Psychologists needed to help make community policing programs work

When San Francisco police officers began riding on city buses for part of each shift a few years ago, they sparked a 60 percent decline in assaults on buses. The police department also refers people to the city?s drug-treatment-on-demand program in order to reduce narcotics crime.

Such approaches, part of a technique called 'community policing,' are credited with reducing crime throughout the country. But cities need psychologists to help them employ such activities, psychologists and law enforcers said during APA?s 1998 Annual Convention in San Francisco.

Police chiefs from various cities near San Francisco and psychologists who work in law enforcement gathered for a roundtable discussion on how psychology can foster successful community policing efforts.

Participants in the discussion, sponsored by APA?s Committee on Urban Initiatives (CUI), included San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, Jr.; Janis Sanchez-Hucles, PhD, CUI chair; Dorothy Tucker, PhD, a CUI member who was instrumental in organizing the roundtable; and Alan Benner, PhD, director of police psychology in the San Francisco police department. Benner also chairs the APA Div. 18 (Public Service) section on police and public safety.

Community policing involves officers not only responding to crime, but preventing it as well. Rather than just waiting to be dispatched to crime scenes, officers in many cities now conduct regular foot patrols or set up youth athletic programs in high-crime areas.

But while some cities have successful community-policing programs, others have struggled or failed, said Ellen Scrivner, PhD, of the Community Oriented Policing Services at the U.S. Department of Justice. Officers often resist changing the way they do their jobs. Many receive inadequate training in community policing techniques. Departments often face micromanagement from city officials and distrust from community members.

In addition to providing mental health services to officers, psychologists can help community policing efforts by fostering organizational change, team-building and conflict resolution, she said.

Police chiefs discussed several community policing needs that psychologists could address. They can, for example, share research on various law enforcement issues?such as effective crime deterrents?and help officers apply that knowledge in the field. Or, they can help departments with organizational issues, such as resolving conflicts with community groups and other city departments.