The Importance Of Good Relations Between The Police And Local Community
December 19, 2022
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If you work in policing, it’s important to be able to build good relationships with the local community.
This can often be better for law enforcement than trying to encourage people to conform without forming a connection.
Here is a look at some of the ways in which working with the community can lead to more effective policing.
Top 9 Importance Of Good Relations Between The Police And Local Community
1. Building trust
If the public’s main source of how the police enforce the law is the media, they could be forgiven for feeling negative toward their own local police force. Bad news sells, and the good news is rarely reported, except in extreme cases.
You can become a bigger part of creating change by pursuing a leadership role with greater responsibilities. Choosing to study a further degree in police and law enforcement, such as the honors BA in Policing from Wilfrid Laurier University, will give you the chance to become more involved in decisions related to trust-building and change the local perception of police officers in the community.
The qualification is specifically designed for anyone who has a minimum of a year of experience in policing and wants to progress into a leadership role with more responsibilities. Courses like this one are fully online and can be studied at your own pace.
After graduating, you might choose to pursue roles such as police sergeant, probation officer, or intelligence analyst, among many other careers.
2. Understanding groups and individuals
By improving relations within the local community, you can gain a better understanding of the concerns that people have related to crime in their area. Often, there may be a conflict between some groups or individuals.
In some areas, most of the crime might be gang-related, while in others, it could be related to a lack of opportunities to earn money legally and improve their lives in a positive way.
It may not be your job to create employment and training opportunities in the community, but by having a better understanding of the underlying causes and collaborating with agencies that can help, you can build good relations and contribute to reducing crime levels.
This is more likely to create long-term change than punishing people for minor crimes and risking making them less appealing to future employers or passing on the same mindset to future generations.
Working to make it more appealing to legally achieve success in life can give individuals and the wider community a brighter future and something to work toward.
Good examples of this are initiatives that help people to start their own businesses and refocus their efforts on something more beneficial for the community and beyond. In policing, you can be part of this by directing them to opportunities they might not be aware of, even if this is not specified in your job description.
3. Being a part of the community
Partnering with some of the groups and initiatives that have been set up locally helps the police become a part of the community. These don’t need to have direct links to crime or prevention, but they will improve the way people view law enforcement and can give communities something positive to focus their efforts on.
These could include programs addressing the issues that concern them personally or on a wider scale, such as training opportunities, climate change, or charity and fundraising events. The more involved you become in the community, the more people will feel like the police care on a deeper level that goes beyond just solving or preventing crime.
The additional benefits include locals getting more involved in these activities and therefore feeling more connected to the community and the police force because of your involvement. When crimes take place, they will be more likely to seek your help and less likely to do anything that undermines the work they have put into improving their community.
It sounds like a lot of work to become involved in these initiatives, but if they help to reduce crime, it’s a worthwhile commitment to creating long-term improvements.
4. Encouraging people to improve their lives
Crime is complex, and there is no single reason people break the law. There are many educated assumptions, such as theft being related to a need for money, or drug use being linked to having few opportunities.
As someone in a leadership role within the community, you will be in a position to build a more personalized impression of the people there, the problems they face, and how they can be deterred from committing crimes or encouraged to build strong links where becomes less appealing or more challenging to commit crimes undetected.
This approach includes highlighting vulnerable members of the community and ensuring there are people or groups who can help to check in on them, setting up or promoting local groups where people can get support, speaking up for those who are underrepresented or struggle to be heard by those in positions of authority, and making it clear how investments into their lives will improve crime rates.
Making people safer so they can go to work, live their lives, and help others without fear of becoming a victim of a crime while focusing on those who might commit crimes will make the local streets a safer place for everyone.
5. Serving the people
The underlying responsibility of those working in law enforcement is to serve the people and increase public safety. Relationships between the police and the community are built when you’re constantly seen to be serving the community. This demonstrates that you have their best interests at heart, reduces any negativity or unpleasant experiences people have, and makes people feel safer.
