Over the course of Winter, 2008-9, the Community Policing Committee of the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police collaborated with 50 police officers and citizens from across Ontario in devising a new model of Community Policing. The Committee stipulated that the new model should:
• Speak as clearly to the operational front-lines of policing, as to the strategic thinkers and business planners in the front-office
• Focus upon the police-community partnership as the heart of effective community policing
• Integrate current policing strategies like intelligence-led policing, problem-oriented policing, community mobilization, community engagement and crime prevention
• Distinguish among the roles and responsibilities of police officers and their community partners
The Committee’s intention was to develop a technical model. That is a model that helps police services and their community partners choose Community Policing tactics that are appropriate to the issues and challenges they are addressing.
This revised model has no public policy implications attached to it, beyond the observation that all its prescriptions are consistent with Ontario’s current policing standards, regulations and guidelines. Further, no public funding accompanies it; nor has any been suggested, requested, or offered. Finally, the model stands alone as a technical guideline for police and community partners that wish to improve their effectiveness in Community Policing. It is not a program, nor are any programs implied or intended.
This model provides technical guidelines based on lessons-learned by police and their community partners in towns and cities across Ontario. Any local partnership that wishes to benefit from the model will develop their own programs that are consistent with their own policies, and are resourced from their own sources. Some may choose to form standing Community Policing committees; others may prefer ad hoc partnerships that remain intact only long enough to deal with a particular problem. Some police services may wish to appoint and resource permanent Community Policing officers or units; others may wish to push the application of Community Policing all the way to the front-lines, the patrol officer. The model does not prescribe local applications, nor does it imply directions or preferences from either the Government of Ontario or the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police. The resulting model of Community Policing is attached. CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE POWERPOINT OVERVIEW OF THIS NEW MODEL
A CONTINUUM OF POLICE SERVICE
Community Policing refers to a continuum of police service in all communities all the time. It encompasses a wide range of tactics and strategies – all of which are designed to help the community be and remain, well, safe and secure.
What front-line police officers do in Community Policing depends on the community situation in which they find themselves. The continuum of police service that’s required by Community Policing can range from high impact police patrol, enforcement and intelligence gathering where there are serious and repetitive offenses and threats to peoples’ safety and security; to relatively benign information-sharing, and inter-agency support for others’ efforts to improve community well-being and prevent bad things from happening where there are no threats.
Sir Robert Peel’s “...the police are the people and the people are the police....” simply reflects that police and all the community members they serve share equal responsibility for Community Policing. Particular roles and actions vary from organization to organization, individual to individual, depending on mandates, capabilities and resources. But the bottom-line is that ensuring everyone’s safety, security and well-being is a big enough job in any community that it requires the combined efforts of everyone. That’s Community Policing. CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE POWERPOINT OVERVIEW OF THIS NEW MODEL
THE GOALS OF COMMUNITY POLICING
The goals of Community Policing vary with the condition and situation of the neighbourhood in which it is being applied. For example, where there are very few threats to safety and security and citizens have lots of personal capacities (like time, energy, finances, skills and knowledge) to bring to community safety and security, then Community Policing can focus on issues like after-school programs, enrichment programs for adults and seniors, and other aspects of community wellness.
In neighbourhoods where police are often called to deal with domestic disputes, unwanted citizens, assaults and break-and-enters, quite obviously the first goal for Community Policing has to be enforcement and crime reduction.
Between those two extremes, in neighbourhoods that generate the occasional call for police service and harbour some people whom social services would consider “at risk”, where some people have the time and energy to make things better for everyone, but where there are significant threats to safety and security, then situational crime prevention measures may be help-ful and crime prevention becomes the goal of Community Policing. CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE POWERPOINT OVERVIEW OF THIS NEW MODEL
CONSIDERATIONS FOR FRONT-LINE POLICE OFFICERS
Ontario’s new model of Community Policing makes a significant departure from its 1996 predecessor insofar as it lays out a number of tactical and operational considerations for front-line police officers and their community partners. Further, it encourages them to select particular tactics based on a thorough analysis of the problems they are setting out to resolve, the particular goals of their Community Policing intervention, and the capacities of the neighbourhoods in which they are proposing to operate. The model shows those tactical considerations in the margins outside the Community Policing wheel. Each is briefly defined and described in the paragraphs that follow.
• Crime Analysis: The use of statistics and other information about the nature and incidence of crime and anti-social events, from police and other data bases (e.g. social service providers, public utilities, schools, etc.), in order to discern patterns of social behaviour that help guide the police and community in determining priorities for corrective action (frequently known among police services as “intelligence-led policing”).
