Community Policing: Strategies And Effectiveness Of Edmonton Police In Canada

Benefits of Community Policing

Question:

Choose any Canadian Police and you have to talk about the Community Programs they doing right now and present your thoughts on to it.

Community policing refers to the allocation of polices in to the community so that they become well acquainted with the inhabitants of the local inhabitants. A community police normally have partnerships with the agency that enforces law and other government agencies, non government organizations, community members, media as well as private businesses (Cordner, 2014). Main aim of community policing is to solve the problems of the public by putting on the shoes of the public and remaining inside the community.

This paper aims to focus on a particular group of Canadian police, The Edmonton police. The paper will give a vivid description of the Canadian police, their method of working, their strategies taken up for the protection of the community and the sustainability of those strategies followed by a set of recommendations.

Community policing may be defined as a strategy of policing that involves the working closely and building ties with the members of the community. In community policing the police needs to inherit a pro-active approach to address the concerns of the public safety. A community policy also provides the scope of the offender rehabilitation by making a sustainable society and understanding the underlying cause of the wickedness of the criminals (Gill et al., 2014). The duties and the attributes can give opportunity to the criminals to correction by evidence based correctional practice.

There are several problems inside a community which cannot be recognized if one is not in the system and those problems will not be taken care of. It is the duty of a police to communicate with the members of the community (Cordner, 2014). Police acts a link between the public and law. Community policing helps the members of the community against anti-social activities by the implementation of crime prevention strategies and bringing the issues under the legal terms.

There are some primary element of community policing which are community partnership, organizational transformation and problem solving skills. A community policing will be able to provide effective services to any organization or a community by collaborative partnership with the law enforcement agency (Cordner, 2014).  

Community policing is necessary as polices can engage in the systematic examination of the individual problems and evaluate them with appropriate responses (Bennett, 2014).

Primary Elements of Community Policing

It has to be remembered that community policing cannot solve a problem alone and generally requires the active participation of the stakeholders. The link of the police with different government and nongovernmental organizations provide also help the common people to get access to these services.

There should be a shift to the long term assignment of the police officers to specific geographical area. It should be remembered that geographic deployment helps to provide better facilities to the public. It helps to enhance more contact with the people and maintain a strong relationship with the people.

Reports suggest that community police strategies create a positive effect on the satisfaction of the citizens. One of the studies showed that community oriented policing have been able to reduce the crime up to 10 % (Sampson, 2013).

As said by Bennett, (2014), a community police community policing emphasizes on the on stopping the crime before it occurs and respond and take necessary steps after the occurrence of the crime. In such a case a prompt action has to be taken. A community police helps the members of the community to have more control over their life. In order to understand all the problems of the neighborhood it is necessary to become a part of the community (Cordner, 2014). A greater trust is required to be built between the police and the common public and this is only possible via community policing. According to Kappeler & Gaines, (2012), community police plays a pivotal role to promote public safety and improve the quality of life. There may be several grievances in a community which sometimes does not reach to the government, the community policing helps to bridge this gap and provide effective service to the people (Brogden & Nijhar, 2013). Getting the community involved helps the police with various resources for the prevention of crime. Unlike the traditional system of policing the policing goals are expanded and the viewpoint regarding the community is changed (Cotton & Coleman, 2010). According to concepts of the traditional police system, societies are not within the realm of the department of police. Police officers are normally tied to the dispatcher and generally to not have excess time to do anything more than that. But now, it has become necessary to create an interpersonal relationship between the police and the community.

As proposed by Gill et al., (2014), community policing also have certain advantages. One of the main advantages of community policing is that it reduces the fear among the members of the community. The residents of the community can lead a secured life. The quality of life is improved and the crime is reduced (Brogde & Nijhar, 2013). Community police provides chance to the community members such that they can come up with their problems. In this way community police can provide a myriad of advantages. As opposed by Gill et al., (2014), it is really difficult to establish a community involvement and to establish a partnership with the community and the police. Most of the members of the community always try to remain aloof from matters related to law and police.

Edmonton Police Service: Strategies and Innovations

The Edmonton police of Canada service work with the members of the community to mitigate the crime rates within the community. Edmonton is a city where people have excellent culture of helping out every body. Edmonton police service (EPS) are able to combat the organized crimes such as unrest related to gangs, drugs, hatred and biasness and other economic crimes. The Edmonton police service is located throughout the city for serving the citizens of Alberta. Apart from the Police headquarters, each operational division of the town has got 5 larger stations.  A district team policing model is followed by the Edmonton police, which help the officers to identify the community crimes quickly. There are 6 divisions in the city each having four districts. Each district has got a community sergeant and community liaison constables (CLC), who are devoted to work alongside the partners and the community b identifying and prioritizing the crime. The sergeant along with the CLC teams work in collaboration with the community to make a sustainable to live in (Cotton & Coleman, 2010).

Gang related violence is a major concern for the citizens of Edmonton. Drug, presents a significant threat to the community. The hatred and the bias motivated might have a debilitating or catastrophic impact on the victims (Sampson, 2013). The Edmonton police service also acts promptly in case of economic crimes and cyber frauds, mass market frauds, identify frauds and frauds related to plastic money (O'Connor, 2017).

