Bryan Daowdat

Professor MacDonald
CRIM 200
3/25/2015
Policy Paper
Introduction:
Crime is an ever-evolving issue in the world today. As a result, the way to combat crime
is under constant change. There have been many ways that police and law enforcement
officials everywhere attempt to reduce crime, with varying success levels. There is no
way to completely eradicate crime from a given area in the world today, but there are
ways to fight it. With the emergence of community oriented policing (COP) across the
world, police departments would be wise to implement polices that follow this model. If
properly implemented, COP may be very effective in reducing crime once a healthy
relationship has been established with the community. The Philadelphia Police
Department can create various policies that follow COP model and therefore increase
their effectiveness in the city of Philadelphia. These policies should help foster
relationships with the police, help to increase the legitimacy of the police, and increase
the usage of crime analysis in police departments. Other policy not solely rooted in the
COP method of policing could employ constant video surveillance of the city.

Background:
Community oriented policing (COP) has three key components: community partnerships,
organizational transformation and problem solving. The movement towards COP was
greatly helped by the creation of the COP office in 1994 (Gill 2014). COP has become the
prominent method of policing due to the fact that police work is more than simply crime

fighting. Police have a duty to the community and this view of the police has led to COP.
Police work now involves maintaining order, providing general services to the
community, fear reduction, and conflict resolution. A caveat of COP is the fact that it
constantly works to increase the legitimacy of the police. Legitimacy refers to the respect
given to the police as authority figures. In order to keep the community informed about
crime, crime analysis has become essential in COP. Crime analysis also helps police
departments keep track of crime and identify high crime areas while also providing a
systematic measure of the effectiveness of current policy. This helps to bolster the
problem-solving component of COP. Constant surveillance is a point of controversy and
can be seen as an infringement on the basic privacy rights of citizens, but the innovative
VIC program that has started in Atlanta has shown that such a program could be used to
reduce crime in the city.

Analysis & Discussion:

COP hinges on a strong relationship with the community and the best way to foster a
productive relationship with the community. COP also is contingent upon the idea that
citizens who trust and accept the authority of police are more likely to follow the law
(Gill 2014).

Police have an obligation to maintain social order and service the community as part of
COP. Police should help foster a strong community as social interaction is associated with
a reduction of crime (Ramey 2014). A strong community with police involvement creates
an environment where obeying the law is important. Essentially, it is a police

departments duty to help form a strong community by constantly interacting with its
citizens in a positive way.

One possible policy that can help foster police trust in the Philadelphia area is to have
police officers visit elementary schools, especially in poorer areas. Exposing children to
the police at such a young age will help to change the perception of the department. This
is especially important in poorer neighborhoods where the police have a negative stigma
associated with them. Having young students interact with police officers could go a long
way towards making it comfortable for students, staff, and parents to approach the police.
It also helps for young students to build trust with the police. This policy will not directly
reduce crime but will make it easier for police officers to gather information from the
community and create a safer climate. By involving themselves in the community in
ways such as this, the police can strengthen their bond with citizens and increase
satisfaction with the police. Establishing the police as legitimate authority figures will
reduce crime as a new generation of mostly law-abiding citizens rises. This policy does
not place an unfair amount of attention on innocent minorities and is therefore fair.

Studies have shown that when the police are viewed as authority figures, citizens are
much more likely to follow the law (Higginson 2014). A strategy to establish authority
and legitimacy to the police is procedural justice. Keys to procedural justice are citizen
participation, perceived police neutrality and fairness, citizen respect, and police
trustworthiness (Higginson 2014). Essentially, by changing the way the everyday police
officer interacts with the public there is a chance of crime reduction.

Another possible policy for the Philadelphia Police Department to implement is to have
their officers attend a seminar to teach new officers how to properly implement the idea
of procedural justice. Respectful speech can be taught and strategies on how to increase
citizen participation can be discussed. COP is an umbrella idea under which the ideas of
procedural justice fit. An added benefit is that those who are treated with the penchants of
procedural justice are more likely to cooperate with the police in the future and studies
have shown that procedural justice led to a significant decrease in serious crime
(Higginson 2014). By teaching officers how to interact with citizens, no specific racial
group or minority will be singled out.

Proof of the method of procedural justice and COP can be found in the favelas of Rio de
Janeiro, Brazil. Favelas are slums where the impoverished live in Brazil. As a result,
crime runs rampant in the area. In order to address the growing crime problem in the
favelas, the government decided to implement COP and procedural justice in order to
remedy the problem. The plan was to perform interventions in the poor communities in
order to reduce space for crime, and then maintain a constant police presence in the area
(Riccio 2013). Constant policing was necessary in order for the community to develop a
bond with the police. In addition to maintaining a constant presence, the officers
implemented procedural justice in which all citizens were treated with respect. The
application of procedural justice in these areas helped the citizens of the favelas to
develop trust with the police. The constant police authority in the area gave a sense of
security while also greatly reducing crime (Riccio 2013).

