Chapter 4

1. Community Policing Strategies for Drug Crimes Community policing approaches can be
applied to several drug crime problems, including open-air drug markets, dealing in private
properties, methamphetamine manufacturing, and substance-abusing repeat offenders. The
strategies utilized include:

• Highly Visible Policing: Conducting visible operations, such as foot patrols, to disrupt
drug markets and make it highly inconvenient for buyers and sellers to engage in
transactions.
• Intensive Law Enforcement (Crackdowns): The effectiveness of a crackdown depends
heavily on the specific drug market being targeted and the number of resources available.
• Surveillance and Intelligence Gathering: This involves utilizing street surveillance,
setting up hotlines for area residents, and increasing the availability of drug treatment
services.
• Intelligence-Led Investigative Work: Police use information from hotlines and
residents to identify and analyze problems. Additionally, officers can debrief arrested
offenders to gather intelligence, and arrested drug buyers can lead undercover officers
directly to active drug locations.
• Arresting Drug Buyers: This tactic directly impacts the demand side of the drug market
and proves most successful against new or occasional drug users.
• Deterrence: Police in Miami, Florida, found that the entire process of being arrested,
charged, being forced to appear in court, and having a vehicle impounded acted as a
strong deterrent against drug crimes.

2. Community Policing Strategies for Traffic Problems Law enforcement encounters traffic
problems daily, primarily taking the form of poor driving behavior, traffic crashes, and traffic
congestion. These policing responses target specific place-based locations, such as street corners,
apartment buildings, businesses, or entire neighborhoods. When citizens hear the word "traffic,"
they usually picture three things: receiving a traffic citation, being involved in or driving past a
traffic crash, or sitting in frustrating traffic congestion.

• Outside Partnerships: To handle traffic problems, police rely on four main categories of
partnerships: community members and groups, other governmental agencies, private
businesses, and the media. These partners provide detailed analysis, expertise,
resources, and funding that are not generally available to law enforcement.
• Government Partnerships: These are critical because they provide ongoing assistance
in the form of funding, data analysis, and equipment to deal with both small- and large-
scale traffic incidents.
• Data Collection via Surveys: Police collect data by sending surveys (via e-mail or
traditional mail) to licensed drivers in specific areas. These surveys gather information
about driving patterns (whether trips are for business or pleasure), average trip length,
trip duration, and time of day.
• Synergy: By combining complementary knowledge regarding the causative factors of
crashes, traffic flow, and congestion, police and their partners achieve a far greater
impact working together than they would individually.
3. Community Policing Strategies for Domestic Violence Domestic violence is a broad term
encompassing battery, assault, false imprisonment, kidnapping, stalking, rape or sexual assault,
and homicide. These crimes are perpetrated by spouses, intimate partners, or individuals from
past relationships, though victims and perpetrators can also include children, siblings, or the
elderly (parents or grandparents). Physical violence can involve beating, kicking, pulling hair,
burning, or shoving.

• Justice System and Enforcement Challenges: These crimes raise complex issues
regarding enforcement, prosecution, and sentencing. Victims are often reluctant to testify
due to fear, financial dependence on the offender, or a desire to keep their abuser out of
jail. Arrest is generally the first step toward prosecution, conviction, and sentencing.
• Sentencing and Counseling: In modern domestic violence cases, sentencing likely
includes mandatory counseling and jail time. This counseling focuses on the offender's
mental health status, including personality disorders, and emphasizes necessary
behavioral changes. The short- and long-term impacts of these counseling programs on
deterring and stopping violence are continuously being evaluated.
• Community and Grant Interventions: Police grant monies allow local agencies to hire
officers, purchase technology, and expand services for housing, health, mental health, and
victim assistance. Community members, law enforcement, and service providers must
form an equal partnership to intervene and prevent intimate partner violence. Early
education-awareness programs are also used to discuss relationship violence, types of
abuse, the impact of abuse, and healthy partnerships.
• Family Justice Centers: The goal of these centers is to increase victim survival and
independence, address immediate and long-term needs, and promote recovery. The San
Diego Family Justice Center was the first of its kind, offering a single location for
advocacy, safety planning, law enforcement assistance, injury documentation, legal/court
assistance, disability aid, medical/mental healthcare, housing options, transportation,
child care, and faith-based services.
• Ten Key Components of a Family Justice Center: (1) Collocated multidisciplinary
services to increase safety/support; (2) prearrest policies to increase offender
accountability; (3) policies incidental to arrest/enforcement to reduce revictimization; (4)
victim safety and advocacy as the highest priority; (5) victim confidentiality; (6)
prohibiting offenders from seeking services from the center; (7) a community history of
collaborative efforts; (8) strong support from local elected officials and policymakers; (9)
strategic planning; and (10) strong and diverse community support.
• Factors for Effective Community Response: To be effective, community partners must
increase awareness and build skills. Increasing cultural competence is essential to reach
underserved populations. Law enforcement, victim services, and allied professionals must
work on mutual goals. Finally, the entire community plays a role in identifying victims,
reporting victimization, and increasing resources for prevention.
4. Cybercrime and Community Policing Cybercrimes create major challenges because
suspects are often technologically savvy and possess more computer expertise than the average
person. Furthermore, many police officers lack the requisite training to understand complex
computer systems and their corresponding crimes. When investigations do occur, the physical
evidence seized is fragile and requires significant forensic analysis to compile and organize for
prosecution. Cybercrimes are broken down into three categories:

1. Computer Targeted for Unlawful Reasons: This includes the theft of personal
information or the release of viruses. Cybercriminals commit identity theft by retrieving a
victim's personal information without their knowledge, which is then sold or manipulated
for further crimes. Computer viruses are installed to inhibit proper hardware and software
operations. Nefarious programs can secretly transmit personal data for months or years
before the owner realizes it. Businesses are frequently targeted due to their large
monetary assets. Mobile computer devices are also highly vulnerable because they often
lack the security software and safety layers found on personal computers.
2. Computer Used as the Mechanism for Criminal Activity: This includes crimes such as
fraud, harassment, child pornography, and illegal sales.
3. Computer Used as a Secondary Means: An example is housing databases that support
illegal activities.

Applying the SARA Model to Cybercrime: The SARA (Scanning, Analysis, Response,
Assessment) problem-solving model is highly applicable for examining the overall cybercrime
problem in a community rather than focusing on specific isolated incidents.

• Scanning: Police use crime report data, citizen interviews, and personal observations to
understand the scope of the problem. They ask questions like: What specific types of
cybercrime are happening locally? How significant is the problem? Are citizens reporting
victimization? Does ignoring the problem make it worse?.
• Analysis: Police expand on the scanning data by asking: What are the causes of
cybercrime? What other crimes derive from cybercrime victimization? What are the most
basic forms of victimization? What resources are available to abate it?.
• Response: Police develop interventions by considering: What have other communities
done? What possible interventions might work? Who is needed to implement the plan?
What sources of data will be gathered?. During this phase, police often request assistance
from community agencies. For instance, police might contact local banks to see if they
are informing customers about online banking risks, or they might ask computer repair
stores to offer customer vulnerability assessments to detect infected or at-risk computers.