Police Perception In My Community Essay

INTRODUCTION AND RATIONALE residential theater of operations orientated Policing is a philosophical system and non a specific tactic, It is a proactive, change approach, designed to reduce villainy, disorder, and by extension, fear of horror, by intensely involving the uniform officer in the same partnership on a semiper universeent basis, so that residents pass on develop trust to cooperate with rightfulness by providing information and assistance to achieve those deuce-ace crucial goals (Trojanowicz and Carter,1988) The Violent curse Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (Crime Act) is widely recognized as a significant milest superstar in confederation policing. It was mean by chair Clinton and Attorney customary Reno as the changing of policing. The legislation provided the funding fomite for an additional pennyury,000 practice of law officers to boost law enforcement efforts in a mood of nationwide anxiety ab aside crime. The Act gave the theatrical role of friendship orient Policing Services (OCOPS) the task of supporting a major drive toward grow participation of interests policing in solid foundations to become the prevailing orthodoxy in American law enforcement.(Nicholl, 1999)Law Enforcement Agencies throughout the country look to part of participation Oriented Policing Services to repair their knowledge run. According to OCOPS, connection of interests policing focuses on crime and social disorder through the deli actu bothy of natural law services that includes aspects of traditional law enforcement, as well as prevention, problem-solving, residential area eng festerment, and partnerships. The community policing model balances reactive solutions to c altogethers for service with proactive problem-solving centimeered on the causes of crime and disorder. biotic community policing requires legal philosophy and citizens to join together as partners in the scat of both identifying and effectively savoir-faireing thes e issues. It is important to note then the nationals cognition of the natural law is an essential element for the success of Community Policing- modestd strategies. throughout the country, studies have been made that correlate legal philosophy light and Community Policing.During the one-time(prenominal) 20 forms, on that point has been an expanding body of inquiry examining citizens attitudes toward the law of nature. Most of this explore has been order at assessing the determinants of these attitudes. In contrast, less attention has been focused on the reasons why citizens hold certain attitudes (Frank et al,2005)The fountain then, as a member of the Chesterfield patrol incision, has a special interest in Community Policing and natural law Perception, close especially in his own community. This research them aims to bailiwick law of nature Perception peculiar(a)ly in the Community of Chesterfield Township, a part of The County of Macomb in the articulate of Mic higan.It is worth mentioning that The Chesterfield guard Department s aim is embodied in its mission statement it is committed to providing the superiorest quality of public service and crime prevention while maintaining the publics respect and protecting the rights and lordliness of everyone. The Chesterfield guard Department is dedicated to strong community relationships while providing a safe environment to upraise the quality of life for our citizens and visitors, which is very often in line with the concept of Community Policing.This is further supported by this law Departments value statement , abbreviated as POLICE, which includes developing an everlasting PARTNERSHIP among the Community, having a dedicated to the swearword of protecting and serving all raft ,recognizing the importance of all Department members and Citizens, treating each other with fairness, LOYALTY and respect , maintaining the highest degree of INTEGRITY, universe creditworthy and account fitti ng for their own actions and decisions , believing that COOPERATION and teamwork will enable them to achieve all goals of this Department and having a commitment to EXCELLENCE in the consummation of their duties (http//www.chesterfield townsfolk legal philosophy.com/values.htm) The Chesterfield constabulary Departments committal and Value statements share the same elements with the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services which aims to help law enforcement agencies implement and enhance community policing, defined as a policing philosophy that promotes and supports organizational strategies to address the causes and reduce the fear of crime and social disorder through problem-solving tactic and legal philosophy-community partnerships. (C.O.P.S. http//www.cops.usdoj.gov/Default.asp?Item=36/ ) Chesterfield Township is located in Macomb County, Michigan and encompasses an area of approximately 26 square miles. The universe at the 2000 census was 37,004. This increase to 446,9 62 in the year 2006. (Muller, 2006) The Township was established in 1842 and became a pack Township