Community Policing as Protection, Not Just Enforcement

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There is little debate on the notion that one of the hallmarks of a successful society is its ability to minimize crime. What remains very much in debate, however, is how to achieve and sustain such a goal. Even using data sources that may tend to underestimate its prevalence, the last three years have seen a dramatic increase in violent, as well as property, crimes. This has resulted in calls to re-examine the role of the police in the community and what “policing” should really mean. Recent data on a novel approach to policing has shown some success in not only reducing crime but helping people to return to being contributing members of the community.

Enforcement vs. Protection

What is the goal of policing? Is the job of policing to enforce the laws, or is it to protect the community? This is a false dichotomy: the goals are one and the same. The dichotomy exists perceptually because of the strategies and tactics by which the goals are pursued.

The Babylonian Code of Hammurabi gives us some insight in order to answer the question. The Code was written around 1750 B.C. and is believed to be the oldest set of well-organized codes of conduct and criminal justice governing interpersonal and commercial life within a community. It consists of 282 rules written as prescriptions for maintaining fairness within a community and written in an, “If … then…” format. For example, if a person steals from another, then the person who has stolen should return the stolen property and be punished by paying back three times the value of the stolen goods. The Code may be dangerously misinterpreted, however, to be a compendium of laws that serves as an end unto itself, but that was not its intent. Laws are not ends unto themselves. They are means to an end. Hammurabi clearly states in the prologue and the epilogue that the intent of his Code is to protect. Keeping Hammurabi’s intention of protection in mind as we reconsider policing may allow us to develop innovative programs that allow us to not only enforce, but to protect and serve.

A Novel Community Policing Program that Enforces as Well as Protects

Anne Arundel County, Maryland has a population of about 560,000 people and lies south of the city of Baltimore. It envelopes the state capitol of Annapolis, though Annapolis has its own police force. From May 2017 through April 2021, Anne Arundel County instituted a program wherein police officers were trained in and implemented a program of psychological first aid (PFA) and Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) in the community. A special crisis intervention team consisting of police officers and mental health clinicians was mobilized to respond to psychological crises. A special aspect of this program was the Safe Stations program, modeled after work done in New York state. Safe Stations uses fire and police stations as compassionate and welcoming entry points to the emergency mental health system for people in acute crisis, especially those suffering from addictions. There is a telephonic “warm line” that can serve as an entry point as well. Community members are treated with evidence-based acute psychological care and compassion (Thomas, Corbin, & Everly, 2023).

From April 20, 2017 to December 31, 2022, 5,131 assessments/ interventions (including repeats) were completed with 3,133 people going to a Safe Station and another 1,223 assessments/ interventions (including repeats) were completed from calling into the Crisis Response warm line for assistance. Safe Stations have a 70 percent success rate of linking someone who goes to a safe station, or calls the warm line, with treatment.

An unexpected correlate was a dramatic reduction in community crime. On average, over the course of the four years of the program, robberies declined approximately 26 percent, aggravated assaults declined 16 percent, burglaries declined 40 percent, and thefts from autos declined 29 percent compared to the three years prior to Safe Stations. The effects of the pandemic on crime were considered in the analyses.

If the approach used by the Anne Arundel County Police Department is any indication, policing that attends to the human side of the enterprise in an effort to protect, not merely enforce, may hold promise as a model of what policing can be.

© George S. Everly, Jr., PhD, 2023.