The following Community-Based Policing news story was published in the March 6, 2003 issue of The Beach Reporter.

The Hermosa Beach Police Department has provided the following information

to inform the public about community-based policing.

Community-based policing has three components:

They are Partnership, Problem-Solving and Change.

• Community Partnership recognizes the value of bringing people back into the public safety process.

• Problem-Solving identifies concerns that community members feel are most threatening to their safety and well-being.

• Change Management recognizes that a police department will have to change its organizational structure to forge partnerships and implement problem-solving efforts.

Community-based policing is "focused on crime prevention".

In community-based policing, officers still maintain law and order, but they move beyond just "catching the bad guys" to examining specific conditions. These conditions include problems of disorder and neglect, that breed both minor and serious crimes.

Community based policing allows people to talk about their concerns, which range from burglary to speed bumps. The back and forth dialogue with the community-based police officers, who are familiar faces in the neighborhood, allow the residents to ask for help.

Many programs that support community-based policing are old news to crime prevention specialist. Neighborhood Watch, citizen police academies, graffiti cleanups, neighborhood mediation centers, after-school programs for children and teens, school resource officers and citizen patrols.

Community-based policing works by building trust.

Residents who trust the police provide valuable information that lead to the prevention and solution of crimes. Mutual trust leads to advocacy for police activities and productive partnerships that find solutions to community problems.

A police officer who studies and listens to the community respects residents' instincts and concerns. On the other hand, residents need to learn how the police department works, and what it can and can not do. Then they need to work together.

Community-based policing is "not a quick fix".

Community-based policing strategies have evolved over the past 25 years, based on work by scholars and police research organizations. It has become the focus of policing in the 1990's, but community-based policing isn't a quick fix. Getting the public to cooperate with the police can be be difficult, especially in neighborhoods with a record of antagonistic relationships between residents and police. Similar antagonisms may exist between community organizations and law enforcement.

The police must win the support of the public, through regular meetings with residents and delivering on commitments they make to solve problems. Community-based policing requires a long-term commitment by everyone. These long-term commitments allow the police to work effectively with all members of the community, to forge lasting relationships to fight crime.

The benefits of community-based policing

1. Using the community's talents and resources effectively helps extend severely strained police resources.

2. Citizens gain a voice in defining and prioritizing their law enforcement needs. Satisfaction with the police services then increases.

3. Officers who develop creative solutions to community problems and find new roles also enjoy increased job satisfaction.

4. Crime has gradually decreased since the early 1990's. Police executives, government officials and researchers credit community-based policing initiatives as contributing to that decline.