The headlines are wrong. There need not be conflict between cops and citizens? in our communities. In fact, there are policing strategies that reduce crime while empowering citizens.
The overarching strategy is community oriented. Rather than cruising in patrol cars, reacting to emergency calls, officers immerse themselves in the community and become part of it. They get to know citizens and their concerns. Cops and citizens cooperate and develop an understanding.
A perfect vehicle for community-oriented policing is geographic policing. Replace ?one giant remote facility with local, dispersed substations. Officers get closer to the citizens they serve. They learn the rhythms and needs of different neighborhoods. They patrol the same areas, so everyone gets to know each other better. Cops take responsibility for the neighborhoods, and citizens are empowered.
A complementary community-oriented tactic is known as "broken windows" policing. Most police calls involve order maintenance anyway, so attention can focus on those lower-level offenses. This would signal that citizens value orderly, welcoming neighborhoods. Therefore, they reject disorder and crime.
Broken-windows policing is citizen-empowering policing. It assists people who want to take back their neighborhoods.
So community-oriented policing, then, enlists cops and citizens in a common cause: creating peaceful and welcoming neighborhoods. Geographic and broken-windows policing are means to that end. Together, they bind cops and citizens in cooperation instead of conflict.
I'm Bob Evans, and that's my perspective.