in 1989 by Resolution. (Pall, 2002) In Chesterfield, The number of violent crimes save by the FBI in 2003 was 28. The number of murders and homicides was 1. The violent crime rate was 0.7 per 1,000 people.Meanwhile, in the whole Macomb county, of which Chesterfield is included, a total of 22,395 were reported for the year 2000 , a absolute majority of reports were for Larceny and Motor vehicle theft. Sixteen of the reports for that year were on murder, 309 for snipe and 384 reports on robbery for that year (Federal Bureau of Investigation to the discipline catalogue of Criminal referee Data, University of Michigan) It is in from scope then that the author pull together info for the completion of this research Guided by feedback from other researches undertaken on legal philosophy Perception of the community such as these Gathering data on crime and community policing at the local level not exactly supplements our national data, but besides allows local officials to identify their peculiar(a) crime control chooses, said Bureau of Justice Statistics Director Jan Chaiken. As part of the Justice Departments emphasis on police working with residents in their neighborhoods, we are giving local law enforcement agencies tools to analyze much(prenominal) well-nigh crimes and public opinion that may not be reported to the police.Community policing is a crime fighting strategy that encourages law enforcement to work in partnership with the community to solve crime problems. The high degree of citizen support for Americas neighborhood police officers is a testament to the dedicated men and women who work day in and day out to establish relationships with residents in their communities, said Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder. These relationships help citizens and police work together to promote community safety. (Smith et al, 1999) In light of these statem ents, this research was undertaken to determine the Police Perception in the Community of Chesterfield Township, whether it is substantiating or cast out through the use of a Police Perception survey adapted from earlier studies made by other police department in certain cities, particularly Portland (Campbell De long, 2005) , Pasadena (Police perspicacity pick Center, 2006). wampum (The wampum Community Policing Evaluation Consortium, 2004) and Kentucky (Kentucky Crime Prevention Coalition) it also aims to provide demographic crack-up of survey respondents in relation to their Police Perception in Chesterfield Township. Such information will enable the Chesterfield Police Department to continue living out their mission statement and exist the philosophy of Community Policing by either maintaining or improving their performance found on their communitys police sensing, as will be determined by the survey through for this take aim. It is the hope of this author that this r esearch will also lead to the initiation of other studies concerning his community and the other areas in the County of Macomb, and even the State of Michigan to further improve the Police Departments public service performance to ensure the safety of the citizens. look into OF RELATED LITERATUREThe idea of examining Police Perception is not new. The communitys percept of the police department has been linked to the success of police programs to promote safety in the neighborhood. A study made by Gallagher. Et al in 2001, summarizes the studies made gazeing Police Image and Communitys wisdom of the Police in a The open Image of the Police Final Report to The International tie-in of Chiefs of Police. Research findings vertex out that Polls of the adult population in the United States since the 1960s face that the majority of the public has an over-all positive view of the police. Depending on the year and the particular measure used, the percentage of respondents with a positiv e assessment of police has been betwixt 51 and 81 percent. When asked to assess service to their own neighborhoods, respondents tend to obtain even higher evaluations. Relatively few citizens offer a negative assessment of police. (Gallagher et al. 2001). Research also recognizes that Police Perception has a commodious impact on the success of the promulgation of Community Policing. Trojanowicz & Carter( 1991) discuss the philosophy and role of community policing. It points out that Community Policings unique ploughshare is a radical departure from the past and the present. While todays community policing efforts retain the best elements of the foot patrol programs of the past, they are intended to avoid both the old systems abuses and shortcomings. In Community Policing, Community Justice, and Restorative Justice Exploring the Links for the Delivery of a equilibrize Approach to Public Safety Nicholl in 1999 with a report funded by Grant No. 98-CK-WX-0059 awarded to the Nationa l Victim Center by the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, U.S. Department of Justice. It discusses the concept of Community extensively, in a polity-makers perspective.Liou & Savage make the