2 page paper

Attached are notes taken for the guest speaker, I need a paper written based on the notes. I have also attached the guideline, and as well example of the previous paper i have done. 

 

Mirela Lindboe1

Community Policing

AJ58

Day: Thursday

Date: 3 October 2013

Time: 10:30 am

Location: Sacramento Police Department

Purpose: Community Policing

The guest speaker was Officer Corey Morgan, who has worked with the Sacramento Police department for ten years. Today, he works with the Crime Suppression Unit (CSU), where he moved from being a Chief’s Officer for a year before moving to the CSU team. Officer Corey has been trained as a Marine Corp and served in the military before joining Sierra College. He then transferred to UC Davis before making the decision to become a police officer. When he started out, like most rookie cops, he was assigned to patrol, mostly to Oak Park Graveyard before graduating to an undercover cop, a job he carried out for a year. Later he moved to the Problem Oriented Policing (POP) Team which is a form of Community Policing with a focus on solving community problems. He worked with POP for four years, before being moved to the CSU.

Community Policing is a mode of policing that seeks to form relationships in the community. The police officer, rather than police the community, seeks and builds relationships with the people in the community. For example, if you do not put money in the bank, you cannot expect to get anything in return; in the same way, if an individual does not invest time and effort in knowing and understanding the community, then one should not be surprised when things happen in the community. Therefore, Community Policing is vesting oneself into one’s community, because when a police officer speaks to criminals as a person, they are likely to respond better. The Sacramento Police Department outlook of Community Policing is the formation of partnerships with the community so that life and property are protected, and community problems solved so that the quality of life of Sacramento residents can be enhanced. Nonetheless, the key to success in Community Policing is relationship building with everyone; principals, criminals, locals and so on because the policing is only as good as the contacts one has and “only as good as whom you know”.

A major program that Sacramento Police Department makes use of in Community Policing is using the Control and Seal Document. This is a program that is meant to hide the identity of people who send information to the police. In addition, the department is trying to change the mentality of its officers so that they become oriented to community. In the past, the police were considered ‘badge heavy’ since they were considered rude and controlling, but today they are friendly, and never too busy to help residents. This is a deliberate act that officers employ so that they can network, and assure residents that they are accessible since they form part of the community. The outlook of officers in Community Policing is that they are “The thin blue link that separates good from evil”.

In addition, other community programs adopted by the Sacramento Police Department is employing laissez-faire tactics, where cops are not heavy handed and do not seek to control the community. They give community members the responsibility of knowing what is in their best interests and so, offer them a chance to report crime. This tactic is also useful in that rather than have specific programs, programs evolve with needs, or with problems that crop each day, since Community Policing involves all aspects of community. Helping gang members’ reform, via educating, counseling and helping them get jobs is also a program employed by the department.

The main challenges in Community Policing in Sacramento is the negative mindset of police officers towards Community Policing and staffing concerns. Some police officers are yet to accept the aspect of Community Policing since it seems to lend community members more power; and at the same time relating to community members as equals is problematic to some officers. Finally, the department does not have enough officers to use in Community Policing, and so the program is not as successful as it ought to be.

In summary, Community Policing in Sacramento is similar to the models practiced in other parts of the country. This is because it insists on community participation and a change of attitude to police officers to view community members as partners rather than the policed. However, the Community Policing model practiced in this jurisdiction differs from most models since it gives leeway to officers to create, modify and change programs used. Thus, rather than have a specific means of dealing with issues, individual teams or officers decide the best program to use in that particular situation. This laissez-faire approach is best summed by Officer Corey’s statement “what can I do today, that’s going to impact people”, implying that individual responsibility and action is important in making the community safer and improving the overall quality of life for its members.