One of the things I see is that the very places getting ready to try community policing

are the very places that it is not likely to work for sour apples.

Ever notice how well renters maintain their homes?

You're right. They don't. Why should they? They don't own the place. They have nothing in it. Rent is just a monthly payment in their budget. If they decide to move they pull up stakes and move. They have nothing invested in any of it.

Neighborhood gets too bad? Move. No property to sell, just load up your stuff and move. You might have to give up a deposit if you have a lease or may have to wait until the lease expires but so what?

The inner city poorer communities are full of renters. They have no investment there and little to lose.

Yet this is where they want to start with community policing.

It's not too likely to work there. A person has to have an investment before they will bother to get involved with the police to make their area better. It takes work and a certain amount of risk. It's a lot easier to move when a neighborhood gets too rough. It's also a lot safer than doing something like getting involved.

Community policing seems to work where the people are settled and have a real investment in the community. Suburbia is a classic example. Most homes are lived in bu the owner and while there generally are rental properties they are more of the exception than the rule.

People have mortgages or outright own their homes and have every motivation to see that their investment increases in value. It's theirs.

A lot of suburban and rural departments are to one extent or another using the same community policing tactics that are being advocated for the inner cities. They work there because the people in those suburbs and rural areas are willing to help the police if for no other reason but to protect their investments.

Of course the suburban cops tend to get a lot of nuisance calls over dumb stuff like mowing lawns and barking dogs but I guess that goes with the turf. I call a lot of this stuff First World problems.

Still, where a place is full of people with a vested interest in things community type policing is a LOT more likely to work than where the people have little or nothing to lose.






To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY