In the past, the police frequently solved cases almost like a surgeon conducting an operation: After a crime was reported, the police would actively investigate the leads and round up suspects so that they could be handed over to prosecutors.
But in recent years, the police are acting more like a health care institution, cooperating with citizens to find the root causes of crime and trying to solve the problem where it originated.
The kind of crime prevention policy is what academics in the police world call "community-oriented policing."
Community-oriented policing can be traced back to the US in the 1980s. At that time, the thinking of police experts guided US law enforcement agencies toward an emphasis on mobile patrols and rapid reaction as well as crime investigation. But criminologists soon discovered that relying on police expertise alone was insufficient to effectively bring down crime rates.
As a result, attention turned too how police could work with social institutions, including families, schools, churches and business associations, to build a safer community together.
The concept of community-oriented policing redefined the roll of the police force and transformed it from a crime-fighting warrior into a solver of community problems.
In the US, many police departments that used the community-oriented policing model made revolutionary changes in the structure of the police force in order to find a better solution to social problems. Front-line police officers gained greater authority to solve social problems a major departure from the military-like chain-of-command power structure that had been maintained in the past.
Furthermore, since community-oriented policing requirements were different from the traditional pattern of specialization, many police departments adjusted the way officers were recruited, trained, rewarded and promoted.
These revolutionary changes brought by community-oriented policing also transformed the fundamental nature of police culture and demonstrated that a new era of policing had arrived.
Taiwan long ago began working toward implementing community-oriented policing and integrating this system more fully into the community. Results in the different communities where the policy has been implemented have varied, but if community-oriented policing is to truly succeed, it must be melded with the idea of problem-oriented policing may realize the philosophy behind community-oriented policing.
These two ideas are different but complementary, because the strategies of problem-oriented policing may realize the philosophy behind community-oriented policing.
Traditionally, people expect the police to quickly arrive at a crime scene but ignore that it is what officers do after arriving there that tracks down the cause of the crime.
We should therefore change our approach and help the police identify the causes of crime, enabling them to solve a bigger problem.
Solving problems is certainly nothing new for police departments, and helping citizens solve their problems is a daily task. But with community-oriented policing, the front-line officers must cooperate more with the community and actively participate in solving social problems.
More importantly, the relevant government units must also come into the mechanism of community-oriented policing and provide the support needed to solve social problems.
Wang Hsiao-Ming is a visiting professor at the Central Police University's department of police administration.
TRANSLATED BY JASON COX
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