What can be done to improve police-community relations

Patrick Doyle

University of Pittsburgh

It is essential that police and the surrounding community work together to fight and stop crime. The relationship between the police and public may be of critical importance because the police seldom apprehend a suspect while a crime is being committed (Groves, Moore, & Renner, 1980). This is extremely true when you look at the statistic that Reiss (1971) reported; that approximately 93% of incidents handled by the patrol division of the Chicago Police department during one calendar year were initiated by citizens. To keep this statistic high and the reports from victims from not stopping the police and the community need to a have a good relationship. If the relationship is poor there will be limits to the level of community involvement and citizen cooperation which is possible (Groves et al., 1980).

When a citizen...