Summary of Community Policing in Chicago by Wes Skogan and Susan Hartnett.

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This is a summary of Community Policing in Chicago by Wes Skogan and Susan Hartnett. Community policing is not something one can easily characterize. It involves reforming decision-making processes and creating new cultures within police departments; it is not a packet of specific tactical plans. It is an organizational strategy that redefines the goals of policing, but leaves the implementation to practitioners in the field. There are four general principles of community policing. The first principle is that community policing relies on organizational decentralization and a reorientation of patrol in order to facilitate communication between police and the public. The second principle of community policing is that it assumes a commitment to broadly focused, problem-oriented policing. The third requires that police to respond to the public when they set priorities and develop their tactics. Lastly, community policing implies a commitment to helping neighbourhoods solve crime problems on their own, through community organizations and crime-prevention programs. The most important factor underlying the acceptance of community policing is politics. Groups that too frequently have hostile relations with the police, including African-Americans and Hispanics, are a potent political force in big cities and many smaller ones. When developing departmental policies and choosing police administrators, politicians pay careful attention to how their actions will be received by racial and ethnic minorities. As a result it’s a way for police officers to aspire for higher positions at their job. Interests by well-educated and sophisticated administrators at the top of prominent police departments have also encouraged community policing. The work of policing intellectuals like Herman Goldstein, John Alderson, James Q. Wilson and George Kelling also has laid the groundwork for the

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