Recipe – COMMUNITY AT LARGE

FAQ – Community Policing and Security of Lives in Every Community

Community Policing

What is Community Policing?

Wikipedia – en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Community policing, or community-oriented policing (COP), is a strategy of policing that focuses on building ties and working closely with members of the community. It is a philosophy of full-service policing that is highly personal, where an officer patrols the same area for a period of time and develops a partnership with citizens to identify and solve problems.

The central goal of community policing is for the police to build relationships with the community,

including through local agencies to reduce social disorder. Although community policing mostly targets low-level crime, the broken windows theory proposes that this can reduce more serious crime as well.

Community policing is related to problem-oriented policing and intelligence-led policing, and contrasts with reactive policing strategies which were predominant in the late 20th century.[10] Many police forces have teams that focus specifically on community policing, such as Neighbourhood Policing Teams in the United Kingdom, which are separate from the more centralized units that respond to emergencies.

What are the strategies of community policing?

The three key components of community policing strategies are organizational transformation, community partnerships, and shared problem solving.

Common methods of community-policing include:

Encouraging the community to help prevent crime by providing advice, talking to students and encouraging neighborhood watch groups
Increased use of foot or bicycle patrols.
Increased officer accountability to the communities they serve
Creating teams of officers to carry out community policing in designated neighborhoods.
Clear communication between the police and the communities about their objectives and strategies.
Partnerships with other organizations such as government agencies, community members, nonprofit service providers, private businesses and the media.
Moving towards some decentralizing of the police authority, allowing more discretion among lower-ranking officers, and more initiative expected from them.

What is an example of community policing?

Neighborhood watches are an example of community policing in action, and these are when residents set up teams to routinely keep an eye out for potential criminal activity. Along these lines are “walk throughs”, which also involve citizens on the alert for crime, and ready to report it.

What to know about community policing?

Community policing stresses prevention, early identification, and timely intervention to deal with issues before they become unwieldy problems. Individual officers tend to function as general-purpose practitioners who bring together both government and private resources to achieve results.

Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA)

The Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) was enacted by Congress of the United States of America in 2000 to address concerns about children’s access to obscene or harmful content over the Internet. CIPA imposes certain requirements on schools or libraries that receive discounts for Internet access or internal connections through the E-rate program – a program that makes certain communications services and products more affordable for eligible schools and libraries. In early 2001, the FCC issued rules implementing CIPA and provided updates to those rules in 2011.

What CIPA requires

Schools and libraries subject to CIPA may not receive the discounts offered by the E-rate program unless they certify that they have an Internet safety policy that includes technology protection measures. The protection measures must block or filter Internet access to pictures that are: (a) obscene; (b) child pornography; or (c) harmful to minors (for computers that are accessed by minors). Before adopting this Internet safety policy, schools and libraries must provide reasonable notice and hold at least one public hearing or meeting to address the proposal.

Schools subject to CIPA have two additional certification requirements: 1) their Internet safety policies must include monitoring the online activities of minors; and 2) as required by the Protecting Children in the 21st Century Act, they must provide for educating minors about appropriate online behavior, including interacting with other individuals on social networking websites and in chat rooms, and cyberbullying awareness and response.

Schools and libraries subject to CIPA are required to adopt and implement an Internet safety policy addressing:

Access by minors to inappropriate matter on the Internet;
The safety and security of minors when using electronic mail, chat rooms and other forms of direct electronic communications;
Unauthorized access, including so-called “hacking,” and other unlawful activities by minors online;
Unauthorized disclosure, use, and dissemination of personal information regarding minors; and
Measures restricting minors’ access to materials harmful to them.

Schools and libraries must certify they are in compliance with CIPA before they can receive E-rate funding.

CIPA does not apply to schools and libraries receiving discounts only for telecommunications service only;
An authorized person may disable the blocking or filtering measure during use by an adult to enable access for bona fide research or other lawful purposes.
CIPA does not require the tracking of Internet use by minors or adults.

You can find out more about CIPA or apply for E-rate funding by contacting the Universal Service Administrative Company’s (USAC) Schools and Libraries Division (SLD). SLD also operates a client service bureau to answer questions at 1-888-203-8100 or via email through the SLD website.

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