connection between Community Policing Strategies and Public Perception of Police through their research Citizen Perception of Community Policing pretendThis study examines the impact of community policing by analyzing citizens apprehension of crime and police work before and after implementation of a community-oriented policing program in tierce neighborhoods in the city of West Palm Beach, Florida. The study reveals very positive findings about the community policing, including perception of decreased local crime, change magnitude perception of police performance, neighborhood improvement, and police-community relationship. Implications concerning the relationship between the community and the police, and citizen felicity and public services are discussed.( Liou & Savage)Many other studies have been done to examine Police perception and these take into consideration different variables, being done in various settings. Frank, Smith and Novak (2005) focused on the reasons why citizens have certain attitudes towards police officer. Their study uses the survey responses of 613 residents of a western city to examine the information accessed by citizens when responding to drumheads regarding their general and specific attitudes toward the police. The findings counsel that citizens focus on attributes of agencies and encounters, some focus on the behavior of officers during interactions, and others base their attitudes on general perceptions of the occupation of policing. A comprehensive look at Police perception issues can be found in embrown & Benedicts article Perceptions of the police Past findings, methodological issues, abstract issues and policy implications which is a research updates and expands upon Deckers article Citizen attitudes toward the p olice a review of past findings and suggestions for future policy by summarizing the findings from more than 100 articles on perceptions of and attitudes toward the police.Initially, the value of research on attitudes toward the police is discussed. Then the research pertaining to the impact of individual level variables (e.g. race) and contextual level variables (e.g. neighborhood) on perceptions of the police is reviewed. Studies of juveniles attitudes toward the police, perceptions of police policies and practices, methodological issues and conceptual issues are also discussed. This review of the lit indicates that only four variables (age, contact with police, neighborhood, and race) have consistently been proven to change attitudes toward the police. (Brown & Benedict,2002) In wrong of application, several police departments have made their own studies on Police Perception. Community Policing in Chicago an Evaluation of Chicagos Alternative Policing Strategy Prepared by The C hicago Community Policing Evaluation Consortium was done in through a parcel out awarded to award to the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority in 2004. The Portland Police Bureau 2005 Community Assessment Survey was conducted for city of Portland, Bureau of Police by Campbell de long resources Inc in August 2005Police Assessment imaginativeness Center and Vera get of Justice completed Assessing Police-Community Relations in Pasadena, atomic number 20 in 2006 . The Kentucky Crime Prevention Coalition, meanwhile, adapted the use of a Community Policing Survey.HYPOTHESISH0= there is no significant percentage of Chesterfield Residents who have a have a positive perception of the Chesterfield Police DepartmentH1= There is a significant percentage of Chesterfield Residents who Have a positive perception of the Chesterfield Police DepartmentMETHODOLOGY Taking into consideration the limit points in man effect and resources for this research, a simple random sampling method was utilize to come up with the survey results. ground on the calculation for a 95 per cent confidence level and confidence interval of five, the attempt size was 275. The survey was conducted by distributing survey forms in several households approximately the Township of Chesterfield. Respondents were limited to Chesterfield residents above 18 years of age. Only one respondent per household was accepted. These survey forms, consisting of eight simple questions pertaining to the residents perception of the police, which was based on survey forms used by other Police Departments as stated in the literature review. Only eight questions were included in the survey, because these questions focused on Police Perception. This is due to the scope and resource limitation stated earlier. A copy of this questionnaire is included in the appendix component of this paper This studys objective is to present data about Police Perception of the residents of the Township of Chesterfield in Mac omb County in the State of Michigan. This research is done to parade that the general perception of police in the precedent population perceive the police positively. The try size was 275 respondents in the township of Chesterfield, which has a population of 446,962 in the latest census in the year 2006. found