A police officers role in society is to effectively enforce laws, arrest offenders when a crime has been committed, prevent crime to their best ability, preserve the peace whenever possible, and provide services to community citizens in their time of need. Over the past 25-30 years, police departments have proactively been enforcing the Community Policing Theory, developed by Professor Herman Goldstein, on their staff and officers. Community policing promotes relationships between officers and society. In order to prevent crime, officers and communities need to work together to address the problems that encourage or cause criminal activity. In order for this theory to work properly, police officers …show more content…
Colleagues refer to effective communication between the community and police; therefore making relationships stronger between them both. Partnerships consist of relationships between the police and different organizations such as: schools, neighborhood groups, families, merchants, etc… Implement is a primary principle that relates to the specific needs of a community and examining different programs that might be effective. The Long term principle refers to police and members of community taking a long-term perspective and approach to improve. Accepting the realization that trust and effective relationships take time and resources to develop and maintain. The community policing theory has become an efficient and helpful tool to police and their communities everywhere.
It would be easy to conclude that if we hypothetically lessened police involvement in the community policing theory, the results would be devastating. The members of the community would still be reporting crime; however, there would be less police officer’s to respond and handle it. The crime rates would escalate quickly and chaos would occur in certain parts where police involvement was declined. The system would basically fail, due to taking away a key piece to its foundation. Overall, it takes community members and police together to make the theory work effectively and maintain its …show more content…
If a police officer violates the rights or privacy of a citizen, it can have some grave consequences such as: loosing a case, fined, sued, setting a criminal free or legal action brought towards his/her self. So in order to prevent these consequences from occurring, officers should take the proper precautions and remember the guideline; that there must be sufficient or sensible reason to justify the intrusion of a search or seizure. The best way to ensure safety is to not conduct any searches without a warrant, signed by a neutral judge. Even though this is not very realistic or practical; however, the purpose of a warrant is to provide that protective layer between the exuberance of the officers and the privacy of the public. At the end of the day, the court is responsible for reviewing the actions of the police in their everyday life; this is when they balance the interest of law enforcement against the interest of personal liberty. Then they determine whether or not probable cause existed for the search or