The end of community policing: remembering the lessons learned

FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin,The, April, 2004 by R. Gil Kerlikowske

Community oriented policing and its dedicated employees have made a significant contribution to law enforcement. They have greatly improved the quality of police services in our country, as well as the public's understanding of this complex profession. Many people are concerned about the title and focus of my remarks, "the end of community policing." This phrase is meant to inspire debate and dialogue, illuminate a significant change in policing over the last 25 years, and to place that change into context.

Allow me to draw on some historical perspective to provide thoughts on where I think police officers have been and where we should be going. The era of community oriented policing is over. Why do I say this? Because I believe that community policing (policing for the communities we serve) is the end, the result, and not a never-ending journey. That does not mean that we have reached a point where continuous improvement and relevant and timely research are no longer important and should not continue in policing. Instead, it means that what we should focus on are improvements, basing and fashioning them on useful research rather than emphasizing the "next new program." And, I know that many of you believe that community policing is a philosophy and not a program.

One of the most thoughtful participants and observers of policing over the years is retired University of Washington Chief of Police Michael Shanahan. He believes that we have a 20-year learning cycle in law enforcement management, an institutional memory, that after 20 years we forget the lessons we learned, the reasons for doing some of the things we do or did, and we move onto "the next new thing" in policing. What Bill Moyers, I believe, has called "the arrogance of a short memory." When I reflect on my past 30 years of gaining practical knowledge, participating in research, reading, and teaching in policing, I am convinced that both gentlemen are correct. This also may reflect on the narrowness of my life; I really should have found time to think about something besides law enforcement.

After World War II, two movements overlapped in policing. Military officers had been brought in to lead law enforcement agencies to remove the stigma of "politics." The politics addressed were associated with corruption, ward bosses selecting personnel and providing services, and the lack of centralized control and decision making in police departments. As it happened, the emphasis on a paramilitary model of policing fit the economic structure as well. When the war ended, a lot of GIs applied to any civil service position available, many taking tests for positions with police and fire departments and entering whichever service offered a position; they sought the long-term stability that a civil service position could provide.

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Later, the transforming influence of television affected the law enforcement profession. Many popular shows reflected policing in a new light. They often were based in Los Angeles, California, and portrayed the stoic and professional officer, such as those depicted on Dragnet and Adam 12, aloof and removed from the community and, thereby, "protected" from the untoward political interference of an earlier time.

Then, somewhat through the influence of the novelist and former Los Angeles Police Department Sergeant Joseph Wambaugh, shows like Police Story, Hill Street Blues, and others portrayed a somewhat more realistic scenario. That period, often referred to as the professional era, was defined by top-down management, organizations comprised of multiple specialty units and a central focus on crime, particularly the kind of crime that those of us in law enforcement believed was of most concern to the community--serious and violent crime. The model was neat and orderly, especially internally, and completely unprepared to deal with the social change, upheaval, and the overwhelming demographic challenge of the 1960s. The thin blue line that had won wars abroad could not win peace or even calm in the neighborhoods wracked by exploding crime rates and deep social unrest. Forgotten--there's that memory thing--in the professional model was the familiarity that existed between officers and the community in the earlier era, when residents saw officers as neighborhood problem solvers and when their efforts attracted some level of community support. Instead, professional officers were viewed as an occupying army. Winning hearts and minds proved as difficult on the streets of many American cities as it did in the jungles half a world away.

The extraordinary challenge of crime led to monumental responses: enter LEAA and a whole new era of experimentation in policing as government tried desperately to leverage its resources in creative and innovative ways to make the streets safe again. Remember the Safe Streets Act, Model Cities, Impact Cities, and LEEP?

By the early 1970s, some very forward-thinking administrators entered into experiments very popular back then, like team policing. Geographical responsibility was stressed, such as what occurred in St. Petersburg, Florida, where officers responded to and handled almost any case assigned to them from the beginning to the end. Managers also worked at community relations and invested in organizing neighborhoods to prevent crime. Everyone had a community relations unit, and crime prevention or "target hardening" programs were quite popular. Much of what I am talking about was the result of the LEAA program under President Nixon, which also resulted in the seminal publications on criminal justice, true random experiments, and a level of energy and enthusiasm about the "calling of our profession." Those involved in policing had been influenced by the Camelot years of President John F. Kennedy and by the opportunities for higher education that LEEP provided and encouraged. They approached policing with a focus on what they could give back to their communities. And, the popular police TV shows helped.