Community Policing in Memphis

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Overview of Memphis Police Department (MPD)
Community Outreach Program
Initiatives that are likely to be successful
Hoops challenge
Clergy Academy
Initiatives unlikely to be successful
Conclusion
Reference

Introduction

According to Schneider (2010) community policing is a value system that permeates the department of police with the main aim of collaborating with the general public to identify and resolve issues that are negatively impacting the livability of neighborhoods, places of residence, or the entire area as a whole (Schneider, 2010). This paper discusses the community policing adopted by the Memphis police department. The Memphis Police Department, as a pro-active community policing organization, has made a lot of steps in offering safe environments for the residents through developing strong partnerships with the community or general public.

Overview of Memphis Police Department (MPD)

In Memphis Police Department, the crime prevention office is based under the special operations unit. Crime prevention is mainly mandated with the responsibility of creating, managing, organizing, and coordinating all community-based and community outreach programs and initiatives associated with the MPD.

Community Outreach Program

This is the MPD community policing program or initiative that was developed to serve the community better and relative to community policing as well as the reduction of juvenile violence (Schneider, 2010). The program was formally rolled out in mid-2012. About sixty police officers and six supervisors were selected to manage the program. Community policing is approached in three different ways namely: educating the general public, enforcement of the law, and identification of the issues and areas of concern.

Initiatives that are likely to be successful

Some of the initiatives that are likely to be successful include the Hoops challenge, and the clergy academy. However, those that are unlikely to succeed include Neighborhood Watch, National Night out, and Black history knowledge bowl.

Hoops challenge

Memphis police department believes that most of its policies will be successful. Among the success stories is the hoops challenge (Schneider, 2010). The program which was started in 2011 to build positive and interpersonal police student relationships has achieved much since its inception of basketball challenges between police and students. Through the tournaments organized, it has been able to prevent crime among students (Schneider, 2010). With close monitoring of policies, interactive ones work better as they identify the immediate problem. This is exactly what the Memphis police department does.

Clergy Academy

Just like the hoops challenge, the clergy Academy is a five-week ten-hour training program with group discussions, classroom lessons aimed at identifying the crime-related issues affecting the clergy and their congregations (Schneider, 2010). In one of the several meetings held between the clergy academy and the congregation, the police have been able to receive over 20,000 cases most of which are stalking (Schneider, 2010). The success of this program is not absolute as it has some limitations. For instance, the clergy academy as well finds itself involved in the classroom forgetting the neighborhoods where crime occurs. This limitation meets an allegation by one of the scholars in America, Wilcox in her book theory and practice of crime prevention. Minor incivilities, if unchecked and uncontrolled, will promote more serious crimes, setting off a negative spiral, leading to the breakdown of informal social control and community decline.

Initiatives unlikely to be successful

Neighborhood Watch

To highlight what some of these initiatives mean, neighborhoods watch for instance helps citizens to acquire a better life and reduce crime (Schneider, 2010). This is through vigilance and regular reporting of crimes to law enforcers for action. While the establishment of this policy was good in 1984, it is not as good as today considering the economic challenges most Americans are going through. So far, some of these policies have turned sour as the police are having reactive other than proactive measures to fight crime. To say reactive, the police only arrest criminals but do not find long-term solutions to stopping the crime (Schneider, 2010). It has been realized that governments in America make policies that are more problem-oriented than prevention.

National night out

Though most of the community activities Memphis police participate in have worked, there are some which have failed significantly. The national night out for example has increased crimes as most participants are criminals in disguise (Schneider, 2010). The police in their responsibilities find some of this situation uncontrollable; therefore mitigating crime and fear of crime may improve the quality of human life. Just like Schneider (2010) notes, the National night outs are doomed to fail. A look at most crimes that occur in today’s world, most of them occur at night. But this idea is not limited to daytime. This is especially so if the participants grew in crime zones.

Conclusion

Memphis Police Department has policies and initiatives that are community-based to control the rate of crime especially juvenile delinquency which has been increasing in recent years. Community policing involves initiatives such as Neighborhood Watch, National Night out, and Black history knowledge bowl among others. Some of these are sports-based initiatives and their intention is to draw people together and the police get the chance to tell them security matters being advanced.

Reference

Schneider, S. (2010). Crime Prevention: Theory and Practice. New York, NY.: CRC Press.

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