Benefits of community policing

Those advocating the adoption of community policing have identified a wide array of potential benefits. The major arguments can be loosely organised to include:

Community-specific advantages

•the mobilisation and empowerment of communities to identify and respond to concerns;

•a reduction in problems and issues of concern as they are prioritised and addressed;

•an improved local physical and social environment;

•an increase in positive community attitudes towards police; and

•reduced fear of crime.

Police-specific benefits

•an improved police-community relationship;

•an improved community perception of police ‘legitimacy’; and

•an increase in officer satisfaction with their work.

Shared benefits

•a decreased potential for police-citizen conflict;

•a reduction in crime rates;

•a better flow of information between the police and the community, and;

•better implementation of crime prevention and crime control activities, as a result of both parties working together towards shared goals.

–Source, Australian Institute of Criminology