The Importance of Community Relationships in the Administration of a Criminal Justice Organization

Introduction

Community relationships improves:

• Police legitimacy
• Public confidence and trust in law enforcement

Police Legitimacy

• Police legitimacy – the community’s acknowledgement of the police’s entitlement to rule.
• Measurement metric: the public’s readiness to collaborate with and obey the police.
• Procedural justice during police encounters increase their legitimacy and vice versa.
• Minority groups and the police have a strained relationship.
• Minorities developed negative police stereotypes due to their previous experiences.
• Unfair treatment and racial profiling negatively impacted their perception of police (Majmundar & Weisburd, 2018).
• Poor relations between the public and police triggers police illegitimacy.
• Police legitimacy increases obedience and cooperation (Leventakis & Haberfeld, 2018).
• Cooperation: a key performance indicator (KPI) for effective policing.
• Unfair policing or prejudice increases the likelihood of offending behaviors (Majmundar & Weisburd, 2018).
• African-Americans’ racial profiling by police increases their probability of resisting arrest.
• George Floyd’s killing is also a consequence of ineffective policing.
• The War on Drugs program also exhibits police legitimacy’s significance (Majmundar & Weisburd, 2018).
• Positive relations improve the public’s discernment of police’s entitlement to rule.

Confidence and Trust

1. Police effectiveness is the extent to which policing achieves its fundamental objectives.
2. The police’s main objective is to enforce laws, decrease fear, and solve community issues.
3. Public coordination and collaborative knowledge-sharing influence police duties.
4. Positive community interactions helps the police achieve these goals.
5. Good community-police relations increases trust and willingness to share information.
6. Trustful relationships help develop information support systems and promote constructive data sharing.
7. Positive interactions between police and citizens increases public’s trust and confidence.
8. Public’s cooperation in stop and search programs exhibits community relationships’ significance.
9. Communities support these programs if police demonstrate necessity, proportionality, and legality (College of policing, 2013).
10. Positive police relations reduce negative police stereotypes and develops trust.
11. The Role of Positive Community Partnerships in Criminal Justice Organizations’ Management
12. Positive community partnerships:

    1. Facilitates information gathering
    2. Promotes the development of evidence-based policies
    3. Garners public’s support of its activities and programs
    4. Promotes democracy and community empowerment

Facilitating Information Gathering

1. The police’s capacity to sustain public safety relies on a community’s preparedness to share crime-related data.
2. Public safety departments utilizes data to promote efficiency in its operations.
3. Positive community engagement encourages public’s readiness to share information.
4. Gathered data can be used to distinguish critical threats and implement control strategies.
5. These partnerships promotee proper crime management.
6. They enhance easy access to vital data used to establish an institution’s local intelligence.

Promoting Evidence-Based Policy Development

1. It fosters evidence-based policymaking by promoting informed decision-making.
2. STCG utilizes human intelligence while developing tactical priorities and allocating resources.
3. Thames Valley Police used consumer data to improve their public relations approach (Community policing, 2013).
4. Data derived from community partnerships can be used to ensure proper resource utilization.
5. Positive community partnerships facilitate the strategic policing procedure.
6. Criminal justice organizations can assess police performance using data gathered from community members.
7. Evaluation outcomes can be used to promote public safety and empower communities.
8. Data from the public facilitates practical evaluation of policies, and management decisions.
9. The information can be used to improve police unit’s operational efficiency.

Garnering Public Support of Its Activities and Programs

1. Community policing promotes interactive partnerships.
2. Positive community relations empowers police to resolve issues.
3. Positive relationships between the community and police foster police-related activities (Leventakis & Haberfeld, 2018).
4. The police and crime commissioner model allows civilians to demand public safety officials to amend their conduct.
5. Civilians can raise concerns in areas where police tactics are unfair and counterproductive.
6. The model demands that all crime organizations consult and partner with communities.
7. This framework enhances accountability and democracy.
8. The same platforms can be used to educate the public on police work
9. This consequently helps improve the public’s understanding and promote police legitimacy.
10. Educating the public empowers them to promote their community’s safety.
11. Five Current Community Relations Programs

Neighborhood Watch

Primary aim: to inform citizens of the ongoing activities in their neighborhoods.

It comprises citizens that lookout for suspicious activities and report them (“What is neighborhood watch,” n.d.).

The program improves community-police relations by promoting trust and relationships.

This visibility improves civilians’ perceptions of the police and generates trust (Sargeant, 2017).

Success Metrics

1. It has offered training to over 1500 community leaders (National Neighborhood Watch, n.d.).
2. It is endorsed by approximately 5000 law enforcement organizations (National Neighborhood Watch, n.d.).

Strengthening Police and Community Partnerships (SPCP)

• The program enhances public safety by reinforcing trust and partnerships.
• It offers a platform where community leaders can hold dialogues with the police (The United States Department of Justice, n.d.).
• SPCP also provides free volunteer training programs.
• Training is based on conflict management and solution development
• In-person dialogues by the program promotes collaboration.
• It ameliorates police-community relations (The United States Department of Justice, n.d.).
• In-person meetings also help police agencies become knowledgeable of cultural factors.

Success Metric: Reduced recidivism or re-arrest rates in the community by 25% (The United States Department of Justice, n.d.).

The Unity Project

Purpose: to bring together communities and police agencies through technology.

The software enhances better police-community relations.

One-on-one interactions fosters confidence and trust in law enforcement.

Success Metric: Reduced tensions and threats to the Jewish community (Leventakis & Haberfeld, 2018).

The Muskegon Heights, Michigan, Police Department

• The Gaining Unity through Non-violent Solutions (GUNS) program’s aim: to minimize gun violence.
• The initiative enhances public relationships by addressing community concerns.
• The program devises community policing strategies.
• The city’s police unit organized community-based congregations.
• Through these meetings, MHPD achieved stakeholder support.
• The unit initiated the Gun for Groceries Initiative.
• The department assumed a proactive approach to reducing gun violence.

Success Metric

• They established a program that awards grocery vouchers to those surrendering their guns (International Association of Chiefs of Police [IACP], n.d.).
• Over 250 guns were recalled (IACP, n.d.).
• Membership growth from 24 members to 300 participants (IACP, n.d.).

Midsize Agency (MSA)

1. The MSA is committed to offering a voice within the IACP.
2. The agency was developed to curb driving under the influence (DUI), theft, and fraud.
3. They established partnerships with local institutions and community stakeholders.
4. The program has improved community-police relationships.

Success Metrics: Nearly a 100% reduction in the purchase of fraudulent gift cards was attained (IACP, n.d.).

The program has successfully partnered with local taxis (IACP n.d.).

References

Abrahamson, D. E., & Goodman-Delahunty, J. (2014). Impediments to Information and Knowledge Sharing Within Policing. SAGE Open, 4(1), 1–17.

College of Policing. (2013). Engagement and communication. 

International Association of Chiefs of Police [IACP]. (n.d.). IACP leadership in community policing award. 

Leventakis, G., & Haberfeld, M. R. (2018). Societal implications of community-oriented policing and technology. Springer.

Majmundar, M. K., & Weisburd, D. (2018). Proactive policing: Effects on crime and communities. National Academies Press.

Sargeant, E. (2017). Policing and collective efficacy: the relative importance of police effectiveness, procedural justice, and the obligation to obey police. An International Journal of Research and Policy, 27(8), 927–940.

The United States Department of Justice. (n.d.). Strengthening Police and Community Partnerships. 

National Neighborhood Watch (n.d.). What is neighborhood watch?