Community Policing Techniques Applied to Schools:

Review of Community Policing

While there are varying views on what constitutes community policing in law enforcement, most agree that there are at least three major components: Communication, Partnerships, and Problem Solving.

Communication is the basis of all community policing efforts. This is the first component that needs to be addressed. Without communication all other efforts are bound to failure. When working with schools communication is important at all levels and in both directions. Officers need to be willing to share information as well as gather it.

A partnership is defined as working with a group of people towards a common goal. For law enforcement officers working with the administration in a school the goal is usually to provide a safe environment in which the students can learn.
Problem solving is the process of looking at a problem in a systematic way. The most widely used process for working on a problem is the SARA method. This method involves Scanning, Analysis, Response and Assessment of problems. It should be noted that this process is most effective on long term, on-going problems.