COPS/POPS

Traditionally, policing has been reactive: A crime is called in, and police respond. During the 1990s, community- and problem-oriented policing (COPS/POPS) becomes the catchphrase. This is more a conceptual framework than a specific practice. The idea is that police should collaborate with the community to identify problems and generate solutions. Suppose, for example, that police are continually called to a local bar that closes at three a.m., turning its disorderly patrons out into the street. Rather than continue to make arrests or issue citations, the police meet with community members and the bar owner. The community wants peace and quiet; the bar owner wants to be a good neighbor and avoid trouble with the law. The solution may include hiring an extra bouncer or not making everyone leave the bar at once. Many jurisdictions put cops back on the beat so they can establish relationships with the local people.

In 1994, the Public Safety Partnership and Community Policing Act passes, and the Department of Justice establishes the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services. Both earmark federal funding for community policing efforts around the country.

Critics of community policing point out that this period is also marked by aggressive policing and harsh punishment. How can a criminal justice system create good will when it is stopping, arresting, and locking up more citizens than ever before? Some members of the community may feel safer, but others feel harassed — and the police are not necessarily in partnership with anyone.

Volunteer sheriff's posse- prostitution bust, Maricopa County, Arizona Tim Zilenbach, 1996