Grassroot of Policing

- by Michael Huang

In the last week’s lecture and readings, such as David Sklansky’s The Persistent Pull of Police Professionalism, the majority of the discussion focuses on the styles of policing in the society. Although Professor Musheno highlights the different aspects of patronage policing and community policing, Sklansky introduces the style of police professionalism in which the police force should focus on crime reduction rates and build upon centralized precincts that can be modeled nationwide. Rather than understanding the police professionalism at a macro level, it is more important to investigate the elements of community policing at a micro level. Often times, the study of the grassroot methods and approaches to community policing lay a foundation for patronage policing and police professionalism at a larger scale. Hence, the purpose of this blog is to examine the problem-solving aspect in community policing that is also reflected in police professionalism.

The common problem that seems to always corrupt many communities and neighborhoods is crime, whether it is in the form of theft, burglary, domestic assault, or even J-walking. These criminal activities prompt the police officers to utilize different crime-fighting methods, like the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) discussed in Police Magazine. Although GIS is an effective method to map out the crime data and analyze crime patterns in order to pinpoint future crimes in a community, the article emphasizes on community interaction as the grassroot approach for the police officers to gather knowledge about their communities and information on crime. In order to promote the betterment of the community and the quality of life, law enforcement officers, like Senior Cpl. Beaty, are involved in their communities by participating in local events, crime watch programs, and interacting with citizens (Musheno). These active engagements and police presence in the communities are effective in gathering first hand data on how crimes start and how to strategically combat these issues.

By following these problem-solving protocols in the style of community policing, the technical and rationalized methods for police professionalism would soon take place. For example, the GIS is a specific law enforcement strategy with cutting edging technologies for crime suppression, which is one element to police professionalism. Soon a more centralized police department with different units and taskforce that focus on specific duties, such as narcotics and crime-fighting that aim to protect and serve the larger community.

Source:

http://www.policemag.com/channel/careers-training/news/2014/02/24/dallas-gis-police-analyst-uses-geospatial-skills-to-fight-crime.aspx