Abstract
Community policing is an organizational strategy that redefines the goals of policing, but leaves the means of achieving them to practitioners in the field. It also involves a commitment to helping neighborhoods solve crime problems on their own through organizations and crime prevention programs. Community policing includes the following policing tactics: establishment of mini stations, conducting surveys to measure community satisfaction, organizing meetings and crime prevention seminars, publishing newsletters, forming neighborhood watch groups, establishing advisory panels, organizing youth activities, conducting drug education projects, patrolling on horses, on bicycles, and on foot, and working with other agencies. Community policing relies on organizational decentralization and reorientation of patrol to foster good communication with the public. Indeed, specific community policing activities may vary from department to department, there is a general agreement among police scholars that there are certain elements of community policing which are common to all the departments. These are the four dimensions of community policing which are widely discussed, namely, philosophical, strategic, tactic, and organizational dimensions. Each of these dimensions has a set of elements which police organizations are required to implement.
Beyond Community Policing: From early American Beginnings to the 21st Century by James J. Chriss presents an easy to read text that captures the nuances of American Policing pre- and postcommunity policing. In Chapters 2 and 3, the author spends a considerable amount of time discussing the historical development of American policing, taking the reader through three major eras, namely the political era, the reform/professionalism era, and the community policing era. To foster an easy understanding of these eras, Chriss adopted a distinctive framework of analysis which offered a concise discussion of the major characteristics of each era of policing. Specifically, in Chapter 3, the author offered a detail discussion of the development of the American frontier and the nature of policing in the Wild West. Chriss points out that the focus on elucidating the historical development of American policing through the three eras is inadequate, and this in fact, has created a missing link in the literature on policing. The author cited several authoritative sources to augment his claims about policing in the Wild West.
In Chapter 4 of the text, Chriss discussed how police organizations can reduce the corrupt behaviors of their personnel through a mechanism called integrity testing. Integrity testing, which can be either random or directed, is a proactive strategy that many authors (e.g., Sanja Kutnjak Ivkovic, 2005—Fallen Blue Knights: Controlling Police Corruption. Oxford University Press) believe that it is an effective way of minimizing police corruption. Chriss offered a comprehensive discussion on both types of integrity testing, and noted how they can be utilized to battle all forms of unprofessional police behavior such as excessive use of force by officers and racial profiling. Chapter 5 of the text was devoted to discussing the emergence of a possible fourth era in American policing. Though some authors believe that policing in America will drift into an era they called militarization of policing, the author, however, believes that the next phase of policing beyond community policing will be post 9/11/terrorism policing.
I personally share in the belief of the author because today, the threat of terrorism is not only an international issue but has equally become a domestic issue whose fight requires that local police departments must be on constant alert and always prepared to successfully thwart any possible domestic terrorist attack. In discussing the new paradigm of policing, Chriss uses 14 dimensions that will characterize the new era. These include the terrorism dimension, mission reconfiguration dimension, federally led response, leadership, readying for action, business as usual mind-set, financial paradox, federal–local crime control partnerships, preserving public trust, and changing leadership requirements dimensions. The discussion on these dimensions in the text was very thorough and easy to follow. Chapter 9 of the text extended the security discussion in Chapter 5 to focus on private security and how it operates alongside public policing in the postmodern world. The author adopted both historical and contemporary perspectives to enable the reader to appreciate the mechanisms underlying private policing, both in the past and in the future. Chriss also cited several relevant materials to support his discussion on private security.
Generally, I found this text to be very authoritative, and covers the nuances of policing in America. The author, who is a sociology and criminology professor, has extensive knowledge which he brought to bear in discussing the various issues hovering around American policing. In view of this, I will strongly recommend this text to anyone who wants to acquire detail knowledge on both the historical and the contemporary developments of American policing.