Community policing
Local governments can invest in this strategy using State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF) from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).
- This strategy can help prevent violence. The U.S. Department of Treasury has indicated that strategies that help achieve this outcome are eligible for the use of Fiscal Recovery Funds.
- Investments in this strategy are SLFRF-eligible as long as they are made in qualified census tracts or are designed to assist populations or communities disproportionately impacted by COVID-19.
Program overview
Increasing public safety through community-police collaboration: Community policing is an approach to policing that emphasizes the development of community relationships and partnerships. By working with residents and community organizations, police departments using a community policing model aim to proactively address the underlying conditions that lead to violence in a community.
Focusing on community partnerships: Community policing emphasizes the importance of police departments developing partnerships with relevant stakeholders. These partnerships serve two purposes: (1) improving public trust, and (2) enabling collaboration with community members in developing solutions to problems in their communities. Common partners for police departments include other government agencies, advocacy and community-based nonprofits, local businesses, media organizations, and more.
Creating a culture of problem solving: Police departments using the community policing model aim to proactively address the underlying conditions that create public safety issues. To help police officers identify these factors, community policing encourages the use of problem solving models, like SARA (scanning, analysis, response, and assessment). Such models assist police officers in shifting from an emphasis on reactive enforcement to proactive and systematic problem solving.
Institutionalizing changes in the organization: Community policing prioritizes making changes to the organizational structures within police departments in order to institutionalize its principles throughout a department. Key structures that community policing seeks to change include agency management, agency structure, personnel, and information systems. For example, under the community policing model, a department may move from organizing itself into multiple highly-specialized units and instead train and equip officers to handle a broad range of responsibilities. This would allow an individual officer to more frequently engage in a variety of contexts with the same community.
- Strategies
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Evidence-based policing
- Cost per Participant
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Not available
Multiple studies with rigorous designs demonstrate that community policing is a well-supported strategy for increasing community satisfaction with law enforcement.
- This determination is based on evidence from a 2018 research synthesis.
Assess community attitudes: Before implementing a community policing initiative, police departments should conduct a community survey to measure attitudes toward policing. These results can be used to engage community members in dialogue, set priorities for changes in policy and practice, and provide a baseline from which to assess progress in future surveys.
Address past and present injustices: Police departments can build trust with community members by acknowledging the role of policing in past and present injustices. As part of building trust, departments may take steps to increase their accountability to the public, such as by adopting policies to facilitate the proactive release of information around police-citizen interactions or establishing a professional standards and accountability board.
Create regular opportunities for community engagement: Police departments should dedicate officer time to regularly interacting with community members. Examples of this approach include encouraging officers to participate in community events, creating opportunities for officers to mentor or coach youth, and more.
Train officers to problem solve: To shift culture within a police department to focus on problem solving, officers need a conceptual model that is designed to help them solve problems in a structured and disciplined manner. Leaders should ensure officers are trained to use a model like SARA - scanning, analysis, response, and assessment - to address public safety issues.
Count nonenforcement contacts: Since the community policing model encourages officers to develop relationships with community members, departments should measure and incentivize nonenforcement contacts with community members.