Example research essay topic: Community Policing In America - 1,576 words

NOTE: Free essay sample provided on this page should be used for references or sample purposes only. The sample essay is available to anyone, so any direct quoting without mentioning the source will be considered plagiarism by schools, colleges and universities that use plagiarism detection software. To get a completely brand-new, plagiarism-free essay, please use our essay writing service.
One click instant price quote

Community Policing in America (1) The concept of community policing has become especially popular in recent years, since celebration of diversity, had succeeded in turning the ever-increased number of streets in American cities into places, which people try to avoid at any cost, especially after it gets dark. It is not a secret that in so-called hoods, drug dealers often openly sell crack, with police officers being given orders not to get involved, in order not to provoke racial riots. Nowadays, every large American city has the area where law simply does not apply, because newly arrived immigrants, who prefer to settle in such areas, strive for nothing else but creating society within a society, while suggesting that their unwillingness to adjust their behavior to socially acceptable norms, is nothing but a part of them celebrating their cultural uniqueness. As a result, police officers have an increasingly hard time, while trying to execute their professional duties effectively. This is why they now promote the concept of community policing as such that has a potential to significantly reduce the crime rate in America.

We can define this concept as voluntarily cooperation between residents of every particular municipal area and representatives of law enforcement agencies, for the purpose of making urban and rural neighborhoods a safer place to live. In his article Getting Community Policing Right, Daniel P. Malloy, who once acted as Mayor in Stamford, CT, provides us with the insight on caused him to resort to the principle of community policing, when he was trying to reduce a crime rate in his town: First, crime in Stamford, as in most cities, was concentrated in certain neighborhoods. The city's average crime rate mattered little to those neighborhoods' residents. They were living with high levels of disorder, drug dealing, and felonies that bred fear and uncertainty. (Malloy). However, he was not able to succeed, due to the fact that the concept of community policing is incompatible with police officers strive to avoid being charged with racial profiling, as such that would threaten their professional career.

The so-called neighborhood watch, which is an essential part of community policing, can only be found in predominantly White neighborhoods and the only the reason why it proved to be effective, is because aging White people to not hesitate calling the police, every time they see a colored person on the street, because they suspect him of having malicious intentions. Amazingly enough, they are being rarely mistaken, in that respect. Therefore, we can say that the concept of community policing in America is actually opposite to the policy of multiculturalism, which is why, when officials discuss it in their public speeches, they tend to talk just about anything, except for what really matters. This is the reason why governments promotion of the concept is being rarely associated with effectiveness.

In his article Community Policing In An Age of Guns, Gangs, and Violent Crime, Ted Gest comes up with statistical data, which proves the fact that, as time goes by, the percentage of police officers, assigned to policing neighborhoods, continues to increase: U. S. Bureau of Justice Statistics found that the practice had achieved a solid foothold. Some 58 percent of law enforcement agencies that together employ 82 percent of the nations police have officers designated for community policing duties. The total number in that category was 55, 000. Roughly half of major police departments had adopted a written community policing plan.

Nearly one-third of police departments, employing about two-thirds of the nations officers, trained new recruits in community policing (Gest, 2001). However, the great amount of effort invested into community policing, on the part of government, does not result in overall nations crime rate being significantly reduced. This is because police officers are expected to act as public educators, rather then law enforcers, while on communal duty. In his article Cutting Crime and Restoring Order: What America Can Learn from New York's Finest, William J.

Bratton comes up with valid suggestion that: Police officers are the most effective when they are responding to citizens' needs and working with citizens on determining priorities, as well as when they are working as part of government (Bratton). However, it is not secret that citizens priorities in this country directly correspond to their racial affiliation. For example, the priority of the most of Hispanics is to give birth to as many children as possible to begin collecting welfare and food stamps, so that celebration of diversity continues uninterrupted. The priority of majority of White people, on the other hand, is to move away from the areas where gangsta music is being played at full blast 24 / 7, even though they afraid to admit it even to themselves, while explaining their willingness to live in secluded neighborhoods by the fact that these areas feature better schools and safer streets. (2) Therefore, it is only logical for us to conclude that the future of communal policing in America is actually related to citizens right to arm themselves with weapons, in order to form public militia, which is meant to protect citizens well-being. For example, it is estimated that approximately 5000 of illegal aliens cross our borders on daily basis, with our police and Armed Forces being unable to do anything about it. The communities that are located close to Mexican border suffer from illegals anti-social behavior.

Yet, when members of these communities demand from government to be allowed to carry weapons, so that they could protect themselves, as police failed at safeguarding them, governments officials refer to such citizens as extremists. It is not a secret that governmental bureaucracy in America tries its best to deny people their right to own and to bear weapons, which is guaranteed by U. S. Constitution. This is because the problem of streets, in American cities, becoming the arena of gang-related warfare, can be solved within a matter of a day or two, if citizens are being finally allowed to shoot drug dealers on sight. If this was to happen, the army of useless experts, who are good at operating with meaningless terms, such as transition-decision making, empowerment or communal consensus, would find themselves being laid off.

Therefore, it is important to understand that the term community policing actually implies a direct action, on the part of those who are involved in it. In fact, there are more and more voices in America, which suggest that this term needs to be discussed in conjunction with community persecution. This because, the only way to make anti-social elements in this country to think twice, before they try to corrupt youth or to engage in violence against peaceful citizens, is making them face the prospect of swift and severe punishment, if caught indulging in illegal activities. Thus, we can only agree with Catherine Coles and George Killing, who in their article Prevention through Community Prosecution, suggest that local communities in America need to be entitled with power to affect the judicial process: When community policing and prosecution are combined, the results can be dramatic. Key factors are prosecutors's tatu's as the most powerful locally elected criminal justice officials and their ability to convene essential players and muster resources from both public and private sectors for use in problem solving (Coles, Killing, p. 75).

There can be no doubt as to the fact that the concept of community policing has a great potential. Unfortunately, this potential has not being fully realized by law enforcement agencies and by ordinary citizens, because, the hawks of political correctness in this country had largely succeeded in convincing people that this concept is just another Liberal invention, which has absolutely no value whatsoever. According to famous saying: fish begins to rot from the head. Therefore, only very naive people can believe that community policing can be discussed outside of context of socio-political reality, as something that has value in itself.

American society is becoming increasingly marginalized, in racial sense of this word, which is why; the crime rate in this country will continue to increase, as time goes by, because there are objective preconditions for this, despite wishful thinking of those who are being put in charge of designing social policies in America. It appears that community policing might eventually transform itself into the form of lynching, because, as practice shows, the best way to educate those who are simply incapable of existing as responsible members of society, is putting a bullet through their heads. Given todays socio-political trends, it might very well be the case that, in near future, the term community policing will be deprived of its original meaning, because there will be nothing to police, since the residents of local communities will be deprived of their ability to respect law and order in principle, as result of them being affected by racial mongrel ization. Bibliography: Bratton, W. Cutting Crime and Restoring Order: What America Can Learn from New York's Finest. October 15, 1996.

The Heritage Foundation. Retrieved June 11, 2008 from web Coles, C. and Killing, G. 1999. Prevention through Community Prosecution. The Public Interest, No. 136. Pp. 69 - 84.

Gest, T. Community Policing In An Age of Guns, Gangs, and Violent Crime. 2001. University of Pennsylvania. Retrieved June 11, 2008 from web Malloy, D. Getting Community Policing Right, December 20, 2000.

Democratic Leadership Council. Retrieved June 11, 2008 from web Abstract: This paper discuses the concept of community policing in America. Outline: Part one Part two

Research essay sample on Community Policing In America