• Enforcement: Co-ordinated police response including directed patrol and intelligence gathering may be needed at any time, in any neighbourhood. But often it is an early consideration for Community Policing in those neighbourhoods that are experiencing high levels of crime or anti-social behaviour and repeat offenses.
• Monitoring Crime Reduction: Closely watching the incidence of calls-for-service, occur-rences and victimization; then comparing those rates to previous periods in order to dis-cern whether things are getting better or worse.
• Initiate Problem-solving: Police or any other community member can start the process of identifying which problems to resolve, pulling together the resources needed to re-solve them, and taking actions that achieve the desired results.
• Mobilize Partners: A deliberate process of finding the individual and organizational as-sets in a community, that are needed to not only reduce the incidence of crime and anti-social behaviour, but also keep it from happening again.
• Problem-oriented Policing (POP): A strategy that involves identifying and analyzing specific crime and disorder problems, in order to develop effective responses. It places more emphasis on research and analysis as well as crime prevention and the engagement of public and private organizations in the reduction of community problems. Officers and their community partners are encouraged to discover the root causes of the problem and come up with ways of solving them. The goal is to find a cure for the ailment instead of merely treating the symptoms.
• Monitoring Crime Prevention: One way of monitoring crime prevention is to observe whether trends in crime and anti-social behaviour are going up or down. Of course this requires base-line data to which current statistics can be compared. Where baseline data is not available, current rates of occurrences become baselines for future measures of trends in crime prevention. In these situations crime prevention can be monitored by noting the rate of application of situational crime prevention measures.
• Liaison: Set up some channel of reliable communication between key community members and select police officers so that if and when the community identifies any is-sue on which they’d like police inputs, they may reach out to police with some expecta-tion that they will talk to someone whom they know and trust, and who knows their ba-sic situation.
• Public Education: These include a variety of methods for police to inform members of the public about ways they may make themselves safer and more secure. They can range from formal presentations on target hardening techniques (like double-bolt locks), to multi-day courses on situational crime prevention measures like CPTED (crime prevention through environmental design), to informative brochures about bicycle safety, or drug awareness, etc.
• Monitoring At-risk Groups: Every community, no matter how low the incidence of crime or anti-social behaviour, contains groups or individuals who are at greater risk of offending or victimization than others. They could be senior citizens, or children or youth living in abusive family situations. The point is that lots of people in community – not just police officers – have the capacity to discern those who are at-risk (teachers, pastors, neighbours, social service providers etc.). It is important for all of them to take positive actions that help these people avoid being hurt, or hurting others.
• Partnering on Early-intervention: It is important for officers to support the efforts of others who are working to help prevent victimization or offending by those community members who are at particular risk because of circumstances in their life conditions. An example would be a school liaison officer participating in a meeting with a 12-year old, his social worker, the school vice principal and parents while they figure out how to get the child the help he needs to perform and behave more constructively. In many of these situations the officer’s presence is simply a reminder to others that if early interventions in this child’s life are not effective, then it is possible that future, more coercive interventions by police may become necessary.
• Engage Leaders: Police need not provide initiative and leadership in resolving community problems everywhere. Where community resources are relatively plentiful, it is more important for police to find those community members who have the skills and the motivation to play a leadership role in community problem-solving. Then just sup-port them in that role.
• Consultation: Ad hoc or periodic meetings with intentional groups on which the police wish to rely for advice on community problem-solving priorities and strategies. An ex-ample would be youth advisory group that meets with the chief of police once a month.
• Monitoring Hazards: Even in the safest neighbourhoods (where there are the fewest criminal or anti-social occurrences or calls-for-service), there are hazards that can put community members at risk. Traffic in a school-zone is a good example. It is only judi-cious for police and community partners to do a risk assessment and then monitor po-tential hazards at least until their potential for damage is mitigated by corrective meas-ures.
As of Spring, 2009, this revised model of Community Policing is being reviewed by police services and their community partners throughout Ontario. It is the Community Policing Commit-tee’s hope that this consultation will lead to successful adoption of the revised model, for the Province of Ontario, in the Fall of this year. CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE POWERPOINT OVERVIEW OF THIS NEW MODEL
You can help with this review by examining the model and sharing your observations about it. How well do you think it will work in your community, with your police officers and their community partners? Take a look at it; think about it; and let us know what you think. We’ll take your thoughts seriously and integrate them in the advice we’ll pass along to the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police, Community Policing Committee.
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