Community Policing: Training, Definitions, and Implications
Department
Sociology and Criminal Justice
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2002
Abstract
This study surveyed 198 police officers of a single police department in Texas regarding their attitudes about the practice of community‐oriented policing (COP) and its characteristics. Training on COP, rather than training duration, was found to affect officers’ attitudes toward accepting COP programs. Using Cordner’s four definitive dimensions of community policing (i.e. philosophical, strategic, tactical, and organizational) as a model, findings indicate that officers have familiarized themselves with the tactical dimension the most, especially the police‐citizen partnership and problem‐solving elements, while giving lowest priority to the information element of the organizational dimension. Others including the broader police function, personal service, and positive interaction elements are also less emphasized. The study reveals several problems the officers see as setbacks in implementing community policing and concludes that all of the COP characteristics must be looked at in the context of a whole system rather than as separate individual elements.
Journal Title
Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management
Journal ISSN
1363-951X
Volume
25
Issue
4
First Page
709
Last Page
725
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
10.1108/13639510210450640