| Community-partnered policing or community policing is both a philosophy and a strategy where police and citizens cooperate as partners. The people of a neighborhood and their local police use relationships, trust, empathy and a common purpose to jointly use the resources of the community to solve the roots of crime. Ordinary citizens take on the responsibility of solving community problems relating to crime, not just leaving it to the police. In this philosophy the police are part of "we, the community," instead of viewing the community as an "us vs them" mentality.
In the community-partnered policing, the first role of the police officer is to know the community well and to support the community. Knowing the community requires that police stations are located more within communities instead of being centralized. Officers are less in their patrol cars and more on the street, in town meetings, talking with people and generally being involved in the neighborhood. Police officers are encouraged to live in the community and to become socially involved in the communities.
The neighborhoods under community policing begin to look different. People form block parties, block clubs, neighborhood watches and action groups. People know and care who their neighbors are. Activities move from closed-off back-yard parties to more open front-yard parties. In walking through the neighborhoods, more people walk and talk on the streets, and kids are actively bicycling. Boulevard gardens display the new front-yard focus. |
| The very perception of police changes under the community-partnered policing where the police become the first call for help in any situation instead of just being called to respond to a crime. People don't fear the police coming into the neighborhood, so they will call at the first sign of some difficulty instead waiting until they absolutely have to call. So, in my neighborhood, we called the police first when we had a person have a car accident because of a heart attack. While my St Paul neighborhood rallied to figure out the problem and give CPR, the police were already notified and calmly took over when they arrived. The neighborhood people and the police felt like they were working together, instead of opposing each other. We had no fear that the people giving CPR were in danger when we called the police. I can't say that about other cities that I have lived in. In fact, in those other cities, we would have called for an ambulance and skipped calling the police.
Indeed, the very way that police officers talk to people changes under this model. So, for example, even in interviewing a victim of theft, the police officer adds questions that are not for simply solving the crime, but also meant to help the victim cope with the loss and put it in perspective. From St. Paul Police Officer of the Year 2002, Paul Schnell:
Q: Do you have an example of an informal use of restorative practices?
A: The simple reality is that most of the time when a police officer comes to take a report from you, for instance if somebody breaks into your car and steals your golf clubs, the likelihood of catching the person who committed that crime is probably small. Often, the experience of that is far more than just the loss of their golf clubs. To me, that's what's interesting. By using very simple restorative language, you can begin to help people better deal with and understand that experience.
Q: What kind of language would you use in a case like that?
A: Usually, when a cop asks you questions about a loss or a theft, he only asks you for the basics: who, what, when, where, your name, your address and those sorts of things. Never is that victim likely to be asked any other questions beyond that. One of the things that I have been trying to routinely ask people who make a compliant, or report having been the victim of a crime, is one simple question, "What has this has been like for you?" or "What's been the hardest thing for you?"
(International Institute for Restorative Practices)
Hiring practices change from experienced-based hiring to character-based hiring because one can train new people for good policing practices while one cannot train new people for good character. St Paul Assistant Chief Matt Bostrom did a study that changed St Paul police hiring practices to increase hiring in the character traits that community valued. These were traits like compassion, understanding and courage. A police officer that can be courageously calm in adversity will improve the chances for a peaceful outcome in any incident.
In the community-partnered policing, even the words used to describe policing change to "police officer" and "peace officer" from derogatory words like "cops". Instead of the police being characterized by the gun and the use of force, the use of force becomes just one of the tools that the police can use. Indeed, the first tool of police work becomes persuasion, instead of force. Less lethal methods of control are developed. Indeed Minneapolis police chief Tony Bouza would announce arrests by serving coffee and doughnuts to protesters, which by the way included his wife, Erica Bouza. In community-partnered policing, people trust the police. They do not fear getting hurt by an arrest and they trust that justice system will treat them fairly, even if the justice acts rather slowly.
Even in conviction, the police role changes under this model. Police may participate in "restorative justice" where the community relationships are repaired through communication instead of punishment. Police partner with groups like Friends for a Non-violent World on programs that help convicted people successfully reintegrate into society.
Indeed one of the most defining characteristics is the number of partnering programs that police are involved in. Here is a small sampling of such programs from the St Paul police department that has long been committed to community policing:
Decorating the East Side District with Christmas lights, which promotes goodwill and pride for the police department and the East Side community.
Mentoring and coaching Hmong, black or Asian youth groups in local disadvantaged areas
Creating the Urban Lab Project, which combined beat policing with a specialized focus on gangs within the West Side community
Creating the West Side Joint Auto Theft Task Force, which was a multi-jurisdictional approach to curbing auto theft and its related criminal activities
Creating the Intensive Spanish Language Program, which is an immersion-based Spanish course to give officers the ability to speak with community members whose first language is Spanish
Reaching out to our partners in the Ramsey County Probation and Parole Department to track the status of active gang members
Working with the city attorney's office to prioritize domestic violence cases by danger levels
Community-partnered policing is probably best measured by trust levels in the police. Lower levels of complaints and lawsuits against the police are also a good measure. Contrary to expectations, the levels of reported crime may actually go up before going down, because under community-partnered policing the community actually trusts the police enough to even bother to report the crime. In places of strong community partnered policing, I have seen neighborhoods rapidly turn around and real estate values rise. With good community policing, the concern for safety may become a low priority because the concern is so well addressed.
The opposing model of community-policing is the militaristic or "crime-fighter" model, which uses fear and violence to "crack down" on crime, which is described in a companion article here.
I live in the city of St Paul, a long-time implementation of community-partnered policing policy. I consider community-partnered policing policy to be the best for the community. In addition, this policy is an ethically-based policing system consistent with the values of peace, compassion, generosity and kindness.
Note: Major parts of these ideas come from Gerald W Schlabach's book, "Just Policing, Not War, pages 133 - 134. |
