NCJ Number
139845
Date Published
Unknown
Length
15 pages
Annotation
In order for innovative community-oriented policing programs to work, there must occur significant shifts in community, organization, and personnel paradigms.
Abstract
For example, community paradigms regarding policing are based on the inaccurate premise that police could control serious crime through rapid and effective responses to calls for service. However, the professional view is that the police have little effect on crime because crime is caused by factors beyond their control. The prevalent paradigm of police organizations is one of stability and resistance to change; there must be a shift away from reactive policing to an active, assertive prevention mode. Finally, the police culture itself will be difficult to change because of the stressful and dangerous work conditions under which officers operate and because of restrictive work schedules that limit police socialization to other officers.