming-of-age-with-stop-and-frisk-experiences-self-perceptions-and-public-safety-implications/legacy_downloads/stop-and-frisk-summary-report-v2.pdf(noting that New York City’s use of stop-and-frisk had significant public safety implications, “as young people who ha[d] been stopped more often [were] less willing to report crimes, even when they themselves [were] the victims.”).
[vii] See Wash. State Joint Legis. Task Force on the Use of Deadly Force in Cmty. Policing, Final Report to the Legislature and Governor, at 15 (Dec. 1, 2016), https://app.leg.wa.gov/ReportsToTheLegislature/Home/GetPDF?fileName=Final%20Report_Jt.%20Leg.%20TF%20Deadly%20Force%20Community%20Policing_d704e027-1f1e-40a9-9388-f570930f2cbe.pdf(stating that a common issue in policing is the “stranger effect,” where officers do not understand cultural differences and may “interpret something quite normal to be abnormal” when working with diverse communities); Mo. Advisory Comm. to the U.S. Comm’n on Civil Rights, The Impact of Community/Police Interactions on Individual Civil Rights in Missouri 28-32 (June 2016), https://www.usccr.gov/pubs/MOPoliceRelationsReport_Publish.pdf(“Testimony from several community leaders suggests that police do not have a good understanding of the communities they work in, straining relationships between [police and the community].”); Police Exec. Research Forum, Advice from Police Chiefs and Community Leaders on Building Trust: Ask for Help, Work Together, and Show Respect” 71-74 (Mar. 2016), http://www.policeforum.org/assets/policecommunitytrust.pdf; George L. Kelling & Mark A. Moore, The Evolving Strategy of Policing, Perspectives on Policing, Nov. 1998 5-32 https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/a614/21a27a6c4fa0e25962ef30e95a22371c1b9c.pdf.
Recommended Best Practices
Recommended
Best Practices
Many departments have implemented community policing models in recent decades, shedding light on how they can best be adopted and implemented. [i]To practice community policing, departments should work with communities to:
[i] Elements of this discussion are adapted or condensed from other sources. See, e.g., Cleveland Police Monitoring Team, First Semiannual Report 14-23 (June 2016), https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5651f9b5e4b08f0af890bd13/t/57505d172eeb81e389277c4d/1464884505703/First+Semiannual+Report–2016-06-02–FOR+RELEASE.pdf; Seattle Police Monitor, Third System Assessment: Community Con dence 19-35 (Jan. 2016), https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5425b9f0e4b0d66352331e0e/t/5761303f746fb95af2702bd0/1465987136528/Third+Systemic+Assessment–Public+Condence–FINAL.pdf.
1.6 Give communities a direct, ongoing say in police practices.
The cornerstone of community policing is an authentic, cooperative relationship between police departments and the communities they serve. Many leaders reduce community policing to outreach efforts such as basketball games with community members or “coffee with a cop.” While valuable, these efforts won’t effect change on their own.[i]As previously noted, community policing is not merely a series of programs or initiatives; it is an overarching philosophy that hinges on community involvement in departments’ decision-making processes.
[i] Edward R. Maguire & Stephen D. Mastrofski, Patterns of Community Policing in the United States, 3 Police Q. 4, 13-14 (2000) (noting that many “police agencies implement tangential and symbolic elements of community policing at the fringes of the organization, without actually producing changes in the technical core (where the primary work is accomplished”)).
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1.8 Give officers ample time to engage with community members and solve community problems.
When implementing a community policing program, department leaders should consider logistics such as time and place. Officers need time to meaningfully engage with communities and should be assigned to the same general areas or neighborhoods so they can familiarize themselves with communities and build trust with community members. To support strong police-community relationships, departments should:
Assign officers to specific geographic areas or “beats.” Assigning officers to specific neighborhoods enables them to develop an understanding of the areas they police, which can lead to better decision-making and more effective law enforcement. Officers who patrol defined geographic areas get to know residents and become familiar with neighborhoods. This helps reduce the effects of negative implicit bias; officers who are from or who know certain neighborhoods well are better able to differentiate between suspicious and everyday conduct.[i]
[i] Tracie L. Keese, Three Ways to Reduce Implicit Bias in Policing, Greater Good Magazine (July 2, 2105), https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/three_ways_to_reduce_implicit_bias_in_policing.
Read More“The absence of justice will continue to challenge the faith of the people and the notion that law enforcement is meant to protect and serve. Only an unmeasurable truth rooted in equity, respect, and care for mankind will ensure justice.”