Community Policing, Chicago Style

By Wesley G. Skogan and Susan M. Hartnett. Oxford University Press. 1997. $29.95
Order # 510560-5 Phone: 1-800-451-7556

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For the nostalgic, community policing evokes an image of Officer O'Leary strolling down the avenue, an apple in one hand and twirling nightstick in the other, shooing along pesky street urchins as he warmly greets passersby.

In urban America, that's more myth than reality. But as Wesley Skogan and Susan Hartnett of Northwestern University describe it in their new book, Community Policing, Chicago Style , mythology may be one more element in the growing popularity of this revolutionary policing strategy for combating crime and disorder.

The book is one of the first detailed portraits of community policing in action. It is based on a large-scale evaluation of the Chicago CAPS program by a research team from Northwestern's Institute for Policy Research. The authors examine the roots and development of Chicago's "unique homegrown approach" to community policing and its impact on community involvement, the quality of life in the neighborhoods, and the police involved in the program.

"Fostering innovation in police departments is a tough job," say the authors, who think the process involved virtually "reinventing policing" and more than a bit of reinventing government as well. Skogan and Hartnett suggest four guiding principles that are key to community policing: 1) organizational decentralization; 2) a commitment to problem-oriented policing, which requires police to shift from their traditional crime-fighting orientation to one that identifies the causes of problem situations and recognizes patterns; 3) police willingness to take citizen's views into account when setting priorities and developing tactics; and 4) support for community-based crime prevention and youth programs.

Politics played a big role in positioning Chicago to accept community policing, the authors maintain. They cite the rising political power of African-Americans and Hispanics, an urgency to prevent urban violence, and an interest in controlling costs and increasing the efficiency of policing as powerful stimuli to Mayor Richard Daley's full-fledged support of the initiative. A coalition of community organizations pressed for adoption of the program and has been involved in making it work around the city.

Hartnett and Skogan are quick to point out that community policing has certainly not been an unqualified success around the country. They attribute the failure of programs in other cities to a police culture that fears loss of control, to the lack of adequate police personnel, to supervisors who did not understand the new agenda, and to problems of interorganizational cooperation. Furthermore, they say the strategy is difficult to implement in neighborhoods fragmented by race, class, and lifestyle, and community involvement has proven hard to sustain, especially in poor neighborhoods that are traditionally suspicious of police and fearful of retaliation by gangs and drug dealers.

Nonetheless, the researchers see reason for optimism in Chicago's experiment. Teams of officers were formed that were dedicated to tackling problems in their own small beats. The evaluation found changes in the visibility of policing, new optimism about the quality of police service, and evidence that crime, social disorder, and physical decay decreased in the community policing districts. "Every district registered some successes," they report, and those who benefited included homeowners, renters, whites, and African-Americans. Hispanics, however, did not share the same levels of success. Their awareness and participation were low and thus they did not see a significant improvement in the quality of their lives. The researchers believe that addressing language and cultural barriers, which got less attention early on in the program, should help remediate this problem. On the other hand, surveys of police officers indicate that they became more engaged with the program over time, and during its first year the integration of policing with the improved delivery of routine city services was one of the most notable and successful elements of the project.

This book can be ordered via the toll-free number at the top.

Northwestern University
Institute for Policy Research
Program for Law and Justice Studies
625 Haven
Evanston, IL 60208-4150
PHONE: (847) 491-8353
FAX: (847) 467-4040

For more information on IPR's Community Policing Evaluation, click on Community Policing Evaluation

For more information on Chicago's community policing initiative, click on Community Policing