on a confidence level of 95 and a confidence interval of 5, the sample size is sufficient to estimate the response of this community regarding their perception of the Chesterfield Police Department. approximate 1 shows the demographic breakdown of respondents by race. More than half of the respondents were Caucasians, which also reflected the actual population of Caucasians, 93 % of Chesterfield population, in the 2000 Census made by the US Census Bureau. In the sample population, 61 per cent was composed of Caucasian or fair residents. Other races composes 14.5 percent and 12 percent were of African-American descent. Asians comprised 5.5 per cent and 4.4 % of sample pop ulation were Hispanics/Latino. Meanwhile, 1.1 per cent was American Indians and Pacific islanders compose on 0.7 per cent. base on these figures, it can be surmised that the Chesterfield Township was predominantly Caucasian, in terms of the population. The relationship of this data to the results concerning Police Perception will be discussed later. The study only included residents who were 18 years old of age and above. The data shows that majority of respondents were from the 18-29 age group, with a percentage of 39 of the sample population. The age group with the least number of respondents was that of residents 50-59 years old, representing only 9 per cent of the sample population. This signifies that the Chesterfield township has fairly young residents, as seen by the larger percentage of those below middle age. Given the limited man power and resources, the author opt to estimate Police Perception using only eight questions adapted from other studies stated earlier. The fir st three questions were on how the community perceived police officers, based on their encounters. The fourth question estimated the residents opinion about the adequacy of the number of police officers in the community. The fifth, 6th and seventh questions estimated residents perception of police based on three parameters- behavior, competency to assess needs and relationship of police officers to residents themselves. The last question asked the residents to ground their over-all perception by indicating their rating for the Chesterfield Township Police Department. Figure 3 Police Perception Responses in Chesterfield Township Community shows the relationships of responses of residents to the first three survey questions. As evident in the chart, answers for the questions on police perception based on encounters follow a similar pattern, indicating that most respondents associate that police officers are prompt, professional and fair. Figure 4 represents the respondents opinion on the need for more police officers in the community. Based on the results gathered, majority, 36.4 per cent , slightly agree that there is a need for more police officers in the community. As a whole, though, it can be seen that more residents disagreed and strongly disagreed, 14.5 and 7.3 per cent respectively, that there was further need for more police presence as compared to respondents who agreed,9.1 per cent, and strongly agreed,1.8 per cent to the augmentation of police visibility. With regard to the Chesterfield communitys perception of Police based on three parameters, their responses follow a similar trend, as evident in Figure 5. In terms of behavior, 49 . 5 per cent rated police goodish. 32. 7 % gave Chesterfield police officers a rating of excellent. evenhandedly was how 14. 5 per cent rated police in the community while 3.6 per cent did not know how to answer this question. In their ability to address the need of the community, Chesterfield police officers were ag ain rated Good by 54 . 5 per cent of the residents. An keen rating was given by 29.1 per cent, while decent was what 11. 6 per cent deemed appropriate. There were 4.7 per cent of the population, though, that didnt know how to rate their police officers. When it comes to relationships between Chesterfield residents and their communitys police, majority, 43.6 per cent chose to rate this, as Good, white was give as rating by 27. 3 per cent of the population and 21.8 gave an Excellent mark. There were 7.3 residents, though that were still unsure how to rate the Chesterfield communitys relationship with its police officers. Based on this information, Police perception in the areas specified were rated Good by a majority of Chesterfield residents. This point out a positive view of the townships police officers. In relation to this positive response, the over-all rating of Chesterfield township community residents is seen in Figure 6. However, here, we see a shift of the rating from Goo d to Fair. Apparently, most residents, 40.4 per cent particularly, perceive the Chesterfield Police Departments performance as Fair. Thirty two per cent conceive that the townships police deserve a good rating. Approximately 25 per cent believe their Police force is ExcellentHYPOTHESIS TESTING This limitation of this study has been presented in the previous chapters. It is important to reiterate that this is mainly, a