1. Police in America
Chapter Ten
Innovations in
Police Strategy
McGraw-Hill
© 2013 McGraw-Hill Companies. All Rights Reserved.

2. Impetus for Change in Policing




Local police departments were isolated and
alienated from important segments of the
community.
Research had undermined the assumptions of
traditional police management and police
reform.
Recognition of the fact that the police role is
complex.
Recognition of the importance of citizens as coproducers of police services
10-2

3. The Roots of Community Policing:
Broken Window Hypothesis

Broken Windows Hypothesis: Developed by James Q. Wilson and
George L. Kelling; argues that police should focus their resources
on disorder problems that create fear of crime and lead to
neighborhood decay. A broken window begins neighborhood decay.

Types of Disorder:
1. Social Disorder (Social Disorganization): A condition said to exist
when a group is faced with social change, uneven development
of culture, maladaptiveness, disharmony, conflict, and lack of
consensus.
2. Physical Disorder: A form of societal neglect resulting from
physical decay within a neighborhood; examples include
vandalism, dilapidation and abandonment of buildings, and trash
buildup.
10-3

4. Characteristics of Community
Policing

Community Policing: A model of
policing that stresses a two-way
working relationship between the
community and the police; the police
become more integrated into the local
community, and citizens assume an
active role in crime control and
prevention.
10-4

5. Community Policing



Community Partnerships
 Collaboration between police and community
Consultation
 Citizens can express problems and needs
 Police can educate citizens about crime and disorder in
community
 Allows citizens to present complaints
 Provides forum for police to inform the citizen about
successes and failures
Mobilization
 Neighborhoods
 Civil and administrative law
 Other municipal agencies
10-5

6. The Effectiveness of Community
Partnernships

Foot Patrol
 Increased citizens’ feelings of safety
 Positive feelings toward police department
 Varied feedback on effectiveness of crime reduction

Neighborhood Watch
 Repeatedly found to have little impact on crime

Policing Where “Community” Has Collapsed
 More successful among middle-income people,
homeowners, and whites than among really poor
renters and racial minorities
10-6

7. Organizational Change
 Organizational
Structure
 Organizational Culture
 Management
10-7

8. Evidence of Organizational Change
 Little evidence to support the idea that
police organizations are changing their
structure as a consequence of community
policing
 However, increased police visibility as a
result of community policing
 Incorporation of community policing
principles into academy training for
officers
10-8

9. Problem Solving
 Last element of community policing
 When the police and the community engage
in a cooperative effort to solve neighborhood
problems
 Requires participants to identify the
underlying causes of problems rather than
respond to the problems themselves
 29% of local police agencies encourage
officers to engage in problem-solving projects
10-9

10. Pulling It All Together: Implementing
Community Policing at the Departmental
Level
 Chicago Alternative Policing Strategy
(CAPS) Program
 The CAPS Plan
 Involvement of entire department and entire city
 Permanent beat assignment for officers
 Commitment to training
 Community involvement
 Link between policing and delivery of other city
services
 Emphasis on crime analysis
10-10

11. (CAPS) Obstacles to Change
 Problem
of resources
 Public opposition to planned closing of
precinct station houses
 Getting rank-and-file officers committed to
CAPS
 The 911 system
 Traditional system would pull officers away
from problem-solving activities
10-11

12. CAPS in Action

Citizen interaction with police important
 Attempted through regular beat meetings where
citizens could discuss neighborhood problems
• Problems discussed included drug problems, youth
problems, loud music, police disregard for citizens

Evaluation of CAPS
 Mixed results
 High level of awareness of program, but did not
increase as time went on
 Increased police visibility
 More time spent on problem-solving
10-12

13. 
Community Policing: Problems and
Prospects
A Legitimate Police Role?
 A matter of policy choice

A Political Police?
 Community policing expands police role and erodes traditional limits
 The more they dig into the root of social problems, the more they place limits
on individual liberties

Decentralization and Accountability
 Decentralization creates a potential loss of control over police behavior

Impact on Poor and Minority Communities
 Intrusive on lives of those living in low-income areas, more arrests, fewer
men in these communities who can find jobs due to their criminal record

Conflicting Community Interests
 Especially financial interests

But Does Community Policing Work?
 YES: Study funded by the COPS Office showed that the community policing
strategy implemented by the Clinton administration was extremely effective
10-13

14. The Roots of Problem-Oriented
Policing:
 Herman Goldstein recognized complexity
of the police role
 Helped draft the American Bar Association standards
that emphasized different responsibilities of police
 Goldstein argues we should think of the police as a
government agency providing a wide range of
miscellaneous services
 Also argues that the police are prisoners of their
communication system
• 911 forces them into a reactive role and makes them think in terms of
isolated incidents
10-14

15. The Problem Solving Process
(SARA)

Scanning
 Look for and identify possible problems

Analysis
 Collect information about the problem and attempt to
identify its scope, nature and cause

Response
 Analysis information used to develop a strategy to
address the problem

Assessment
 Evaluation of the effectiveness of the response
10-15

16. Effectiveness of Problem-Oriented
Policing

Problem-Oriented Policing in Newport News
 Increased police presence in area reduced reported burglaries
by 60 percent
 Utilized SARA model

Problem-Oriented Policing in San Diego
 70% of officers used some aspect of SARA model
 However, most POP projects were not carried out in a
traditional “text book” fashion

The Boston Gun Project: Operation Cease Fire



Reduced youth-gang homicides by 70%
Residents’ fear of crime reduced by 21%
Faith in police increased by 33%
10-16

17. Characteristics of Zero-Tolerance
Policing

Zero-Tolerance Policing
 Based on broken windows theory
 Calls for the police to primarily focus on disorder, minor
crime, and the appearance of crime
 Characterized by interventions that aggressively enforce
criminal and civil laws
 Based on the presumption that communities that need the
police the most are also the least likely to have strong
community social institutions
 Does not attempt to carefully identify problems or thoroughly
analyze cause of problems
 Focus on place-specific interventions
 A back-to-basics strategy
10-17

18. Effectiveness of Zero-Tolerance
Policing

Zero Tolerance Policing in NYC
 Giuliani instituted zero-tolerance strategy that focused on
enforcement efforts against panhandling, vandalism,
public drunkenness, public urination, and prostitution
 Result was a drop in serious crime rate, however this also
came about as part of a general nation-wide trend in
drops in crime rate

Operation Restoration
 Chandler, AZ
 Restructured police department and gave more
responsibility to planning and development dept.
 Result was a decrease in public morals crimes like
prostitution and disorderly conduct
10-18

19. Potential Problems with ZeroTolerance Policing
 Conflict between police and the public
 Encourages officers to be overly aggressive
 Increase in no. of citizen complaints
 Increase in crime in the long run
 An arrest record has a long-term impact on a
person’s immediate and future employment
 Impact on poor and minority communities
 Focus on minor offenses means poorer
minority communities will be affected more
10-19