Matching police-community expectations: An analysis of policing models in an urban university community.

摘要

Policing models based on policing theories from which various policing programs are developed have rarely been tested empirically. Choosing an urban university community for studying policing models enables the researcher to analyze not only police professionalism, community policing, and problem-oriented policing, but also the security orientation that particularly characterizes campus policing. The one overarching question that is asked in this study is: How do the police and the various community groups compare in their expectations of what the police should do? To answer this question, their perceptions of and concerns about crimes, experiences of criminal victimization, police/community contacts, police and community group attitudes toward each other, current police activities and preferred police activities, preferences for different policing approaches, and community responsibilities to the police were all examined.;The entire police department under research participated in this study. Probability samples were drawn from community residents, business employees, business owners, faculty, staff, and students in the jurisdiction of the police. Responses to the questionnaire items intended to represent four different policing approaches in the pilot and formal study were entered into factor analyses to determine whether the data confirmed the theoretical constructs of these police orientations. Multivariate analysis of variance, multivariate regression, chi-square, and paired t-test were employed in testing ten hypotheses developed to examine policing models.;A community-oriented model, based on the principle of equity and supported by professionalism and situational crime prevention, has been found to be the policing model that has the most agreement among various sample groups. Great differences exist, however, in preferences for professionalism, problem-oriented policing, and the security approach among the sample groups. This study also demonstrates that security and problem-oriented policing can be functionally merged to form the situational model. In addition, it was found that one's sense of community characteristics can both exist and be created; and that this sense is significantly related to community policing.