Discuss how Robert Peel's principles and viewpoints for policing relate to today's community policing philosophy

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

First, Peel believed the principal objective of policing was the prevention of crime. He was aware of the needs of a community-oriented police force as well as the need of the public who would be asked to maintain it. He drafted several guidelines (also known as "Principles") for the force, many of which focused on improving the relationship between the police and the public. He believed that the successful completion of the police mission depended on public approval of their actions, that as public cooperation increased, the need for physical force by the police decreased, that the officers needed to display absolutely impartial service to law, and that force should be employed by the police only when the attempt at persuasion and warning had failed – and only the minimal degree of force possible should be used. Peel's statement that "the police are the public, and the public are the police" is today classical, and it emphasized his belief that the police are first and foremost members of the larger society.

Later, the President's Crime Commission, in 1967, brought policing full circle, restating several of the same principles that were laid out by Sir Robert Peel in 1829: that the police should be close to the public, that poor quality of policing contributed to social disorder, and that the police should focus on community relations.