Lesson #GP21A: Community Policing and Crime Prevention

Many Central and Eastern European countries have experienced totalitarian governments where the national police forces were often used to intimidate and rule citizens. This gave many police forces a bad reputation and the police were seen as part of the problem, rather than as the protectors of individual freedoms of expression, religion, or association. Following the Cold War, many Central and Eastern European democracies are now facing the challenge of re-establishing the integrity of their police. Community policing can be used effectively towards this end.

Only when the community and the police can truly work together for their common good, will citizens feel that they can trust the police. Community Policing should thus not be just a buzzword.

This lesson invites students to think about the function of the police service in terms of responding to the needs of the community it serves. Policing a democratic society involves being constantly attentive to those crime-related issues that disrupt the peace and wellbeing of local people - it involves attending to those issues in both a reactive and proactive manner, as appropriate. Since the police service does not have an infinite pool of resources to draw from, police officers must prioritise, in terms of importance, the demands made upon it by the local community. Thus, police officers have to know how to solve problems quickly and efficiently.

This lesson will deal with these issues through introducing students to the concept and principles of community policing, after which students will learn of a specific model to assist in solving community-related problems.

The goal of this lesson is to provide the students with an awareness of Community Policing and its principles. Students will also be introduced to a problem solving model and apply it to a simulated situation.

At the conclusion of this lesson, the student will be able to:

1. Differentiate between the terms, “police force” and “police service” based on the lesson.
2. Define the term, Community Policing as described in the lesson.
3. State examples of “direct” and “indirect” clients found within the community to whom the KPS serve according to the lesson.
4. Outline the seven (7) principles associated with Community Policing as stated in the lesson.
5. State the five (5) steps of the Problem-Solving Model for Community Policing and apply the five-step problem-solving model to simulated community meeting as taught in class.
6. Define the term Crime Prevention according to the lesson.
7. Describe briefly the benefits of Crime Prevention as described in the lesson.
8. List the four (4) principles of Crime Prevention strategy as explained in the lesson.