There are a lot of ways to serve the local people. These include responding promptly to calls in emergencies, investigating crimes thoroughly and not simply focusing on the easy short-fix solutions or making assumptions, and performing impromptu first aid if you find yourself in a situation where no medical professionals are nearby. All of this demonstrates that the police are there to help and serve and are ready for any situations that may occur.
You could also advocate for police-organized self-defense classes that help people feel safer and might deter would-be muggers or attackers who look for easy targets. Empowering people to protect themselves can make them feel more confident while carrying out their daily activities.
Performing welfare checks on the people who are most at risk is also a great way to serve those who have contributed to society but now need help themselves. This deters criminals who might prey on them if they know they might be checked on at any time by the police and other agencies.
6. Working with the community
There can be a lot of mistrust for the police, and while this often comes from those on the wrong side of the law, working with the community can help to combat this. People’s natural reaction to the opposition, even when they’re in the wrong, is to become defensive. However, if you show that you want to work with people rather than against them, you will be more successful in getting through to them.
As someone in a position of authority within law enforcement, you can speak out on behalf of people who struggle to be heard, highlight important issues and promote change – not just from members of the community, but also from those who provide resources. This can help to set up and establish services in the area that help people turn away from crime or never turn to it at all.
An example of this is a child growing up in an area where crime rates are high and their friends’ families or some members of their own family make financial gains from crime. By advocating for help to lower crime in the community, getting support to help those involved in crime to change, and providing mentors who set positive examples, the child may not grow up to become a criminal.
7. Creating transparency
If you progress into a leadership role in law enforcement, you can be part of making a positive change in creating transparency. This can start on a smaller scale within communities and spread nationwide.
Sharing information with the public shows how the police operate and help them understand the process, in addition to building trust. There will be occasions when certain details can’t be shared, but by being as open as possible when it’s realistic to update the community, you can enjoy several benefits, from including the public in the process and keeping them informed of any progress to helping them feel safer and seeing just how much work goes into keeping them and their families safe.
You can also avoid adding to any existing mistrust and having the public make assumptions. Even if you can’t share a lot of details, it still helps to explain why and say when you might have a more detailed update. One example of this is following rules governing confidentiality.
There may be leads based on the reports or statements of someone who wishes to remain anonymous, even if you know who they are. By publicly naming them, you could destroy their trust and make anyone else reluctant to come forward with information in the future.
8. Reducing the crime rate
People value results, and although it’s important to make them aware of some of the work involved in reducing crime, the biggest way to build community relations is to make tangible changes to the local crime rate. The more results they can see for themselves, the more likely they are to feel positive about the police.
Initially, this involves creating and growing relations within the community to ensure everyone is committed to doing their part. Then, you will be expected to maintain these good relations to deter people from criminal activities. If most people put in the effort to improve the area and work alongside the police when necessary, it makes crime less appealing to the minority.
9. Lowering the cost of punitive justice
Most communities are concerned about money and how their taxes are spent. Anything that lowers the costs of the services taxes is spent on, without cutting corners, will help to improve how well people interact with and feel about law enforcement.
This frees up money to be spent on other services, and some of these may benefit the community and the wider area. Seeing the positive effects of services that help them or their families can encourage people to cooperate and partner with the police to create or build on these financial improvements.
For example, if the costs of policing one area, the court process, and imprisoning those responsible for more serious crimes can be cut by involving everyone in the plan to reduce crime, this will result in more people finding ways to deter and report criminals.
Transparency, which we mentioned earlier, could involve sharing the stats that show how much is spent on crime now, compared to how much could be spent on crime if everyone contributed. It can also help to suggest what the money saved could be spent on and how this helps them further. This is in addition to lowering crime, which has its own set of benefits for them.
As someone in a leadership role, you can present the information to those with the authority for public spending to suggest how the extra money could be used and how it will improve the crime rate. If you’ve already built a good relationship with the community, it will provide you with a better understanding of what they need.
Anything that improves the relationships between the police and the community will make it easier for law enforcement. Taking advantage of any opportunities to help people and make long-term changes will continue to build trust. It is rewarding to be a part of this positive change.
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