A new public awareness initiative from the Junior Police Academy

Problem: Changes in technology—particularly the Internet, and social media—have had a corrosive impact on the bond between police officers the communities they serve.

Solution: Encourage traditional community policing strategies that promote positive, face-to-face engagement between police and the community.

The Junior Police Academy, in collaboration with its many supporters and participating police departments across the country has launched the “Support Community Policing” public awareness campaign.

This initiative encourages the public to support traditional forms of community policing, including youth programs like JPA.

We believe that community policing is critical to restoring the trust between police officers and the communities they protect and serve.

Join us in getting the word out.

Be a part of this effort and share our Support Community Policing information via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, Tumblr and other social media. Every share, like and tweet helps!

For free access to our Support Community Policing Toolkit, fill out the form below.

In the months to come, the Junior Police Academy will provide additional support materials for use in social media and other forms of communication.

60-Second PSA

Increasingly our teenagers learn about the world around them through social media. While these new technologies hold great promise, they can also distort reality.

The impact has been particularly destructive to how young people perceive law enforcement officers. This has serious implications for our country’s future – because how a young person views public safety has a lasting impact their own sense of citizenship.

That’s why we urge citizens to support traditional forms of community policing, the kind that proactively bring police officers and young people face-to-face.

When given the opportunity, police officers can bridge the virtual gap between public safety and our youth.

This message is brought to you as a public service from the Junior Police Academy. W-W-W Dot Junior Police Academy Dot Org.

Talking Points

We believe community policing should be front and center on the agenda.
In the wake of the 2008 recession, police departments reported their budgets had been sliced, usually in the 5-8% range. To adjust to this drop in funding, many department jettisoned community policing.
Certainly it is not hard to find stories of cities that disbanded their community policing units or closed their storefront offices. But as the years go by, we believe this is short-sighted. We know that how police relate to the general public affects crime-fighting effectiveness.
The police need people to cooperate with them, follow directions in moments of crisis, report crimes promptly, and step forward as witnesses and bystanders when they have something to contribute.
If there is good news here, it is that public support and even some remaining organizational infrastructure for community policing can be found in many cities. It may be possible to breath new life into it in relatively short order, if there is the political will.

Other sources of information:

THE NYPD PLAN OF ACTION AND THE NEIGHBORHOOD POLICING PLAN: A Realistic Framework for Connecting Police and Communities By William J. Bratton New York City Police Commissioner (copy is in Support Community Policing social media gallery).

Cite: Wesley G. Skogan Professor of Political Science and the Institute for Policy Research Northwestern University for information included in this release.