Politics of Community Policing: The Case of Seattle

• NCJ Number: 178388
• Author(s): Wilson E. Reed
• Date Published: 1999
• Length: 170 pages
• Sale Source: Garland Publishing, Inc.
• Publication Format: Book (Hardbound)
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: From the series, "Current Issues in Criminal Justice," Volume 25.

Annotation

This study examines the development of community policing in Seattle, Wash., by exploring legitimation processes, urban political processes, and micro-organizational processes.

Abstract

The book suggests that the shift to a community policing model in Seattle occurred because of the perceived failure of traditional police crime-control strategies, which were aimed at slowing the crime rate. Moreover, the actual practice of community policing in Seattle was the result of the interaction between the community and police department politics, rather than the simple bureaucratic implementation of a rational strategy of crime control. This analysis of the development of community policing in Seattle uses three theoretical approaches to understand and illuminate the politics of community policing in the city from 1985 to 1993. First, legitimation theory is used to analyze the broader fiscal issues of the State government. Second, urban political processes are used to address the social and political issues of Seattle, such as crime increases, drugs, and street crime. Finally, micro-organizational processes provide insight into how traditional bureaucratic organizations resist change, adapt, negotiate, compromise, or co-opt crime control strategies in concert with neighborhood and community-based organizations. Using Seattle as an example, it is apparent that multiple political and economic forces shape policing strategies and that police departments are placed in a reactive mode when called upon to manage and control crises and pressures not of their making in large metropolitan cities. This case study concludes that political pressure from community groups played an important role in shaping the variant of community policing eventually implemented in Seattle. The evidence, however, shows that community policing teams have been highly symbolic and political rather than effective agents of crime control and prevention. 190 references, a subject index, and appended supplementary information