ABSTRACT

Since the police reform movement of the 1930s, the primary job of the public police has narrowed to that of crime-fighter. While the merit of paring down the police role to this narrow yardstick is debatable, the presence and absence of crime has been an occupational standard against which police programs were measured. Indeed, part of the impetus for finding new ways of policing stemmed from the failure of traditional policing to meet the challenge posed by the explosion of crime in the 1960s. Although criminal victimization has generally declined over the past 25 years ( Kappeler & Potter, 2005 ), rates of serious

crime in this country are far higher than for other Western, industrialized nations. Crime has become a media mainstay, and it has emerged as one of the top issues in every presidential campaign of the past three decades. Media-generated fear of crime, public pressure to find new ways to “combat” crime, and the failure of the traditional policing model helped persuade police to experiment with new ideas, including community policing.