Policing Styles

In order to deal with a vast and varying array of problems and situations in the line of duty, the police department employs a multitude of operational strategies. Also they can employ a series of specialized strategies and techniques for more detailed and complex investigations which would take place over a longer period of time. A few examples of core police strategies include: preventative patrol, aggressive patrol, and directed patrol. Preventative patrol is defined as an attempt to stop crimes before they happen. (This can be implemented through several strategies such as a beat cop keeping an eye out for trouble whether he’s – or she – is on foot, bike, or horse.) Aggressive patrol can be seen whenever the police cracks down on a suspects and arrests them for their wrongdoing. Directed patrol, however, keeps the police patrol time centered in high crime areas and neighborhoods.

When it comes to the style of policing, you must first take a look at the different situations that a police officer might come upon. In crowd control, a police officer would want to use preventative patrol. Doing this would mean that he is keeping an eye out for any troublemakers and would be able to take care of them quickly if anything should happen. (This would also put the crowd at ease, as he wouldn’t be aggressive towards those who weren’t causing trouble.) In arresting a suspect/apprehending an offender, the police officer would want to use aggressive patrol as he would need to crack down on him before he could do anything else wrong. In other words, he wouldn’t want to be passive about someone doing something wrong and would want to take action. Helping someone in need would be considered a form of directed patrol, as the officer would have his attention focused solely on who needed his help. (Thus, his attention wouldn’t be directed elsewhere.)

Community policing is defined as a philosophy that promotes organizational strategies, which support the systematic use of