The Push for Community Oriented Policing

Since last weeks post I have had some time to really think about what I wanted this blog to do. On one hand it would be nice to think that with a couple facts and some interesting information I could convince everyone that community-oriented is the way to go. But, I quickly realized that a foundation of some sort must be set in order to persuade people that change needs to occur.

Any number normal law-abiding citizen, I’m sure,  have no problem with the way police go about their job. Unfortunately there are many law-abiding citizens that have seen the implications of  poor training and have been at the short end of the stick in terms of that.

I mentioned before that I would use the Pittsburgh Police as a case study in my work towards community-oriented policing and a couple of days ago I found the perfect article of what poor training does to our Pittsburgh Police.

I know that we aren’t supposed to rant and rave about daily occurrences in our life, but for my first blog it seems I might have to. This past Friday I decided to venture down to Station Square and enjoy a good clean night of socializing. At the conclusion of my night I realized that the girl friend of mine and I had forgot to save money for a taxi home. Even worse, when we decided to get the trolley to my friend’s house, we realized that the trolley was no longer running. To say the least we were screwed. As we sat at the trolley stop two sullen faced Port Authority Police officers approached us and began questioning what we were doing. To make a long story short the questioning was laden with a bunch of explicative, accusations of our mischief on the tracks (undoubtedly false), and the aggressive physical removal of both of us from the trolley stop, across the street. Obviously I was very very upset and the way the police officers handled the situation, especially handled my friend! We ended up making it back home.

The reason I bring this story up is because I think the actions of the police that night are in direct relation to the training and mindset policing has taken as of late. How about maybe a ride home officer? That could have maybe helped. But no, instead they were completely irrational and ignorant, a testament to their training. Community oriented policing takes in account the needs of the community, it works with the community to solve problems from the ground up. When officers are trained in this form of policing they aren’t ridiculously strict and unwavering in their actions like the ones my friend and I encountered. Unfortunately, the strict and zero tolerant style of policing that is being taught is turning the community against the police. Where do you think movements like “Stop Snitching” come from? I believe they come from the direct actions of police departments and there unwavering straight-line approach.

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