Creative Writing Essay: Improving the Relationship Between Law Enforcement and Local Residents: Philadelphia

Improving the Relationship Between Law Enforcement and Local Residents: Philadelphia
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Improving the Relationship Between Law Enforcement and Local Residents: Philadelphia
Effective policing relies on the interrelationships between law enforcement agencies and their respective communities as its fosters cooperation and upholds social research and legitimacy in the justice department. The vitality of these relationships between and among law enforcement agencies and the public to the efficiency and effectiveness of the justice system necessitates the effecting of community policing. The evolution of law enforcement through various reforms towards community-based policing directed towards bridging the gap between police departments and citizens. Cooperating with communities leads to a problem-oriented approach as policing is based on the social and criminal sources leading to not only managing but also preventing crime through mutual understanding. Philadelphia’s police are among US departments with variant policing techniques that are focused on community engagement like the Town Watch Integrated Services, Community Associations, and the foot patrol experimentation as some prevention proactive mechanisms. Improving the relationship between law enforcement agencies requires commitment from both parties and clear specifications on the objectives and the ways to instill such a cooperation. There are various strategies that the justice department, individual police departments and communities can adopt to drive the cooperation towards a more efficient and inclusive law enforcement through Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS). This report analyzes some of the ways that can help improve the relationship including training, technological innovations, community initiatives, federalism and reflects on their extent applicability in Philadelphia.
Training
Continual training on the impact and role of community engagement, diversity and implicit bias to for serving officers as well its incorporation in recruit training is one way that law enforcement agencies can help cultivate the relationships within its structural organization. Training programs should be designed to enable officers to not only understand their role and tasks but also understand the community as a part of the efforts in enacting law adherence. In his article on the police officer and community policing, (Meese III, 1993) proposed that expanded training programs on community understanding which include communication skills, public speaking, problem-solving, conflict resolution and negotiations, socioeconomic and demographic aspects of the community and the functionality of other supporting agencies can help officers in cultivate closer relationships with their jurisdictions. Expanded programs can also include university or college sponsorships and seminars on cultural sensitivity and responsiveness as part of developmental training on community engagement. In this regard, police departments should incorporate community policing training in police academies in order to create an inherently inclusive and collaborative approach to law enforcement. Cultural sensitivity and diversity training are particularly importa...