Community Policing Policy In order to establish a community based policing program a number of needs must be met.

Community Policing Policy

In order to establish a community based policing program a number of needs must be met. First, a need must be identified within the community. Second, a method must be found to help meet that need. Third, the police must actively involve community members in the process. Here in Tucson crime is rampant, particularly larceny. This has lead to the development of many programs geared toward community interaction and reducing larceny. Although these programs have had some effect they have not significantly reduced the amount of property crime in Tucson.

In order to see a serious reduction it will be necessary to get more of the community directly involved in the crime fighting process. Neighborhood watches, Operation ID, and other community based programs need more direct involvement. In order to accomplish this, the Tucson Police Department needs to reach out to community leaders directly and implement these programs at the neighborhood level.

A police car in Washington, D.C.

Metropolitan Police car

English: THe Avondale community policing centre in...

The philosophy of the majority of police departments over the last 100 years is to have a reactive approach to crime. The reactive approach to fighting crime is for police to respond to a scene of a crime after the crime has been committed. This idea of policing is suitable for the amount of resources that police departments are given to fight crime. As the amount of crimes have increased over time, a new look into how local police departments fight crimes is necessary.

A possible solution for the increase in crime rates is to step away from the reactive approach and look into developing a more proactive strategy. The idea of proactive policing is that crime is fought before it evens happens. Community policing allows for this idea to work, because police departments work one-on-one with members of the community to understand the needs...