Community Policing
Changes: potential SOLUTIONS
In Newark and other cities that have been compelled to rethink their approach to policing, a primary goal is to improve the relationship between police officers and the communities they serve. Beyond what is mandated in reform (see the box below), policing experts recommend community policing, an approach in which officers try to build relationships with the community. In this model, citizens and police work together to identify and solve local problems. Foot patrols may improve communications, helping develop much-needed trust between them.
Now watch the following video, in which Jelani Cobb takes a ride-along with Sergeant Rasheen Peppers to a residential complex that had witnessed a recent spike in violent crime. Peppers, a criminal intelligence unit detective, practices a different kind of policing that’s not just about making arrests but is about building trust and relationships. As you watch, consider how this approach helps him do his job more effectively.
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JELANI COBB, Correspondent: When we arrived, there was a vigil for a man who was murdered the day before, and Peppers worked the crowd for leads.
Sgt. RASHEEN PEPPERS: And you can see just being here for a few seconds, how because of relationships, people—“Well, Peppers is here.” You know, “Peppers, you can talk to her.”
JELANI COBB: After just a few minutes, a woman agreed to speak to him in private about what she’d seen.
Sgt. RASHEEN PEPPERS: She gave me everything from what happened. She says, “I was there. I was right next to the person. This is what took place.” You just don’t get that from being a cop. You get that from relationships. If I wasn’t a guy who was part of the community and I only came out just to do policing, right, that might be an issue. And so I’m trusted to tell me this information. So you have to be a part of the community. You have to be a stakeholder in the community.
JELANI COBB: [on camera] I mean, I think that’s notable to me because that’s so distinct from what the Department of Justice report has said about the Newark Police Department. What’s in that report and the Department of Justice investigation is not policing that looks like that.
Sgt. RASHEEN PEPPERS: OK, and I agree, right? What’s in the report, no, it shows that, you know, we were violating people’s rights, you know? And granted, some officers were.
JELANI COBB: So what do you think are the biggest challenges to creating the type of police force that you are describing in Newark?
Sgt. RASHEEN PEPPERS: Changing the culture. That’s the biggest challenge, getting officers to—to buy in, to there’s a new way of policing. The policing has evolved. That’s the hardest part, you know, and that’s with anyone that’s been stuck doing one thing one way for 20 years, saying, “Look, this is how it should be, we’ve done it wrong, now we can get it right.”
Reforms that seek to address discriminatory policing mandate that police departments:
- Require officers to document whom they stop and search
- Investigate citizen complaints
- Provide officers with implicit bias training to identify culturally ingrained prejudices that a person is not aware of that influence behavior
- Equip officers with body-mounted cameras
- Adopt standards for punishing officer misconduct
Take Notes
What does Sgt. Peppers say is the biggest challenge to making community policing work? What do you think he meant by “changing the culture”?
