Implementing Community Policing It

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Implementing Community PolicingIts Philosophy
not a Program!

• Michael G. Wilkie, Chief
• Acworth Police Department

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Community Policing

• The most well publicized innovation in policing
  in the past ten to fifteen years
• Based on interaction between Police and Citizens
  to co-produce crime control

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Vision Statement

• Group Activity Prepare a Sample Vision Statement
  for a Police Department
• Write down the first things that come to your
  mind of what a police department should be.
  Include some element of the concept of community
  policing
• Rank them in order of importance to you.
• In your group compare your ideas.
• Highlight the re-occurring themes.
• As a group write your vision statement.
• Each group will report back to the whole group.
• Now, we will write one vision statement.
• Compare our vision statement to the Acworth
  Police Department.

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Compare and Contrast

• Our statement
• APD Statement
• COMPARE Citizens view vs. a Cops view

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Goals and Objectives

• Co-production of Order
• Implementing social order through mutual
  cooperation of public servant and citizens
• The Small town provides an appropriate
  settingLarge municipalities begin in precincts
  and carry the torch throughout the entire city.

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Correct Development of Citizen Perceptions

• Suggest ways of developing venues of developing
  interaction
• Citizen Police Academies, Neighborhood
  associations, Business Associations, Ministerial
  Meetings, Hotel Owners/Managers Meetings
• Understand that different neighborhoods present
  different needs
• Utilize other community forums

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Development of the COP Mission

• Fundamental redefinition of policing
• Whole new avenues of social control
• Community Policing is Philosophy not a Program.
• Community Policing is not an expansion or
  extension of the department it IS the department.

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Heart of COP

• Social Order is most effectively a Co-production
  of the police and the community (Weisheit,
  1994).
• Police become approachable.
• Citizens actually define the role police play.

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Law Enforcement View of COP

• Poor early training has produced negative
  attitudes.
• Must be a department commitment (a department
  philosophy).
• Requires mindset change (The cheese has moved!)
• May be approached in incremental change

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Training Issues

• Most police training is limited to the
  mechanics of policing
• May require review of current curriculum, hiring
  practices, and standards of measurement in the
  department

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Can It Work?

• Small towns are the perfect atmosphere however,
  large cities can effectively create the
  atmosphere.
• People already tend to interact, know one
  another we need to capitalize on the
  interaction.
• More community interaction leads to more informal
  means of social control

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Issues of Liability

• Patterns of Liability might change
• The more you allow, the more you are liable
  for.
• Liability arises when officers are asked to do
  something for which they have had no training,
  experience, understanding, or commitment.

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Benefits Outweigh the Liabilities

• Creates a climate of collaboration and
  cooperation.
• Deters crime in the long-run.
• Builds relationships within and without the
  community.
• Creates accountability and creditability with the
  community.

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Integral part of Cultivating Excellence!

• Safekeeping of human life property
• Enforcing the law with equal administration
• Ensuring excellence in all services
• Detecting deterring crime
• Selfless involvement in consistent cooperation in
  our community