Traditional Policing vs. Community Policing

Traditional policing is the standard law enforcement model in all of our communities.  As members of our communities and therefore contributors to the crime rates/statistics in one way or another, it is our civic duty to assist in keeping our communities safe.  According to Wikipedia, traditional policing and community policing are defined as follows:

"Traditional policing is generally concerned with solving crimes with the most value, responding to incidents swiftly, and clearing calls. Many officers working busy shifts only have time to respond to and clear 911 calls. In contrast community policing is concerned with solving the crimes that the community is concerned about, and solving citizens concerns by working with and gaining support from the community." (1)

Traditional policing is commonly recognized by the iconic dark uniformed individual with the silver badge pinned over the left shirt pocket, driving around in a Crown Vic', Impala, or Charger emergency response vehicle with red and blue lights (a.k.a. cherries) on top.  The community-oriented policing is usually seen as the neighborhood watch patrol driver, or the community policing or advisory meetings held at the local city hall, or the families who put neighborhood watch yard signs or stickers on the windows and doors of their homes.  

The question I find myself asking is: Why haven't we as a society come up with a model which allows us as individuals and communities to recover some of our civic duty as citizens by directly effecting the efforts of traditional policing?  I'm not talking like chasing down bad guys, tackling them to the ground, and performing civil arrests.  But I am saying I would like to be able to have a way to tip off police officers when things are happening in my neighborhood in an effort to keep the environment in which my children play, safe.  Why haven't we been able to create a model which will allow us to take on more opportunity to assist, and combine the traditional policing and the community policing efforts?  

There are probably app developers out there who have created possible solutions but only time will tell if they are suitable for civilian use and if they can actually allow us to take on some of the action and assist with the cracking down on crime in our local towns and neighborhoods.  If this were possible, what kinds of features would you like in a smartphone, or web app?  What kind of options would you like, who would you want the app to connect to?  What would you like to see after you submitted the information?  Would you like a 'return and report' situation where the police department or company called, emailed, or texted you with an outcome of what happened?  Please leave me your comments below. 

1.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Community_policing

I know a Cop

"I know a guy"

Everyone has said something to the effect of, "I know a guy".  Most of the time it is regarding some rare talent or skill that no one knows how to do.  In this case, I know a cop.  He is a great guy who is thoughtful and a great storyteller.   He's quite a normal guy except for his drive to do good. Most people just let goodness happen, and others actively oppose it. My friend is a major advocate of community-oriented policing.

With all the negative media out there about police hurting people, I have a hard time being silent when these "brutal" police are in a war zone every day (there will always be exceptions).  Police officers deal with some of the poorest mannered citizens/non-citizens in the country and what do they get for it?

Negative popular media/lime-lighters!  You are stirring up the mob mentality to the point of irrational behavior.  Stop trying to control the masses, because you will, and you will regret it.  My cop friend is a great example to me of someone who is not swayed by the media, or by the mob mentality.  He and his wife work hard to teach their kids correct principles and then observe as they act for themselves.  Ideally, we as a society should become educated and work better our communities with our own community policing efforts.

How many of you pray with and spend quality time with your families at night?  How many of you focus on how you can be better parents to your children and set goals based on those thoughts?  I believe that being a sensible individual is necessary and is becoming a lost art. Having some options to provide a way to improve our public safety and community policing efforts would help friends like mine live less stressful lives.

I am not saying he is perfect, but there are measures in place to stop officers that make poor choices.  I am saying there are bigger problems to pay attention to and they are the little things in the home.  Pay attention to your kids and how you can give them everything you wish you had as a child.

I know a guy who leads a rigorous life as a police officer and still makes time to care for and teach his family meaningful skills and practices, in spite of what he has to deal with every day to keep us all safe.

Our Community Policing Responsibilities

Our Community Policing Responsibilities

Society needs better tools to assist in community policing.  We should not expect that more gadgetry for officers is how society will improve.  Instead of placing all the responsibility on others, we should have a way to improve our communities ourselves.  I am not advocating vigilantism, but rather that we be more aware, involved, and responsible of our communities.  With the added pressure we get from taxes and higher cost of living we really need a solution for the public safety crisis which is running rampant across America.

How am I supposed to pay the bills and have hobbies?  It seems like the only hobbies I can have are 10 minutes here and there on my smartphone... hardly productive.  Yes, I want a hobby that is productive.  Imagine a place where citizens could participate in the community policing efforts through voluntary communication with law enforcement.  If I do not want to assist in policing efforts today, I don't have to.  I may be busy doing something else.  But tomorrow I have 10 minutes to spare for a productive hobby; if there is such a thing to be found that only takes 10 minutes.

Police officers have a task much too big to handle alone, they are consistently understaffed and underpaid.  We should be able to help keep our parts of the world safer.  I believe there are ways we can improve communication between law abiding citizens and law enforcement agencies.  To do this, we need to think outside the box and say "what if".

I am sure some companies out there are trying to do something like that, but as an average citizen, I have not seen them.  We live in an age where information is presented to us without the need to go looking for it, so who can present a link between law enforcement and our community policing efforts?

I believe something needs to be done to help people like you and me participate in positive, productive, and meaningful ways, but the answer has to be available to all of us.