Community Policing

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Community Policing

1. According to Hickman and Reaves, what are the key issues for state and local law enforcement with regard to gathering and using intelligence?

Immediately following 11 September 2001, local law enforcement agencies in the United States responded to disasters, placed offficers on various levels of alert, provided a visible security presence at public events, partnered with federal intelligence agencies, and investigated hate crimes at greatly increased rates and with a new urgency. Community policing offers law enforcement agencies an overarching orientation from which to conduct this myriad of tasks.
Since its inception, the success of community policing has been based on the relationships built between law enforcement and community members. These relationships, often expressed as collaborative partnerships, have served functions as diverse as the communities that maintain them: solving traffic problems, shutting down drug houses, keeping children safe in school and after school, referring offenders to drug courts, and cleaning up abandoned properties. Addressing these quality-of-life issues has helped give citizens a voice in the public safety of their community and an active way to address crime and their fear of crime. For the past 20 years, community policing has encouraged community members to partner with law enforcement to identify potential threats and create a climate of safety. "The community policing philosophy is well positioned to take a major role in preventing and responding to terrorism and in efforts to reduce citizen fear. Instead of de-emphasizing community policing efforts, police departments should realize that community policing may be more important than ever in dealing with terrorism in their communities." http://www.homelandsecurity.org/journal/articles/Scheider-Chapman.html

As in any other aspects of law enforcement, state and local policing is faced with these shortcomings:
Proper funding is an issue that has plagued government's fulfillment of domestic security goals prior to the inception of the DHS. In particular, funding becomes problematic when examining the allocation, management, and shortage of distribution. Many departments are receiving funds that they have little use for, while others must withstand shortages in monetary support from federal sources.

An issue that has gained much attention from both citizens and those involved in crafting legislation is the threat to personal liberty that stems from certain homeland security initiatives."If domestic security principles are inappropriately applied, a ...