Evolving Community Oriented Police Services in America’s Communities
The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ASPA as an organization.
By Roger L. Kemp
June 11, 2019
The public services provided by police departments to citizens in cities throughout America are evolving and changing rapidly. Traditionally, citizens never knew the police officer assigned to their neighborhood. In the olden days citizens only met a cop when they were being stopped in their vehicle and issued a ticket. The future of police services is now changing.
This is due to a couple of major reasons. One influence is the changing ethnic composition of our society, which is reflected in communities throughout the country. Also the use of new technologies, like computers and cell phones, by police officers as well as citizens, is evolving rapidly. In addition, both elected officials and the parents of school children want police-related educational programs and services provided in local public schools.
While only some police departments are implementing these new police services now, the word about such advancing and futuristic police services is spreading rapidly because of new technologies. Everyone can now be aware of these advanced police services, which will be increasingly common to citizens in all of our cities in the future.
I have divided these futuristic police services into the following four categories to make this complicated subject easier to understand. The evolving police services are categorized as follows:
Community Outreach Programs provide services such as:
- Holding periodic Police-Community Forums (PCF).
- Increasing the usage of Neighborhood Police Officers (NPO).
- More greatly implementing Neighborhood Initiative Units (NIU).
- Using more and more Police Neighborhood Substations (PNS).
- Holding annual Public Safety Festivals (PSF).
Citizen Involvement Programs include:
- A greater number of Coffee with a Cop (CWAC) programs.
- More and more Pizza with the Police (PWTP) programs.
- Some departments are even holding Hike with a Cop (HWAC) programs.
- The use of Ride with a Cop (RWAC) programs help educate citizens.
- The increased use of a Citizen Police Academy (CPA) helps educate citizens too.
- More Police Walking Patrols (PWP) that are evolving.
- The greater use of Police Bike Patrols (PBP).
Technology-Based Programs entail:
- More departments developing and using Police to Citizen (P2C) websites.
- A great application of Wireless Emergency Alert Systems (WEAS).
- Enhanced usage of Encrypted Radio Systems (ERS).
- Increasing usage of Domain Awareness Systems (DAS).
- Expanded usage of Police Body Cameras (PBC).
- Greater usage of iPods, rather than Lap Top Computers, by police officers.
- The creation of more Safety Exchange Zones (SEZ) for citizens to pick up their online purchases at safe locations.
Public Educational Programs include:
- Increased use of School Resource Officers (SRO).
- SRO’s provide more school-based Anti-Drug Educational Programs (ADEP).
- SRO’s are increasingly holding Social Media Awareness Night (SMAN) programs.
- More and more Police Explorer Programs (PEP) available for young people.
- The greater usage of Use of Force Policies (UFP) for police officers.
- SRO’s increasingly being assigned to all public school levels (grade schools, middle schools, and high schools).
These futuristic police services represent new and rapidly evolving programs that are now being developed and implemented by police departments throughout our nation. Police chiefs, as well as their respective administrative staffs, and their police officers, are increasingly working together to build an improved police-community network to assist in relating to, educating and receiving information from the citizens that are being served by their city’s police services.
The four categories of police services shown above, and the programs listed under each one, reflect the future of municipal police services that are now taking place in communities throughout America!
National internet resources are listed below that contain additional and advanced information about these dynamic and evolving police service programs.
Police and Community Service Organizations
– International Internet Resources –
- International Association of Chiefs of Police – IACP (www.theiacp.org/)
- International City/County Management Association – ICMA (www.icma.org/)
- National Association of Counties – IACO (www.naco.org/)
- National Association of Police Organizations – NAPO (www.napo.org/)
- National Association of School Resource Officers – NASRO (www.nasro.org/)
- National Association of School Safety & Law Enforcement Officials – NASSLEO (www.nassleo.org/)
- National Crime Prevention Council -NCPC (www.ncpc.org/)
- National Criminal Justice Association – NCJA (www.ncja.org/)
- National Sheriffs’ Association – NSA (www.sheriffs.org/)
Author: Roger L. Kemp, MPA, MBA, PhD, is a career city manager having worked in and managed the largest council-manager government cities in CA, CT, and NJ — on both coasts of the U.S. during his public service career. Dr. Kemp is a Practitioner in Residence at the University of New Haven and a Distinguished Adjunct Professor at Golden Gate University. Roger is also a professional speaker, and can be reached via e-mail at [email protected]
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Evolving Community Oriented Police Services in America’s Communities
The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ASPA as an organization.
By Roger L. Kemp
June 11, 2019
The public services provided by police departments to citizens in cities throughout America are evolving and changing rapidly. Traditionally, citizens never knew the police officer assigned to their neighborhood. In the olden days citizens only met a cop when they were being stopped in their vehicle and issued a ticket. The future of police services is now changing.
This is due to a couple of major reasons. One influence is the changing ethnic composition of our society, which is reflected in communities throughout the country. Also the use of new technologies, like computers and cell phones, by police officers as well as citizens, is evolving rapidly. In addition, both elected officials and the parents of school children want police-related educational programs and services provided in local public schools.
While only some police departments are implementing these new police services now, the word about such advancing and futuristic police services is spreading rapidly because of new technologies. Everyone can now be aware of these advanced police services, which will be increasingly common to citizens in all of our cities in the future.
I have divided these futuristic police services into the following four categories to make this complicated subject easier to understand. The evolving police services are categorized as follows:
Community Outreach Programs provide services such as:
Citizen Involvement Programs include:
Technology-Based Programs entail:
Public Educational Programs include:
These futuristic police services represent new and rapidly evolving programs that are now being developed and implemented by police departments throughout our nation. Police chiefs, as well as their respective administrative staffs, and their police officers, are increasingly working together to build an improved police-community network to assist in relating to, educating and receiving information from the citizens that are being served by their city’s police services.
The four categories of police services shown above, and the programs listed under each one, reflect the future of municipal police services that are now taking place in communities throughout America!
National internet resources are listed below that contain additional and advanced information about these dynamic and evolving police service programs.
Police and Community Service Organizations
– International Internet Resources –
Author: Roger L. Kemp, MPA, MBA, PhD, is a career city manager having worked in and managed the largest council-manager government cities in CA, CT, and NJ — on both coasts of the U.S. during his public service career. Dr. Kemp is a Practitioner in Residence at the University of New Haven and a Distinguished Adjunct Professor at Golden Gate University. Roger is also a professional speaker, and can be reached via e-mail at [email protected]
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