ABSTRACT
Community policing has been celebrated as the solution for the vast majority of problems faced by law enforcement. It arrived with a fanfare supported by many national police organizations and, to an ever-increasing degree, has taken the nation by storm. With financial backing of the federal government, it has been embraced by many police administrators and politicians. It has become the byword of the day, the elixir we have been waiting for, the dynamic phrase of the last 35 years. It is one of the hottest police topics of the last two decades and continues to be a mainstay for many departments. It grabs headlines in small as well as large police agencies. Over the years it has gained momentum as police and community leaders search for a means of providing better police services, and the public has become increasingly concerned about their quality of life. As community policing has evolved it has become an integral component of many police departments and reference to it can be found in mission statements, departmental websites, and annual reports ( Reiss, 2006 ). As of 2009 it was estimated that 81 percent of the population of this country were policed by agencies that practiced community policing. In the last 15 years, the department of Community Oriented Policing Services has distributed more than $12 billion in the furtherance of expanding and enhancing community policing. Since 2009, 109,581 officers have been hired by law enforcement agencies ( Diamond & Weiss, 2009 ).
