Self-check questions and answers

1. What three elements did Skogan (2006) suggest characterise community policing initiatives in the USA?

Answer:

citizen involvement, problem-solving and decentralisation

2. How did Weatheritt suggest the term ‘community policing’ had been used in Britain?

Answer:

‘to denote projects of which authors approved’

3. What are four aspects of Alderson’s model of community policing?

Answer:

to contribute to liberty, equality and fraternity; to help reconcile freedom with security and to uphold the law; to uphold and protect human rights and thus help achieve human dignity; to dispel criminogenic social conditions, through cooperative social action; to help create trust in communities; to strengthen security and feelings of security; to investigate, detect and activate the prosecution of crimes; to facilitate free movement along public thoroughfares; to curb public disorder; to deal with crises and help those in distress involving other agencies where needed

4. What was the name of the policing model introduced alongside panda cars, two-way radios and other innovations in the late 1960s?

Answer:

Unit Beat Policing

5. What legislation required that the police, in partnership with other agencies, conduct audits to establish the community safety needs of local communities?

Answer:

Crime and Disorder Act 1998

6. How many people were estimated to live in areas covered by Neighbourhood Watch schemes in 2006?

Answer:

10 million

7. What did a 2001 HMIC report establish as the three core features of reassurance policing?

Answer:

visibility, familiarity and accessibility

8. What features of police work explain the tendency for officers to be culturally isolated from the wider community?

Answer:

according to Reiner, 1978: the boredom, unsociable hours, occasional periods of danger, and the routine exposure to shocking and traumatic events

9. Why might local residents’ perceptions of crime risks not be reliable?

Answer:

they might not correspond to the objective risks facing them

10. What trend appears to contradict moves to devolve policing closer to local communities?

Answer:

the apparent increase in central control over the direction of policing