Policing Essay Finish

Since the 1990's, police forces have become interested in crime prevention tactics (Braga, 2008). It was said that the search for improved community relations, increased police legitimacy and effective alternatives to the traditional strategies of policing led to the proliferation of innovative police strategies in recent years, such as community, problem-oriented and intelligence-led policing (Braga, 2008). Policing evolved from a professional model to a community, problem-solving model (Braga, 2008). The professional policing model emerged as a reform of policing practices before the 1930's; this was known as the political era (Palmiotto, 2000; Braga, 2008). Policing during the political era was governmentally influenced and it was also said to focus on a law enforcement function (Palmiotto, 2000). Issues such as corruption, lack of professionalism and abuse of authority emerged during this period; this resulted in the development of the professional policing model (Braga, 2008).

The reform model of policing was said to eliminate the corrupt policing practices of the political era (Braga, 2008). Kelling and Moore (1989) stated that the main function of the police during the reform era was crime control. This function was said to be implemented through preventive patrol and rapid response (Sherman et al, 1997; Weisburd and Eck, 2004). The patrol car became the symbol of policing during this period; it was argued to represent “mobility, power, conspicuous presence, control of officers, and professional distance from citizens” (Kelling and Moore, 1989:8). Although professional policing emphasised rapid response, studies showed that this had little effect on clearance rates (Spelman and Brown, 1984). The reform model of policing faced difficulties during the 1960's and 1970's as it was unable to adjust to the larger social issues (Miles and Snow, 1978). The first issue was that crime began to rise throughout the 1960's (Palmiotto, 2000). Regardless of increases