Criminal Justice Zero-Tolerance Policing the Term Paper

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In addition, research shows that arrests actually dropped in San Diego after implementing COP policies, and even more dramatic, citizen complaints against police officers dropped, as well. Thus, COP activities seem to be more citizen-friendly than zero-tolerance policies, and they seem to bring dramatic drops in crime, as well.

Problem-oriented policing targets specific problem areas of crime, such as drug-trafficking neighborhoods or youth-oriented crimes. This type of policing strives to understand why crimes are occurring, and get to the root of the crime problem in specific areas. In Boston in the 1990s, youth-oriented homicide was a growing problem, and the city developed a POP program to address it. Called the "Boston Gun Project," the project targeted youth aged 24 and under, and it researched why there was a gun problem with youth in Boston, and then developed intervention and evaluating the impact of the intervention. It involved many different law enforcement agencies, and even included local social services agencies and other non-traditional participants in law enforcement. Police targeted the gangs they knew were involved most heavily in gun crimes and homicides, and not only used enforcement techniques, but counseling and other techniques to reduce the use and availability of guns to youth gangs (Braga, et al., 2001, pg. 219). Clearly, this approach is the most far-removed from zero-tolerance policing methods. This method involves heavy research and assessment, and targets very specific criminal activities after they are identified as major problems in the community. It does not ignore other criminal activities, but targets the most dangerous or deadly, first.

Zero-tolerance policing involves little research and assessment, and instead relies on simply police intervention with any type of criminal activity, from urinating on public streets to homicide. The Boston project discovered that most of the gun activity was related to gang activity, and so they targeted gangs, and specific gangs, as the project continued.

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They responded quickly to gang violence, and soon the gangs realized that gang gun activity was no longer going to be tolerated. The project significantly reduced youth homicide and gun crimes in Boston, and so, like the other policies, POP has seen dramatic results in areas where it has been implemented.

Each of these policing methods has merit on their own, and each have been responsible for reductions in crime in the cities where they have been implemented. The more community oriented policing tactics of the COP and POP programs seem to be more popular with residents, and the low number of citizen complaints that come with these policies seem to bear that out. The inclusion of community police stations, imbedded in the communities they serve, foot patrols, and other forms of community-oriented policing also give citizens a greater feeling of comfort and safety, which adds to the overall success rate of these policies (Eck and Spelman, 1987, pg 33). Zero-tolerance seems more rough and tough than the community-oriented policies, and does not seem to recognize the input or validity of community involvement at all. Zero-tolerance policing is a way to reduce crime, but it does so at a cost, and often, that is increased hostility and complaints toward the police departments. Interestingly, officers involved in community oriented policing seem to be more satisfied with their job and job performance than those involved in other policing methods, especially as they grew more comfortable with what may have been very new and different techniques to them (Lurigio and Rosenbaum, D.P.,, pg. 151). This may indicate that police departments of the future will look not only at their success rates at reducing and preventing crime in the community, but at their own personal job satisfaction as community-oriented policing becomes more popular......

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