Not Just Being Friendly: The Discipline Behind Effective Community Policing

I'm old enough that I remember when community policing became popular again. In the 1980s, I even had the dubious honor of spending the day with Joseph A. Califano Jr., who served as the United States Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare in the Carter administration. He did a ride-along with me to see what we were doing in the realm of community policing in Savannah, Georgia.

While the day in itself was memorable, my main takeaway was from a statement made by him in which he said, "Policing changed when they put air conditioning in cars and neighborhoods started replacing the front porch with a back deck." The statement rang true then and still does.

Community safety is not built only in patrol cars. It is built in small, repeated moments—when a resident feels heard, when an officer shows up with steadiness, when problems are addressed early instead of ignored until they become crises.

Community policing, at its best, is not a slogan. It is a discipline. It requires time, consistency, and humility. And it works best when both law enforcement and the community understand what it is—and what it is not.

Community Policing Is Not Public Relations

One of the greatest mistakes agencies can make is treating community policing as a branding effort. People can sense the difference between a staged event and a real investment. Trust does not grow from photo opportunities. It grows from credibility.

Community policing is not “being friendly.” It is being present and responsible. It is officers knowing their neighborhoods well enough to recognize patterns—what belongs and what doesn’t, what is normal and what is changing, who is struggling and who is exploiting that struggle.

Presence Matters—But Not Just Enforcement Presence

Most communities do want police visibility. But there is a difference between presence that feels like protection and presence that feels like pressure.

Community policing requires a kind of presence that is calm and predictable:

• Officers who make contact before there’s a problem

• Patrol that is visible without being aggressive

• Consistent follow-through when residents report concerns

• Familiarity that makes residents more willing to speak

This kind of presence prevents crime quietly. It makes offenders feel noticed, and it makes residents feel less alone.

Neighborhood Safety Starts With Listening to the Right Problems

Many public safety issues begin as “small” things: nuisance properties, recurring disorder, abandoned buildings, repeated trespassing, minor theft, drug traffic around a corner store, domestic disturbances that never quite become arrests.

Community policing works when law enforcement takes these early warnings seriously—not by overreacting, but by addressing the root causes. That often requires partnership with code enforcement, social services, housing authorities, probation, mental health resources, and local leadership.

Police cannot solve everything. But police can help organize the response.

The Most Valuable Tool Is Communication

In most neighborhoods, people want to cooperate with police. What stops them is not always hostility- it’s often uncertainty.

They don’t know:

• what to report

• how to report it

• whether it will matter

• whether they’ll be exposed

• whether they’ll be treated with respect

Community policing improves when agencies teach citizens what good reporting looks like. Residents don’t need to become investigators. They just need to become clear observers.

A healthy community partnership sounds like this:
“Here’s what we need from you. Here’s what you can expect from us.”

Trust Is Built Through Fairness, Not Flattery

The public does not require perfection. But it does require fairness.

One of the quiet strengths of good community policing is consistency:

• the same standards applied across neighborhoods

• respectful treatment even when enforcement is necessary

• clear explanations, not sarcasm

• professionalism under insult

• accountability when something goes wrong

When officers treat people with dignity, even in tense moments, it becomes harder for cynicism to take root—on both sides.

What Community Policing Cannot Be

Community policing cannot mean:

• ignoring crime to avoid complaints

• excusing disorder because enforcement is unpopular

• using relationships as a substitute for lawful action

• expecting residents to handle dangerous situations themselves

It also cannot become a system where “good” residents receive protection and “difficult” residents receive contempt. A department’s integrity shows most clearly in how it treats the people who are hardest to deal with.

The Long Work of Safer Neighborhoods

The safest neighborhoods are not those with the most arrests. They are the ones where problems are confronted early, where communication is normal, and where trust is strong enough to survive conflict.

Community policing is slow. It is repetitive. It is often thankless.

But it is the kind of work that keeps a community from shrinking into fear. It gives residents a reason to stay engaged. It gives officers a reason to stay human.

And in the end, public safety is not only about responding to danger.
It is about creating the conditions where danger has fewer places to hide.

Bibliography

• Skogan, W. G. (2006). Police and Community in Chicago: A Tale of Three Cities. Oxford University Press.

• Gill, C., Weisburd, D., Telep, C. W., Vitter, Z., & Bennett, T. (2014). Community-oriented policing to reduce crime, disorder and fear and increase satisfaction and legitimacy among citizens: A systematic review. Journal of Experimental Criminology, 10(4), 399-428.

• Trojanowicz, R. C., & Bucqueroux, B. (1990). Community Policing: A Contemporary Perspective. Anderson Publishing Company.

• President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing. (2015). Final Report of the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing. Office of Community Oriented Policing Services.

• Braga, A. A., & Weisburd, D. (2010). Policing problem places: Crime hot spots and effective prevention. Oxford University Press.