Generations (Three) of Community Policing

Policing historians have identified three eras of U.S. policing. They consist of the political, reform, and community eras. The last era, in which community policing became a prominent policing approach, is said to span the years 1980 to present day. As this is a span of over 30 years, it tends to mask the subtle changes that have occurred during the community era. Policing in 2010 is assuredly different from policing in the 1990, despite both falling within the community policing era. Thus, police historians have further asserted that within the community era there have been three generations of community policing. They consist of the innovation generation covering 1980 to 1986, the diffusion generation spanning the years 1987 to 1994, and the institutionalization generation running from 1995 to the present. There is the possibility that U.S. policing has moved into a fourth generation or possibly even a fourth era, as the concepts of homeland security have become so pervasive in modern times.

The basis for categorizing policing history in the United States into eras was based on the changes seen in policing’s authorization, function, organizational design, relationship to the environment, the demand for its services, changes in tactics and technology, and the outcomes desired by both politicians and citizens. The first era, the political era, spans from 1838 and the creation of the Boston (Massachusetts) Police Department through the 1920s. Policing during the political era was marked by the political machines and their control over the police. Policing during this time period was ineffective, inefficient, mostly corrupt, and often brutal. That began to change in the 1920s with the movement to professionalize the police by such visionaries as August Vollmer and O. W. Wilson, thus moving policing into the reform era, which spanned the decades the 1930s through the 1970s. By the 1970s, however, policing had become so professionalized that it tended to disassociate itself from the community, and in the 1970s there was a movement to reunite the ties between the police and the public. The community era began in 1980 and continues to modern times.

While these three eras of policing are broad time periods for categorizing changes in U.S. policing, they tend to ignore the minor changes and developments that occurred within each era. There is an understanding among police historians that within the community era there has been a progression of community policing. This progression has been called the generations of community policing, and three have been distinguished: innovation, diffusion, and institutionalization. This entry discusses these three generations and examine whether community policing has evolved into the next generation.