Policing for the Past Several

Policing for the past several decades has been policing in the United States has been a function of the state. Policing has been a public function but there are now trends that indicate that policing may very soon cease to be a strictly public function as competition from other sources are beginning to apply pressure on the traditional policing structure (Grabosky, 2007).

These pressures from other sources such as private security firms are forcing more traditional police agencies to consider making radical changes in order to remain competitive and to maintain their credibility with the tax-paying public. Historically, public police agencies in the United States have existed to safeguard the safety of the public but in recent years the effectiveness of this role has come into question as more and more of a policeman's time is spent performing administrative responsibilities or responding to emergency calls that little or nothing to do with criminal matters. Additionally, statistics indicate that only approximately 20% of criminals committing crimes in the United States are actually apprehended and this low percentage has brought the police under scrutiny (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2011).

One of the solutions being offered by police agencies to the criticisms is the adoption of community policing. The process of community policing involves encouraging the public to become willing participants in assisting the police in protecting the public safety. This goal of this process is to free the police from spending so much of their time on non-criminal emergencies and allow them to use their time more efficiently and effectively.

Another new approach that is being suggested is the use of order-maintenance policing. This form of policing employs an aggressive approach toward handling marginal members of society such as the disorderly, unruly and disturbing behavior of individuals in public places (Gau, 2010). The theory behind this approach is that by addressing these types of behavior early in the process that more severe behavior often arising from these behaviors will be averted. The theory is that such actions by the police will reassure the public that the police are actively attempting to control activities that the public finds frightening.

A more radical change that is being considered by a number of police agencies is the abandonment of the traditional quasi-military management model that has been used by public police agencies (Butterfield, 2005). This model provided for a hierarchical chain of command based on rank but there are many experts who argue that such system is out-dated. New systems where command is much less centralized and individual police are allowed autonomy in their specific neighborhoods and areas. This is an attempt to integrate the police more heavily into their neighborhood and to develop the idea that police work is a community challenge and not the work of the police alone. The long-range goal of this type of policing is to have the public view policing as a service and the public as customers. Eventually this will result in the effectiveness being measured by public satisfaction and not by harsh statistics such as the number of crimes occurring and the number of arrests being made.