descriptive study. However, for research purposes, the Hypothesis that There is a significant percentage of Chesterfield Residents who Have a positive perception of the Chesterfield Police Department has been stated, with its corresponding null opening There is no significant lower percentage of Chesterfield Residents who have a have a positive perception of the Chesterfield Police Department. Based on the data presented, there is evidence to believe that on all eight questions, the communitys police perception leaned towards a positive image of the members of the Chesterfield Police department. Although specific statistical tools were not applied on the data, the descriptive statistics show that the Hypothesis should be accepted and the null speculation are rejected.CONCLUSION and RECOMMENDATIONS This study aims to observe the Chesterfield communitys perception of its police officers. Based on the data present, it is evident that most residents of this community hold a positive perception of their police officers. Descriptive Statistics show evidence of these, based on the percentages of positive responses. This study, however is simplistic and there are a lot about Police perception these communities that should be evaluated so that they are translated into information that can improve the services of the Police Department. The data gathered for this research however, can be a deport to others who will pursue such inquiry on Police Perception and who are interested in this area as a subject matter on evaluation of Community Policing Prog rams, much like what other police departments have done in their respective communities. It is important to point out, however, that more resource be invested in such an endeavor to be able to come up with data that is comprehensive and more accurate. It is the hope of this author, though that this simple research has given a glimpse of the Chesterfields communitys perception of its police officers, and serve as a startle board to more advanced and relevant research.REFERENCESAnnan, Sampson O.(1995) NATIONAL SURVEY OF associationPOLICING STRATEGIES, 1992-1993 Computer file. ICPSR version. Washington, DC The Police Foundation producer, 1994. Ann Arbor, MI Inter-university Consortium for Political and hearty Research distributor,Brown, B. & Benedict W. (2002) Perceptions of the police Past findings, methodological issues, conceptual issues and policy implications Policing An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management, 25,543 580Campbell Delong mental imagerys, Inc.(2 005) Portland Police Bureau 2005 Community AssessmentSurvey Conducted for City of Portland, Bureau of Police RETRIVED 27 APRIL 2008from http//www.portlandonline.com/shared/cfm/image.cfm?id=105839Chesterfield, Michigan. Podunk, The mogul of Place retrieved 29 April 2008from http//www.epodunk.com/cgi-bin/genInfo.php?locIndex=21700Frank, J, Smith, B.W., Novak, K.J. (2005)Exploring the Basis of Citizens Attitudes Toward the Police Police Quarterly 8, 206-228Gallagher, Maguire, E., Mastrofski, S., Reisig, D.(2001) The Public Image of the Police Final Report to The International Association of Chiefs of Police By The Administration of Justice Program George Mason University. International Association of Chiefs of Police retrieved on 28 April 2008 from http//theiacp.org/profassist/ethics/public_image.htLiou,K.T.& Savage,E.G. Citizen Perception of Community Policing tinge Public Administration and Management An Interactive Journal. Retrieved on 28 April 2008 from http//www.pamij.com/li ou1.htmlMission Statement. 2007. Chesterfield Township Police Department, retrieved 27 April 2008from http//www.chesterfieldtownshippolice.com/mission.htmNicholl, Caroline G. (1999).Community Policing, Community Justice, and Restorative Justice Exploring the Links for the Delivery of a BalancedApproach to Public Safety. Washington, DC U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services,Police Assessment Resource Center & Vera Institute of Justice. (2006)Assessing Police-Community Relations in Pasadena, California. retrieved on 28 April 2008 from http//www.parc.info/client_files/Pasadena/Assessing%20Police%20Community%20Relations%20in%20Pasadena%20California.pdfScaglion , R. & Condon, R. (1980) Determinants Of Attitudes Toward City Police. Criminology 17, 485494Sims, B., Hooper,M., Peterson S.A. (2002) Determinants of citizens attitudes toward police Results of the Harrisburg Citizen Survey 1999 Policing An International Journal of Police Strategies & Managem ent, 25, 457 471The Chicago Community Policing Evaluation Consortium ( 2004 ) CAPS at Ten Community Policing in Chicago An Evaluation of Chicagos Alternative Policing Strategy. Institute for Police Research retrieved 27 April 2008 from http//www.northwestern.edu/ipr/publications/policing_papers/Yr10-CAPSeval.pdfTrojanowicz R.C. & Carter, D. The Philosophy and Role of Community Policing. The National Center for Community Policing, Michigan State University. retrieved on 28 April 2008. fromhttp//www1.cj.msu.edu/people/cp/cpphil.html