Community policing is a law enforcement strategy that allows the police and the public to collaborate. Through this strategy, community problems are solved with the help of the people.

There are four elements in community policing that make it useful and proactive. These are the philosophical, strategic, tactical, and organizational dimensions. Read on to know more about these four elements.

Philosophical Dimension

This community policing element refers to the ideas and perspectives that make up community policing. Generally, this element involves information and resources from a community. These typically include finding out community problems and looking for ways to solve them.

In turn, police officers address these concerns to help the community they’re serving. They also find ways to collaborate with the community continually. Moreover, the philosophical dimension serves the following purposes:

• It helps with the consistent communication between the community and the law enforcement.
• It brings in the viewpoints of the public.
• It allows the police to help the community solve problems and put an order in the community.
• It enables the police to find ways to effectively resolve conflict and make the community feel safer in their communities.

Strategic Dimension

This element of community policing allows law enforcement to transform community ideas into action. Law enforcement uses this element to develop tools that address the root causes of crime in the community. Moreover, this element helps the police gather engagement from the public.

The strategic dimension is essential in community policing because it allows law enforcement to develop long-term solutions to help the community. As a result, crime is prevented, and long-term benefits are achieved.

Tactical Dimension

Unlike the strategic dimension, the tactical dimension focuses on program development. This element of community policing helps law enforcement transform ideas into programs, strategies, and practices. Overall, this element helps law enforcement achieve collaboration between them and the community.

This element’s goal is to form an interactive relationship between the community and law enforcement. As a result, community goals are achieved, and there is a mutually beneficial relationship between the two parties.

Organizational Dimension

The last element of community policing is the organizational dimension. This element emphasizes promoting community policing as a law enforcement strategy. Through the organizational dimension, programs and systems are implemented, including training and whole-of-police involvement.

Law enforcement also uses this element to help manage programs and solutions to serve the community. Moreover, this is where information becomes a crucial part of community policing as it helps determine community problems and concerns.

If you’d like to learn more about Community Engagement feel free to download our Community Engagement Toolkit.