Evaluation of Efforts to Strengthen Police-Resident Relations in El Centro, California. Final Report

摘要

In 1996, the El Centro Police Department (ECPD) formed a research partnership with San Diego State University to study ways of improving police-resident relations throughout El Centros neighborhoods. The study was prompted by the ECPDs decision to implement a community-orientd policing philosophy in its neighborhood policing operations and concerns that El Centro police officers be able to work with an increasingly bilingual and culturally diverse population for community policing be effective in reducing crime. The study was guided by two main objectives: (1) to learn more about how language and culture may affect the implementation of community oriented policing in El Centro, and (2) to experiment with strategies for strengthening police-resident relations. This report describes the research conducted and presents findings and recommendations from the partnerships efforts. The study is based primarily on face-to-face interviews with a random sample of 600 El Centro residents. Pretest and posttest interviews were conducted one year apart with a panel of residents before and after the ECPD implemented a strategy to improve police-resident relations in one of the citys four main policing beats. The interview data were used to evaluate the effects of the departments strategy on trust in police, willingness to work with police, farniliady with police, and police performance. Much of the research was also devoted to identifying barriers to improving police-resident relations and examining the influence of residents social and cultural characteristics on attitudes toward police.