What is "COMMUNITY ORIENTED POLICING AND PROBLEM SOLVING?"
Strictly speaking, community oriented policing means forging a partnership and relationship between the police and the community to control crime. Problem oriented policing means focusing on a problem and devising a strategy that brings available resources to bear to arrive at a long-term solution.
It means empowering officers at the line level to interact as problem-solvers with those we serve. Management becomes support staff for the efforts of those individuals who are collaborating with residential and business community members to solve problems.
Community Oriented Policing:
Is a community based/oriented philosophy
Promotes and requires partnership and two-way communication
Is proactive
Encourages problem-solving as a tactic
Attacks the causes, not symptoms of crime and disorder
Stresses community participation and empowerment
Provides police officers opportunity to be valued for their worth, not their rank
Provides a broader role for line officers to be problem-solvers
Promotes the development of trust
Flattens the chain of command within the police structure and city government which provides for more responsibility and accountability
Community Oriented Policing is not a "program." It is a philosophy about how to do business in a more efficient, productive and user-friendly way; one that permeates every level of our organization and city government.
Community Oriented Policing strategies and methodologies are designed in such a way as to effectively address those crime trends that our community is experiencing.
