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Assignment briefs about major aspects & responsibilities of Problem-Oriented Policing & Community-Oriented Policing

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Community-Oriented Policing (COP)

Community-Oriented Policing is a strategy of policing through which the focus will be on building close relations with the members of the communities. It will thereby help the policy membersand the team implementing this policy to control the environment from the crime and disorder perspective. 

The target of such policies is to reduce the crime and disorder by involving the community members and thereby encouraging them to help the police departments in catching the culprits of different criminal culprits (Reisig, 2010). It is also referred to as traditional policing approachwherein the police will be taking the help of people to track the criminals. 

They use automobiles, telecommunications, and other forms to quickly reach the crime scene and catch hold of the culprit. There are different methods used for patrolling purpose and the police officers are trained on different guidelines and approaches under this policing approach. It is one of the best approaches that will help the police department to reduce the crime rates in a given community. 

Pros and cons of COP

The major pros of COP are that it will bring the community together and fight against the crimes of the society. It will thereby result into a strong community that will be ready to take actions against the major culprits of the society. Also, through this approach, the police department will be able to educate the community in a given environment. 

The people of the community will find it easy to communicate with the police personnel and thereby help them overcome the major crimes of the society (Scheider, 2013). On the other hand, the major cons of COP include - struggle of power, creating deviance, and varied ideas leading to confusion (Scheider, 2013).

The people of the society will find difficulty in engaging with community policing for the wrong reasons. Second, it might happen that some of the youth will get deviated and will thereby start committing crimes without prior knowledge of the police department. It is thereby important to overcome such issues and make sure that the COP policies work as per the expectations of the police personnel in a given environment.

Examples of COP

The principle of COP is to protect the people and also engage people from the community to work closely with the police personnel to solve the problems of crime, fear of crime, illicit drugs, physical and social disorder, and other such issues of crime in the society. 

The major examples of COP include - delivering turkeys for senior citizen at Washington, D.C., providing thanksgiving luncheon for homeless veterans, organizing kid’s community holiday party, toy drive, and many more (Hyde, 2016). 

In each of these examples, it can be found that the Metropolitan Police Department delivered lunches, food, and toys to the people for those who mightto have been able to go out for a traditional thanksgiving. It was an opportunity for both the entities to communicate with each other and share their thoughts. It will thereby allow the local residents to improve their relations and subsequently help the police personnel in catching the culprits and in reducing the crimes rates of a given community.

Problem-Oriented Policing (POP)

On the other hand, Problem-oriented policing (POP) refers to a policing strategy that involves identification and analysis of crime and disorder problems. The regulatory authorities will thereby develop responsivestrategies to tackle such problems of the community. The approach of the problem in this case will be to understand the motive of crime and thereby take help from the medical staff to overcome such psychological mindset of the criminals (Hyde, 2016). 

The approach requires police to be proactive and thereby solve the problems of crime in a given community. This policy is formulated to overcome - repeated incidents, increased abuse incidents and also increased fears among the people of the community. The focus of the policies is to understand the problems of concern to the public, be proactive, be committed to systematic inquiry, encourage the use of rigorous methods in making inquiries, and thereby make sure of overcoming such problems in the community. 

Pros and cons of POP

The major pros of POP include - tracking the root factors due to which crimes have occurred, deploying ways to solve the mindset of criminals, assisting the criminals in overcoming their issues, and thereby making sure that the crime rates will decrease (Hyde, 2016). Further, the departments will not have to rely on local residents to catch the culprits. 

However, the cons include - difficulties in catching the culprits since they will not be traced directly, increased use of police resources to reduce such crimes, and changing governmental policies will impact on the performance of the entire police department. It is thereby important to identify such issues of crime in the community and thereby scene them so that appropriateresponsestrategy can be deployed in a given environment. 

Examples of POP

Some of the major examples of POP include - the policy community, and city council working together to overcome the drug abuse problem in the Meadowbrook community. In another case, the narcotic activity was caught with an approach to prevent drug trafficking in a given community (Kozma, 2014). 

This approach thereby helps in not only catching the criminals and the culprits but also assists in preventing the occurrence of such crimes in the future. The government thereby needs to motivate the police department to focus on such activities and thereby ensure lowering of the crime rates in the entire community. 

Challenges that Police Departments Face while Implementing COP and POP

The challenges that police departments face during the implementation of COP and POP polices include - improper communication between the police personnel and the community, lack of crime control framework, lack of implementation model through which these polices can be implemented in the community, lack of trust between the people of the community and the police department, lack of support from the government in some cases, and changingexternal environment that disrupts the functioning of the police department (Kozma, 2014). 

It is the responsibility of the police department and the regulatory authorities to overcome these challenges and thereby make sure of proper implementation of COP and POP policies in a given environment. It will thereby help the regulatory authorities to reduce the crime rates of the community.


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