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Running head: COMMUNITY POLICING & CRIME REDUCTION

COMMUNITY POLICING & CRIME REDUCTION

Student Raymond Garcia

University of San Diego: Professional & Continuing Education

Community Engagement LEPS-520-01-SP16

Professor Dr. Adolfo Gonzales

March 20, 2016

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Running head: COMMUNITY POLICING & CRIME REDUCTION

As a stakeholder and member of the Compton School Police Department, I recognize

the need that our organization should strive to form a bond of trust with the community that

we serve. A topic that I believe the community would like to inquire about is the reduction

of crime rates dealing with juvenile offenders and improvement in community policing. I would

like to address the community about the dangerous and consequences that juveniles face and

how as a partnership, we can help juveniles stay on the right path. By presenting this topic I

would like to learn how we as an organization can improve our relations with the community

and what we could do to statistics within our organization to reduce crime rates among

juveniles.

The juvenile justice system has had a statistically high recidivism rate that keeps young adults

stuck in a revolving door. Juveniles are faced with dangerous situations everyday and prevention

programs are lacking throughout the country. This situation has caught the attention of many

child advocate groups and reform measures have been called for. Advocacy groups such as

publiccounsel.org have stated that the measures are both beneficial to the juvenile, parents and

the community.

Often times juveniles, parents and the community do not understand how the juvenile justice

system works. The juvenile justice system is a component of the correctional branch. A juvenile

maybe introduced into the system in a manner of either a status offender, or criminal offender.

Once the juvenile is arrested for a criminal offense, he or she is either booked or released to a

parent or guardian with a promise to appear at a scheduled court date, or they maybe housed
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at a juvenile hall until their first court hearing pending further proceedings. Juveniles are

afforded the same rights as adults. They are entitled to the same provisions as adults, which

include right to counsel, right to remain silent, and a right to a juvenile proceeding, which is

equivalent to a trail.

As a result of high adjudication rates of juveniles across the nation, a task force was created to

evaluate the situation and make recommendations to remedy this issue. These recommendations

are recorded in report titled as the Final Report of the Presidents Task Force on 21st Century

Policing. Some of the recommendations brought upon from this report are the introduction of

Diversion programs as an alternative to juvenile arrest. Another recommendation brought upon

from the report was the implementation of School Resource Officer programs.

Both of these programs statistically have shown that they can effectively reduce crime rates

involving juveniles. An implementation of both of these programs would take leadership styles

consisting of both servant and transformational leadership. Servant leadership style would be

most effective when advocating both programs to juveniles, parents and community stakeholders.

Transformational leadership would be more effective in the process of introducing a juvenile

into a diversion program in lieu of an arrest.

In conclusion, law enforcement agencies need to rethink department protocols when it comes to

the reduction of crime among juveniles. Current strategies to combat juvenile crime are obsolete

and new provisions as outlined in the Final Report of the Presidents Task Force on 21st Century

Policing, should be considered when implementing these new strategies. The recommendations

in that report not only benefit the juvenile justice system, but also improves overall community

relations. Through the improvement in community policing, law enforcement and communities

can engage in a productive partnership, where trust can be rebuilt and a healing process can

begin.

References

Justice Department and City of Ferguson, Missouri, Resolve Lawsuit with Agreement to Reform
Ferguson Police Department and Municipal Court to Ensure Constitutional Policing : DOJ Office of Public
Affairs(March17, 2016). Justice News, Justice Department and City of Ferguson, Missouri, Resolve
Lawsuit with Agreement to Reform Ferguson Police Department and Municipal Court to Ensure
Constitutional Policing. Retrieved from: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-and-city-
ferguson-missouri-resolve-lawsuit-agreement-reform-ferguson

Final Report of the Presidents Task Force on 21st Century Policing; US Department of
Justice(May2015). Final Report of the Presidents Task Force on 21st Century Policing: US Department of
Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Services. Retrieved from: WWW.Copsusdoj.gov.

Understanding the Juvenile Delinquency System; Publiccouncil.org(2013). Understanding the Juvenile

Delinquency System. Retrieved from: http://www.publiccounsel.org/tools/publications/files/2013-
Understand-the-Juvenile-Delinquency-System.pdf