Statistically, crime is extremely localized. Meaning that a small part of a community or

the population is responsible for a large amount of crime. It has been found that 3 -5 % of
places generate almost 50% of crime (Higginson 2014). This idea is made clearer by
using Minneapolis, Minnesota as an example, where 3% of addresses were responsible
for 50% of police calls for service. This means in order for police to be effective, most of
their efforts should be concentrated on these areas. One way to identify these at risk areas
is with crime analysis.

A possible policy for the Philadelphia Police Department is to use crime analytics to have
a comprehensive idea of crime in the city, helping the police to reduce crime. The
department would have to hire a crime analyst to draw meaningful results from the
abundance of data available. The police department would also have to fund some studies
in the city of Philadelphia to ensure that the latest data is available. Crime analysis aids
multiple methods of policing, all aimed at reducing crime. For example, hot spot
policing focuses on increasing police presence in high crime areas. Crime analysis helps
to not only identify these hot spots but also helps to explain why these areas are high in
crime in the first place (Santos 2014). This is helpful because it focuses on the root of the
crime problem and helps the police formulate an effective response. These areas of high
crime are usually poorer and as a result may contain a large amount of racial minorities.
These minorities may be under more police surveillance than usual but should not be
threatened by the police, as their presence is for the safety of the community. Crime
analysis can also augment the COP policing idea. Problem solving is a large part of COP

and crime analysis supports this by providing another resource for officers to use. Many
departments use the SARA (scan, analyze, respond, assess) model in the problem solving
process. All components of this model can be improved with data from crime analysis.
Crime analysis also opens up many other avenues of policing for the Philadelphia
department. Predictive policing is one example. Predictive policing uses computer
models and crime data to anticipate where crime might occur and using preemptive
action to prevent it (Santos 2014). Since the inception of crime analysis, there has been a
certain amount of skepticism by police hierarchy (Santos 2014). In order to remedy this,
the Philadelphia police department should have a seminar where professionals come in
and readily explain the benefits of crime analysis. Empirical evidence should also be
provided, as tangible results are more likely to resonate with police officers rather than
theory.

Hot spot policing is a popular form of policing because it appears to be addressing the
problem of crime head on. An unconventional approach to policing that seems counter
intuitive is to increase police presence in areas with lower crime. This is advantageous
because studies show that crime is still reduced in these areas, but by smaller margin
while also deterring future crimes from occurring (Barthe 2011). Another advantage is the
fact that increased police presence would help the police form a bond with the
community, which is a key component of COP.

One definite way to reduce crime is to keep the general populace under constant
surveillance. That is exactly what the Atlanta, GA police department has done. The

Atlanta police department established a Video Integration Center (VIC) as part of

Operation Shield to keep track of citizen activity in Atlanta. The implementation of this
operation was met with resounding results, dropping felony crime levels in Atlanta to
1969 levels (Meyer 2014).

A possible policy for the Philadelphia Police Department would be to have a network of
cameras spread out through the entire city to help mitigate crime. This is an extremely
expensive idea but it is a proven method that works. An officer would be in the
monitoring center and would work with 911 dispatch to increase response time and gather
information about the crime. Officers in the control center could also see where crime
occurred in recent times and request more patrols to reduce the probability of crime in the
future (Meyer 2014).

One problem with this policy is the fact that it may infringe on the publics right to
personal privacy. As a result the policy itself is controversial. In order to avoid
controversy, before the policy is approved, it could be put to a vote. The general public
would be able to decide whether or not they value privacy over security. Another problem
with this policy is the high cost of establishing a network of cameras and a monitoring
center. One way to reduce to reduce the cost is to use cameras that are part of private
establishments. This would greatly reduce the number of cameras needed in order to run
an effective network. This would make sense only if connecting the private video feed to
the police mainframe is cheaper than mounting public cameras.

Conclusion:
Crime reduction is a difficult goal to achieve, but through the method of community
oriented policing, it is possible. By forming a strong bond with the community, the police
build trust and create a safer environment for citizens. By conducting visits to schools,
the Philadelphia police department will form a bond with young citizens. The
implementation of procedural justice also helps to build trust within a community. Crime
analytics is also helpful in crime reductions and is especially useful in targeting high risk
areas. By implementing policy that uses crime analysis, crime in Philadelphia will be
reduced. A somewhat radical policy would be to establish a citywide network of cameras.
Such a policy aids the problem solving aspect of COP and would greatly help police
officers in Philadelphia gather information about crime. By finding creative ways to
implement the COP model, the Philadelphia Police Department will be able to reduce
crime in the city and improve public perception of the police while not unfairly impacting
racial minorities.

References
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