AmeriCorps Connect

Provided by the Corporation for National and Community Service

Fostering police and community relationships

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Abstract

AmeriCorps members build partnerships between police and the community to control and prevent crimes, offer assistance to victims, and enhance the quality of life within the community. Community Assisting Police (CAP) is a collaborative effort between AmeriCorps and the Montgomery County (Maryland) Department of Police that was conducted from 1995-2001.

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Issue

Police alone cannot make communities safe. Neighborhood residents, businesses, houses of worship and other institutions play an important role in reducing and preventing crime. They regularly observe problems and identify possible solutions. A strong community, one with involved residents and institutions, is a safe community. A Community Assisting Police (CAP) program is one way citizens can be involved. Interest in programs such as these that involve citizens in safeguarding public safety, has grown since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

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Action

Twenty-six full-time AmeriCorps members served in the CAP program in 2000 as victim assistance advocates, calling upon crime victims and complainants to identify problems and access resources. They acted as community mobilizers to prevent public safety problems and served as prevention trainers for senior citizens.Some effective practices from this program include:

Contacting victims of crime
Training senior citizens on how to avoid becoming victims
Mentoring at-risk students
Visiting businesses to survey public safety concerns and promote crime prevention measures
Providing translation assistance to county residents
Forming partnerships with county agencies, businesses and community-based organizations to improve service delivery and strengthen the long-term capacity of communities to resist crime

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Context

The 1995-2001 CAP program in Montgomery County, Maryland, is one of several community efforts in Maryland that engage citizens in crime control. Maryland State Government also provides direct financial assistance to hundreds of community groups that are fighting crime and drugs in their neighborhoods.

Maryland is the first state to implement a cooperative, state-wide, community-based effort to target crime "hotspots" with a comprehensive array of law enforcement and prevention strategies.

These approaches are part of a philosophy of law enforcement called community policing. As defined by the U.S. Department of Justice, "Community policing is a policing philosophy that promotes and supports organizational strategies to address the causes and reduce the fear of crime and social disorder through problem solving tactics and community-police partnerships. A fundamental shift from traditional, reactive policing, community policing stresses the prevention of crime before it occurs. Community policing is an integral part of combating crime and improving the quality of life in the nation's cities, towns and rural areas. Core components of community policing include partnering with the community; problem solving; and transforming policing agencies to support and empower frontline officers, decentralize command and encourage innovative problem solving."

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Outcome

Outcomes of the CAP program include:

Reduction in crime and fear of crime by enhancing community policing in targeted areas.
Increased reporting of selected crimes as a result of heightened awareness and training in such areas as domestic violence and crimes against seniors and youth.
Improved victim support and referral for all victims, which includes decreasing barriers to police services in ethnic and language minority communities, and
Implementing new crime prevention strategies that specifically assist senior citizens, at-risk youth, victims of family violence, and ethnic or minority persons.

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