Community policing tactics

      part 1 Detective work only originated in America in the twentieth century. Before this, private investigators were responsible for criminal investigations. However, through policing reforms, criminal investigators were adopted into the police departments. Over time, the perception of detectives' status has evolved both in the eye of the public and among their police counterparts. Detectives are viewed as more critical in crime deterrence by the public and crucial to crime control within the policing profession. During their inception into the policing profession, the public viewed detectives as low-status operators responsible for bringing trouble and corruption to police departments. In the United States, detectives were critically faulted in corruption syndicates and crimes (Braga, 2011). However, after Hoover's administration in the FBI, the status of detectives in public began to evolve. They were named incorruptible and proficient (Braga, 2011). Detectives were now capable of conducting ad-hoc investigations and hold the offenders accountable. This changed their status among the public, who viewed them as crucial to deterring crime as they continued to make arrests.The New York Police Department has developed a Crime-Control model driven by crime statistics. This model is commonly referred to as CompStat. Though the NYPD has touted the model as a game-changer, public perception has been turned against it. Journalists and theorists have focused on one or two elements of the model, thus creating misperception and false assumptions that this system's use will revert the NYPD to the brutal force period of the 1950s (Mesloh, 2002). However, in this article, Phyliss Parshall McDonald focuses on eliminating the misperceptions and misconceptions about CompStat (Mesloh, 2011). He focuses on postulating the principles of the CompStat technology. According to McDonald, the CompStat model guarantees that the NYPD states specific objectives, allowing the department to have a focused aim (Mesloh, 2002). Therefore, for the NYPD to achieve these set objectives, it must have timely and accurate intelligence, implement tactics, and effectively counter crime while focusing on the rapid deployment of personnel and resources to counter crime (Mesloh, 2002). After all, this is done, the NYPD will, in turn, focus on follow-up and assessment of the true status of crime in the community. part two Due to an increase in community policing tactics which focused on utilizing patrol resources to solve crime and disorder problems and rarely included detectives, the public perception of investigators has been slowly diminishing since the 1970’s. However, the emergence of made for TV crime dramas in the 2000’s has renewed the public’s interest in detective work and shifted public perception of the position into a positive light. Unfortunately, this shift has also created unreasonable expectations for detectives, as the much of the public now believes it is possible to complete an entire investigation, including the arrest of the offender, within an hour. The emergence of DNA as an evidentiary tool in solving crime has also been challenged by this lack of understanding by the general public, as most people believe DNA analysis and results are instantaneous. We have discussed at length different methods that have assisted police departments in their efforts to lower crime and disorder, but have yet to look at how these methods, like community policing and Compstat, can help police develop favorable judgement of their organization within the community. There is nothing more critical to the operation of a police department than the perception by the public that their authority is perceived as legitimate. After all, we exist as a government entity responsible for the well being and safety of the general public. When legitimacy occurs, citizens are “more likely to obey the law, voluntarily comply with police officers’ requests rather than challenge them, assist the police by providing information that helps with identification, arrest, and conviction of offenders, proactively participate in community crime prevention programs, and grant broad discretion to police leaders to fight crime in ways they consider to be most effective (Willis, 2011).” Wills’ recommendations to enhance legitimacy through both community policing and Compstat are to include systematic reporting of community problems, not just crime problems, at Compstat meetings, involve the community in problem-solving efforts, and using Compstat and problem-solving data to strengthen perceptions of non-bias in police decision making regarding implementation of solutions (Wills, 2011). In conclusion, the more involved a community is in the police problem solving process, the more likely they will assist the police in their overarching goal of crime reduction and crime prevention.