a political economy of community policing
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Jordan Phillips
24 January 2011
Assignment 3
Similar to The Evolving Strategy of Policing, A Political Economy of Community
Policing categorizes the evolution of policing into five different eras. In each of these eras
Barlow argues that maintaining the social order is the primary function of police while the crisis
of legitimacy is what fuels police change. Barlow begins with a discussion of Pre-Industrial
Police and the creation of slave patrols and ends with the rise of community policing in the Post-
Modern Era.(Brandl and Barlow2004)
Pre-industrial police was categorized by the creation of slave patrols to maintain order
between plantations and suppress slave rebellion. Barlow argues that these slave patrols were
the first publically funded municipal police department. After the Dredd Scott Decision denied
sanctuary to runaway slaves in the northern states, the Texas Rangers (the first state police) were
in charge of capturing runaway slave trying to escape out of the country. As the industrial
revolution took place the rise of immigrant populations or dangerous classes became a concern
for wealthy industrialists who funded public and private police organizations in order to preserve
a disciplined workforce. To accompany this slave patrols were still in existence even after the
Civil War, enforcing segregation laws and discriminatory practices carried down from the
north.federal bureaus, municipal police departments focused on removing officer discretion.
(Brandl and Barlow2004)
Following these two early stages of policing, Barlow argues that police organizations
moved into the modern era. Just as Kelling and Moore noted, this time period was characterized
by a move towards a more traditional model of policing. Basing their organization strategies on
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the newly forming 1870s forced police into a more professional model as the threat of social
revolution grew. As the 1960s approached Barlow argues that police moved into the postmodern
era. During this time public faith in law enforcement began to fail as fear of crime rose due to
riots over the war and the Civil Rights Movement. The initial response to this social upheaval
was to increase militarization and professionalization within the department. This created a sense
of team oriented policing but only served to distance the police from the community, increasing
the publics lack of trust and dissatisfaction with the department. (Brandl and Barlow2004)
During the 1980s police entered a new period of development. Barlow states that this
time is defined by the rise of community policing (or image management policing). This new
strategy encourages public scrutiny of police practices also requires that the community take a
bigger role in crime prevention(Brandl and Barlow2004). However, although Skogan praises
community policing as being effective in reducing the fear of crime he also states that there are
no current ways to measure the results of implementing this style of policing within a particular
community. Skogan also argues that community policing is a process or philosophy made up of
three core elements consisting of citizen involvement, decentralization, and problem-solving, but
that in reviewing the practices of community policing agencies such as COPS (The Office of
Community Oriented Policing) are too quick to judge the effectiveness of such programs by
cities such as Chicago, which experienced dramatic improvements between the relationship of
the police to the public. These improvements are not the norm for most cities where community
policing is usually only popular in suburban middle class neighborhoods.(Weisburd and Braga
2006)