Budget Constraints in Community Policing and Grant Funding of Community Policing Programs

Budget Constraints in Community Policing and

Grant Funding of Community Policing Programs

Teresa Sisson

Ashford University

During the last 25 years, many police executives have defined community policing as their philosophy and approach to policing. They have worked diligently to instill the community policing philosophy and its principles in their agencies. Agencies committed to community policing develop partnerships with their community, address recurring crime and disorder issues through problem-solving techniques, and transform the organization to support these efforts. Through these actions, police departments seek to provide the community with the best policing services possible, to promote integrity within the department, and to increase trust and cooperation between the police and the people they serve (Diamond & Mead Weiss).

There is an increasing interest in community policing in the United States. Decreasing police budgets will dictate that more effective methods of policing be developed. Police departments will need to find more efficient ways of utilizing officers' "free patrol time." It has been estimated that between 40 percent and 60 percent of a motor officer's shift is free patrol time.  

Free patrol time does not occur in one block of time during the shift, but there are large enough segments of time to allow the officer to park the patrol car and mingle with the public. Then, contact can be made, communication facilitated, and trust developed so that the exchange of information to prevent and solve crimes can take place (Trojanowicz & Harden, The Status of Contemporary Community Policing Programs, 1985).

In January 1979 the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation provided funding for the implementation of experimental community-based foot patrols (Trojanowicz & Banas, The Impact of Foot Patrol on Black and White Perceptions of Policing, 1985).

Flint Michigan’s Neighborhood Foot Patrol Program consciously attempted to integrate...