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Community Policing

As gatekeepers to the criminal justice system, police are typically the first responders to intimate partner violence (IPV) incidents and thus shape formal responses to domestic violence. Historically, victims of IPV received little to no support within the criminal justice system. Domestic violence was considered a private matter, a problem that most often occurred within people's homes. Consequently, police were reluctant to intervene, and often no legal actions were taken against offenders. This began to change in the 1970s, however, as the women's movement and other advocacy groups brought the issue of domestic violence to the public's attention. In addition to lobbying for the mobilization of community resources to provide assistance to victims of IPV, such as emergency shelters and counseling, advocates also lobbied for the increased use and severity of criminal sanctions against offenders of such crimes. As a result of these efforts, IPV was no longer considered a private matter existing outside the domain of the criminal justice system.

During this same period, the public, along with various advocacy groups, began to criticize other law enforcement practices, such as police use of excessive force and racial discrimination. Furthermore, police and community interaction was minimal, which subsequently led to increased citizen dissatisfaction of current policing strategies and a reluctance to rely on police to address social problems. A new philosophy, termed community policing, was created to transform traditional policing methods and facilitate greater trust between citizens and police. Rather than rely on traditional reactive policing strategies that exacerbated the gulf between citizens and police, community policing stressed partnerships with community members in order to increase personal contact and better address and prevent neighborhood problems. As a result of these reforms, policing strategies for handling domestic violence also changed.

Comparison of Traditional and Community Policing Strategies

Traditional policing strategies consist of reactive measures for controlling crime, with the goal of either catching a criminal after a crime occurred or deterring future crimes through police presence in the community. This focus consisted primarily of two tactics: (1) police responding to service calls placed by citizens, and (2) random vehicle patrols through business and residential districts. Because officers spent most of their time responding to calls or patrolling in their vehicles, the traditional approach thwarted development of positive relationships between officers and community members, particularly those who were not in crisis. In line with crime control strategies, police concentrated their efforts on “real” crime fighting, thus relegating IPV to nuisance calls in which police prioritized the separation of the disputants or tried to mediate the quarrels; arrest of batterers was uncommon since police were not trained to classify IPV situations as criminal matters.

Community policing focuses on proactive strategies and exists simultaneously with a change in police response to IPV. In general, community policing efforts focus on preventing and resolving issues within the community before larger problems develop. Officers forge relationships with citizens to encourage greater respect of law enforcement, which ultimately leads to increased participation in community crime control. For example, officers may hold meetings with residents in order to address concerns and find ways to resolve problems together within their community. As such, it is important for these officers to work with the same community so that residents will get to know them and be more willing to cooperate with policing efforts. Typically, officers no longer rely solely on patrol vehicles; instead, officers utilize more foot and/or bike patrols. These new techniques encourage further interaction between community members and police officers, thus increasing the familiarity and level of trust between the two groups. In fact, although previous studies have shown that community policing has little or no impact on crime rates, the research does reveal that community policing has a positive impact on citizen attitudes toward the police and patrol officer attitudes toward their job.

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