Community Engagement and Relations - Prime Academic Study

Table of Contents

Introduction
Criminal Justice Program Administration
Community Relation Programs
Conclusion
References

Introduction

Community relations are imperative to effective policing since they help develop trust between the residents and the police. Mutual trust in the relationship is essential since the police rely on community cooperation to provide crime-related information (Hartley, 2021). Moreover, through community engagement, the police devise solutions to crime and disorder-based issues. However, the community’s willingness to trust the police depends on police actions, how they reflect community values, and whether procedural legitimacy and justice principles are incorporated (Hartley, 2021). Community relations rely on how safe the people feel with the police, and among several ways to improve the relationship is by being transparent and changing policy priorities.

Criminal Justice Program Administration

Police administration involves making lawful and ethical decisions relating to management, discipline, retention, hiring, and law enforcement personnel termination. Effective administration of accountability is essential both internally and externally. Therefore, criminal justice organization administration is made easier through positive community partnerships since it helps acknowledge and discuss challenges faced by the community (Cordner, 2019). For example, looking at the recent U.S. history, police must acknowledge that mistrust by community members, especially in African American communities, is rooted in issues like racial disparities. Positive police-community partnerships help develop transparency and accountability, which requires criminal justice administrations to share as much information as possible (Cordner, 2019).

The police administration can conduct investigations to provide the public with best practices to ensure constitutional policing. Lastly, promoting internal diversity is critical to a criminal justice organization’s administration since it helps police agencies present policing as a profession (Cordner, 2019). Therefore, all internal department processes must regard promotions and recruitments in fair and transparent ways to increase the overall diversity in their departments.

Community Relation Programs

Strengthening Police and Community Partnerships (SPCP) is a one-day, in-person facilitated program that engages community leaders and the police in dialogue to identify problems and collaboratively develop solutions to enhance police-community partnerships. The program works by being scheduled to respond to critical issues proactively and helps local leaders address longstanding community distrust, among other historical barriers, that impact police-community partnerships (The United States Department of Justice, 2022). One success measure of the program is its ability to engage city officials and law enforcement officers to implement program-developed solutions.

The youth leadership academy is a program that allows police agencies to see a rise in young people’s comprehension of what law enforcers experience in their work and the causes for their split-second decisions. The program increases awareness about the difference between law enforcement reality and perception (Sorrow, 2022). Success measures of the program are recruiting, strengthening community partnerships, and raising awareness.

The Champion is a program centered on law enforcement professionals who strive to develop and enhance relationships within the community. The program establishes a police mindset that identifies the professional as the guardian or the warrior (Miller, 2021). The program’s success is in improving the life quality of families the law enforcers protect through steadfast action and word honesty.

The innovative policing program acts as a national hub for bystandership training, resources, and scholarship via a series of train-the-trainer events. The program offers bystandership training to law enforcers throughout the U.S. by involving deliberate thought-provoking discussions, a mix of presentations, actual practice, and interactive small-group activities (Aronie & Yeung, 2020). The success measure of the program is based on its ability to incorporate social science to impact the willingness of a second bystander to participate in any given event.

Conclusion

The sources used were evaluated based on four criteria: purpose, relevance, authority, and currency. The reason for the information’s existence was evaluated to determine its helpfulness for the study of community engagement. Authority was considered since that helped link the source of the information and how it correlated to community engagement. Relevance of the source of the information was critical to understanding the significance of the information relative to the topic. Timeliness of the information was effectively considered to help minimize potential risks and mistakes associated with outdated information.