Dr. Lee P. Brown, one of America?s most significant and respected law enforcement practitioners, has harnessed his thirty years of experiences in police work and authored Policing in the 21st Century: Community Policing. Written for students, members of the police community, academicians, elected officials and members of the public, this work comes from the perspective of an individual who devoted his life to law enforcement. Dr. Brown began his career as a beat patrolmen who through hard work, diligence and continued education became the senior law enforcement official in three of this nation?s largest cities. The book is about Community Policing, the policing style for America in the Twenty-First Century. It not only describes the concept in great detail, but it also illuminates how it evolved, and how it is being implemented in various communities throughout America. There is no other law enforcement official or academician who is as capable as Dr. Brown of masterfully presenting the concept of Community Policing, which he pioneered. As a philosophy, Community Policing encourages law enforcement officials, and the people they are sworn to serve, to cooperatively address issues such as crime, community growth, and societal development. It calls for mutual respect and understanding between the police and the community. The book is written from the perspective of someone whose peers identify as the ?father? of Community Policing, and who personally implemented it in Police Departments under his command. It is a thoroughly amazing book that has been heralded as a ?must read? for anyone who has an interest in law enforcement. Elected officials, academicians, leaders of the nation?s police agencies and members of the public will be captivated by Dr. Brown?s literary contribution.
POLICING IN THE 21ST CENTURY
Community PolicingBy LEE P. BROWNAuthorHouse
Copyright © 2012 Dr. Lee P. Brown
All right reserved.ISBN: 978-1-4685-4099-4Contents
Preface.........................................................................xviiChapter 1 Introduction..........................................................1Chapter 2 A Brief History of American Policing..................................9Chapter 3 The Development of Police Professionalism.............................35Chapter 4 The Era of PolicE Research............................................64Chapter 5 Police and the Courts.................................................83Chapter 6 The Evolution of Community Policing...................................107Chapter 7 Community Policing: The Promise and the Challenge.....................149Chapter 8 Issues in Implementation..............................................176Chapter 9 Managing Change.......................................................263Chapter 10 Police Leadership....................................................281Chapter 11 Profiles in Leadership...............................................313Chapter 12 Police Accountability................................................329Chapter 13 Crime and Crime Control..............................................379Chapter 14 Race Relations and Racial Profiling..................................411Chapter 15 Terrorism and Homeland Security......................................450Chapter 16 The Future of the Enterprise.........................................496Appendix A......................................................................539Bibliography....................................................................545Index...........................................................................573
Chapter One
INTRODUCTION
Community Policing is not a concept that someone thought up overnight. It has evolved from many years of law enforcement research and numerous demonstration projects, many of which have been the subject of careful and, quite often, rigorous evaluation.
Thoughtful and responsible police leaders endeavor to use resources available to them in the most effective ways. In order to do so, police administrators must approach the job of policing with fresh and open minds, not wedded exclusively to outdated concepts that they have used for long periods of time. Failure to adapt to changing circumstances and not having the advantage of ever-increasing knowledge about the non-effectiveness of traditional approaches will leave American cities under-protected and American police agencies under-utilized.
This book is about Community Policing, the strategy for law enforcement in the 21st century and beyond. It not only describes Community Policing as the future of policing in America, but also explains how the concept evolved, and how it is being implemented in various cities and smaller towns throughout the nation.
The purpose of this book is not only to discuss the concept and philosophy of Community Policing, but also to demonstrate how it should be implemented in police agencies. It is not "police-community relations," a program that was popular during the 1960s and 1970s. It is not a public relations program, nor is it a program that focuses exclusively on minority or special interest groups within the community.
Repeated observations reveal that the recognition of Community Policing as a concept, as opposed to a specialized program, is widely misunderstood; and the distinction is critical. For years, many police departments have had specialized divisions assigned specifically to "community relations" or "police-community relations." That approach-which focuses cooperative community initiatives within a specialized division - is characteristic of the traditional policing model. Similarly, other agencies have implemented foot patrols, a tactic that harkens back to the old British "watch system," and have called the use of that tactic "Community Policing." While any division and many tactics may be used by departments which practice community oriented programs, use of any of those alone does not constitute much more than a specialized program, unless that agency bases its overall approach to policing on a philosophy that permeates all aspects of its operations.
This book discusses the successes that American communities have experienced in implementing Community Policing. Those successes have not come without some new understanding, often reinforcing the idea that Community Policing does not simply mean having just a specialized Community Policing unit, while the rest of the organization keeps doing business as usual. In fact, that approach led to the demise of many Police Community-Relations units in the 1970s. The same thing can happen to Community Policing if it is not institutionalized as the dominant style of policing for the entire organization.
Community Policing is not an idea that was imported from some other country, but it evolved from programs and experimental research conducted throughout the years. It is, however, in some respects similar to the Japanese Koban System in which officers are assigned to and work in specific geographical areas. In formulating ideas about how best to police a city, I had the opportunity to study the Japanese system. The idea of police "storefronts" or "boxes" was borrowed from the Koban system
CHANGING APPROACHES TO POLICING
Policing in America has undergone profound changes during the past two centuries. Prior to 1800, several American cities, including Boston and New York, adopted organized versions of the then extant British "watch system," which included paid "professionals" and volunteers. But during the first half of the nineteenth century, a major change in the way the police were organized and functioned brewed across the Atlantic.
Based on theories he proposed as early as 1809, which were codified in the Metropolitan Police Bill of 1828, Sir Robert Peel developed a new style of policing. The so-called "Peelian Reforms" created a blueprint for addressing the approach to policing throughout England. Peel's principles of policing included control by the government; a stable and efficient military-style organization; standards for selection and training; presence and accessibility to the community; and a focus on crime prevention rather than just apprehension of law violators.
As America began to develop more organized police "departments" during the first half of the nineteenth century, Peel's blueprint became the most common basis of operating. By the 1850s, Peel's ideas had reformed policing in most of the major cities of England and the United States. Indeed, his reforms set the standards that dominated American policing for the next one hundred years.
THE PROFESSIONAL POLICING MODEL
Although many of the principles of the Peelian Reforms are still applicable to American policing, the American police system underwent another major reform during the middle of the Twentieth Century. Rooted heavily in the approaches to policing that had been developed earlier by August Vollmer, this broader reform came about, in large measure, because corruption and political interference in police department operations had become commonplace.
O.W. Wilson, in his book entitled Police Administration, laid out the principles that police agencies would rely on for many years that followed. His book was used as a basic text, not only for colleges and universities but...
