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CHRIS BRAIDEN'S MINDSET Ever hear lines like these? "I'd rather overkill than leave them wounded." "It's easier to ask for forgiveness than permission." "I'd like to have respect, but if not, a little fear will do nicely." These tough cop parodies represent a self-defeating approach to policing. This is not the way to be thinking, let alone talking, if we truly want the community on our side. What is community policing about? Peace in the 'hood, all 'hoods. When peace is the destination, look for allies. When it's war, look for enemies - and that's what we've been doing for the past 30 years. Much has been written about policing over the years by academics, but little by folks who have lived long lives inside its "culture of the cloth". Put simply, that culture of the cloth, of the organization, has come to dominate the cause, the purpose for which police exist. For fundamental change to occur, that process must be reversed. Here's how. |
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Community Policing
A Mindset And An Approach
Police need to get beyond feel good slogans like "Serve and Protect" or "Thin Blue Line" that sound impressive, but don't translate into practical solutions.
"Community Policing" involves both a mindset for police service and an approach to deploying police resources.
Not A Military Model
Police do themselves little good with talk about "combatting crime" or the "war on drugs", or references to people outside the force as "civilians". We need to wrench the policing mindset away from military metaphors with a vaguely conceived "enemy".
Police in a common law democracy are not an occupying army deployed to suppress a hostile population. Nor are they soldiers stepping warily in a guerrilla war where they cannot distinguish friend from foe.
Policing is a unique task, and should be discussed in its own terms. The community should not be seen as a battlefield, and we do not have to destroy a place in order to save it.
Mindset Is The Starting Point
We need to look at policing the way Abraham Lincoln looked at government itself, something which is of the people, by the people, and for the people.
Britain's Sir Robert Peel invoked such a concept when setting up the London Metropolitan Police, when he said they were To maintain at all times a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and the public are the police. The police are only members of the public who are paid to give full time attention to duties that are incumbent on every citizen, in the interests of community welfare and co-existence.
A Practical Approach
With a "part of the people" mindset in place, Community Policing becomes a matter of designing a police structure for interacting with the rest of the public.
It is a way to carry out the basic task of policing the community; it is not a public relations gimmick to promote warm fuzzy photographs and television clips showing community leaders backing the force.
Community Policing is a cheaper and more effective method of deploying police resources because it focusses on preventing crime, as well as reacting to it. But when crime occurs, the better base in the community this approach promotes offers better chances for detection and solution.
