Community Policing and Youth as Assets

Abstract

Over a decade after it was first introduced, community policing remains the most important innovation in American policing today. Called "the most significant era in police organizational change since the introduction of the telephone, automobile, and two way radio," community policing has been supported by the past three Presidents, Congress, every major police organization, and much of the public. A broad cross-section of the legal academy also endorses community policing. Those who seek new ways for inner-city communities to mobilize against disorder and crime support it, as do others whose principal concern is reducing police abuse of minorities.