Comprehensive Police Reform ? More Than Policing !
( continued )
That definition was adopted ( with minor modification ) by the
IACP in 2019 :
Community policing is a comprehensive philosophy that guides policy and strategy aimed at achieving more effective and efficient crime control , reduced fear of crime , improved quality of life , and improved police services and police legitimacy through a proactive reliance on community resources that seeks to change crime causing conditions . This assumes a need for greater accountability of police , elected community leaders , and the community in general , along with greater public share in decision-making through the identification of service needs and priorities and a greater concern for civil rights and liberties ( IACP 2019 ). infrastructure , parks and recreation , voluntary associations , and the private sector . Local government services have as much to do with the production of crime as the police and typically they are absent from any press conference on crime . Therefore , it behooves local government to offer a comprehensive approach to crime issues and not leave it to police alone ( Friedmann 2015 ). This is not meant to marginalize police . Rather it is meant to bring the other service agencies to play a role alongside the police . If a community wants to minimize police case load it needs to produce less crime . And that is why it is so important to involve all other service providers to take part in this effort .
There are three explicit principles evident in community policing : it is comprehensive , it encourages partnerships , and it is proactive ( in addition to , not instead of , reactive policing ). A fourth is the focus on crime causing conditions . But when it comes to crime production , perhaps the most critical principle is the shift from a society that is police-centered , to a society that is service-centered .
Here police are on the periphery of service provision along with other service providers such as health , education , housing , job training , welfare ,
22 WINTER . 2021
Therefore , any police reform needs to consider a far wider reform . Any industry and any service need a measure of quality control . The quality of police services has been typically assessed by crime statistics , arrests and tickets . Crime goes down ? Police are doing a great job . Crime goes up ? Police are criticized . This is an erroneous approach because it focuses on the wrong diagnosis and it misplaces causal relationships . To change this , there are certainly things police must do internally . For example , recruit officers who fit expectations , deploy personnel based on data , and promote department-wide practice of community policing including de-escalation techniques . Externally , police need to work better with other social service agencies , learn how to coordinate activi-