Winning the Hearts and Minds of Police Officers: An Assessment of Staff Perceptions of Community Policing in Chicago

Abstract

The success of community policing depends on the police officers who are responsible for implementing the programs. In essence, their attitudes, perceptions, and behaviors must be substantially changed before community policing can be put into practice. Chicago's community policing program, known as CAPS, became operational in March 1993 in five prototype districts. Before the program strated, officers were surveyed about their job satisfaction, their supervisors, and their opinions regarding community policing. Results showed that officers were very ambivalent about CAPS. They were supportive of some CAPS-related activities (e.g., solving noncrime problems), but not others (e.g., foot patrol), and were dubious about the program's effects on crime and neighborhood relations.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Lurigio, Arthur J. and Dennis P. Rosenbaum . 1994. “The Impact of Community Policing on Police Personnel.” Pp. 147-163 in The Challenge of Community Policing: Testing the Promises, edited by D. P. Rosenbaum . Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

McElroy, Jerome , Colleen Cosgrove , and Susan Sadd . 1993. Community Policing: CPOP in New York. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

Moore, Mark . 1992. “Problem-Solving and Community Policing.” Pp. 99-158 in Modern Policing, edited by M. Tonry and N. Morris . Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Sadd, Susan and Randolph Grinc . 1993. Issues in Community Policing: An Evaluation of Eight Innovative Neighborhood-Oriented Policing Projects (Final Technical Report). New York: Vera Institute.

Stone, Alfred R. and Stuart M. DeLuca . 1985. Police Administration. New York: Wiley.

Walker, Samuel . 1992. The Police in America. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Wycoff, Mary Ann . 1988. “The Benefits of Community Policing: Evidence and Conjecture.” Pp. 103-120 in Community Policing: Rhetoric or Reality, edited by J. R. Greene and S. D. Mastrofski . New York: Praeger.

Wycoff, Mary Ann and Wesley G. Skogan . 1993. Quality Policing in Madison: An Evaluation of Its Implementation and Impact (Final Technical Report). Washington, DC: The Police Foundation.