ABSTRACT
The road to community policing in the US has been a difficult journey that is not yet completed and the weary traveller may not even arrive at the desired destination. This chapter observes that community relations were not successful because police departments retained their traditional attitudes and alienated a significant portion of the community. It felts that most police departments used community relations as an alternative for police relations. In 1965 President Lyndon B. Johnson established a Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice which was chaired by Nicholas deB. Katzenbach who was Attorney General of the United States from 1965–1966. The report recommended that police department policy should reflect community needs and expectations indicating that 'in most police departments the problems of community relations are rarely translated into policies except under public pressure'. Approximately 5,000 residents a month attend their beat community meetings with the police beat teams.
