Title: Community Policing: An International Literature Review
1Community Policing An International Literature
Review
Jenny Coquilhat Evaluation Officer Organisational
Assurance Group Police National Headquarters NZ
Police Research Symposium Porirua - July 2008
2Purpose of the literature review
- Evaluation of 4 NZ community policing initiatives
- Help to inform evaluation methodology
- Compare international literature and NZ context
- Help to focus the evaluation
- Conveys knowledge and ideas
- Help to identify trends and gaps
- Sets development of international context
3What is community policing?
- Popular contemporary policing approach
- Not entirely new concept
- Various definitions, meanings and practices
- Involves problem solving and community engagement
- Primary objective is positive police-community
relationships - Long term strategy
4Origins-urban/rural policing
- 4 schools of thought
- Originates from a rural style of policing
- Rural approach can not be transferred into urban
setting - Changing nature of communities
- Rural and urban policing are similar
5Policing strategies
Cordner, G. and Biebel Perkins, E. (2005)
'Problem-Oriented Policing in Practice' in
Criminology and Public Policy, v4, i2, pp158
- Community policing compared to
- - Problem oriented policing
- - Reassurance policing
6Elements of community policing
- Philosophical dimension
- Citizen input
- Broad function
- Personal service
- Tactical dimension
- Positive interaction
- Partnerships
- Problem solving
- Strategic dimension
- Re-oriented operations
- Prevention emphasis
- Geographical focus
- Organisational dimension
- Structure
- Management
- Information
7Benefits of community policing
- Improving police-community relationships and
community perceptions of police - Increasing community capacity to deal with issues
- Increasing perceptions of safety
- Reducing crime, disorder and anti-social behaviour
8Barriers to community policing
- Implementation challenges
- Police officer/organisation
- Resident/community
- Police culture
- Specialised units
9What we can learn
- It was hard getting community policing off the
ground, but it can be made to work Skogan and
Hartnett, 1998 246 - Chicago Alternative Policing Strategy (CAPS)
- Strong evidence to show local policing activity
can have a positive impact on a range of
outcomes - Tuffin et al, 2006 95 - National Reassurance Policing Programme (NRPP)
- The goal of delivering effective police services
to all communities is best achieved by a
commitment to police innovation, community
satisfaction and program evaluation Mazerolle
et al, 2003 89 - On the Beat - Queensland
10Questions