The Canadian police service has taken up innovative strategies for managing the crimes such as the Edmonton police mobile app. There is an emergency number '911' which can be used by the communities in case of an emergency situation ("Edmonton Police Service", 2017). There are provisions for speaker phones termed as 'blue and yellow phones', since the six Edmonton Police service stations does not stay open 24x7, this bright yellow phones are available outside the police stations, which directly connects to the police communication centre, which enables one to speak with an evaluator ("Edmonton Police Service", 2017).

The blue speaker phone directly connects to the emergency number. As said earlier that community policing involves the community, hence the Edmonton police encourages the citizens to report all the crimes occurring (Family Protection, 2017). EPS participated in NWEST, which is a federally sponsored program that has been designed to combat weapon trafficking and smuggling ("Family Protection", 2017).

 The collaboration of the Edmonton police with the NWEST can be a sustainable step as the team often receives phone calls from the normal citizens, asking about questions about registering guns or how the guns can be transported or stored ("Edmonton Police Service", 2017). This strategy helps the citizens to maintain law and order in the city in relation to weapons and stops the trafficking of weapons. The mobile app can be useful fir the users to report crime. It can also be helpful to the cops as the forces would remain alert of the conditions of all the places of the city.

Challenges and Way Forward

The availability of the patrol officers in five divisions of the cities helps in the prevention of crime in broad daylight.  The Edmonton police also offer specialized units such as flight operations, crime scene investigation, canine, search and rescue, aboriginal relations ("Edmonton Police Service", 2017).

The school resource officers (SROs) are helpful in making the school a safe and caring place for learning. They help in preventing the student unrest (Stone & Travis, 2013). The EPS also protects the citizens from child abuse, spousal violence, and elder abuse. The monitoring system of the EPS is effective in monitoring the high risk offenders of the city (Family Protection, 2017). The EPS understands the legalities of the prostitution and criminal mental health issues. The sensitive management of these crises indicates the sustainability of the strategies ("Edmonton Police Service", 2017).

Even after the strategies taken up by the Canadian police service, gang related violence is still prevalent in the city, which indicates the gaps and loops left in the police service. In order to prevent this, the patrolling officers should be more prompt in their action to prevent the unavoidable crime rates. It has been mentioned earlier that all the community police stations do not remain open 24x7. Although there are provisions for emergency phones, sometimes it might happen that the news of a particular crime cannot be disseminated due to some technical issue over the phone. Hence, it is important that the facilities are available the whole day.

Conclusion

Community policing thus helps to reduce the disorder, crime, fear among the public and help to increase the satisfaction and legitimacy among the populations. The Edmonton policing service is able to focus on the major problems in the city and have made the strategies accordingly. The provision of the mobile apps and the yellow and the blue phones are successful and can sustain in the long run. In spite of all these, there are crimes still going on in the cities. Hence it can be said that the community police should remain a bit alert from their side and should act quickly as it is always better to take precautions before occurrence of any crime

References

Bennett, Z. V. T. (2014). Community—oriented policing to reduce crime, disorder and fear and increase satisfaction and legitimacy among citizens: a systematic review.

Brogden, M., & Nijhar, P. (2013). Community policing. Routledge.

Coldren Jr, J. R., Huntoon, A., & Medaris, M. (2013). Introducing smart policing: Foundations, principles, and practice. Police Quarterly, 16(3), 275-286.

Coldren Jr, J. R., Huntoon, A., & Medaris, M. (2013). Introducing smart policing: Foundations, principles, and practice. Police Quarterly, 16(3), 275-286.

Cordner, G. (2014). Community policing. The Oxford handbook of police and policing, 148-171.

Cotton, D., & Coleman, T. G. (2010). Canadian police agencies and their interactions with persons with a mental illness: A systems approach. Police Practice and Research: An International Journal, 11(4), 301-314.

 Edmonton Police Service. (2017). Edmontonpolice.ca. Retrieved 29 November 2017, from https://www.edmontonpolice.ca/

Family Protection. (2017). Edmontonpolice.ca. Retrieved 29 November 2017, from https://www.edmontonpolice.ca/CommunityPolicing/FamilyProtection.aspx

Gill, C., Weisburd, D., Telep, C. W., Vitter, Z., & Bennett, T. (2014). Community-oriented policing to reduce crime, disorder and fear and increase satisfaction and legitimacy among citizens: a systematic review. Journal of Experimental Criminology, 10(4), 399-428.

Kappeler, V. E., & Gaines, L. K. (2012). Community policing: A contemporary perspective. Routledge.

O'Connor, C. D. (2017). The police on Twitter: image management, community building, and implications for policing in Canada. Policing and society, 27(8), 899-912.

Sampson, R. J. (2013). The place of context: a theory and strategy for criminology's hard problems. Criminology, 51(1), 1-31.

Stone, C., & Travis, J. (2013). Toward a new professionalism in policing. JIJIS, 13, 11.