Zero Tolerance Policing and New York Quality Essay Example for Free

Zero Tolerance Policing and New York Quality Essay Another understanding of zero tolerance policing posits that the law enforcement officers, will ignore minor offenders and cases of social disorder and concentrate on quality of life or the sub criminal activities such as public urinating, public drinking, begging, vagrancy and vandalism. Often behind this understanding is the theory of crime: broken windows theory, published by George Kelling and James Wilson (1982). In such a theory a broken window is representative of disorderly behavior and minor cases of criminal acts among the community. Usually if such a window is not repaired the message is that there is lack of control in the community and another window is likely to be broken. Under such a theory there is bound to be an increase in activity against minor offenders without any prior offenders (Marshall 1999). A classic example is the New York scenario where the zero tolerance policing possessed salient and easily distinguishable characteristics. Key among these characteristics is the unique crime control strategies that ensured that policing efforts were concentrated on drugs, guns, auto theft, traffic offenses, domestic violence, youth crime, and quality of life crimes. Over a period of two years, decentralized policing ensured that detectives and beat officers were assigned predetermined categories in the crime control strategies. Additionally, timely, accurate and reliable intelligence data identified cases where the potential of risk was more predominant. Emphasis on the quality of life crimes ensured that incidences of graffiti, public littering and cases of public drinking were reduced (Marshall 1999). Persons suspected of being involved in relatively minor crimes were also targeted through misdemeanor arrests. The result was an emulative success story where crime significantly reduced. However, despite these successes, there are concerns that security agents are using aggression and ruthlessness when dealing with comparatively low level criminal activity. Moreover, over emphasis and reliance on quantitative statistical data as a presentation of success can lead to manipulation of such data to suit the objectives of the policy makers. Even if such figures of crime reduction were genuine, zero tolerance policing emphasizes on short term law enforcement strategies such as arrests, conviction and imprisonment while neglecting long term strategies which involve cooperation with the communities, improving education, health care and planning. Because it is basically a quick fix strategy it fails to address the clearly understood causes of crime (Marshall 1999). Problem Oriented Policing Problem oriented policing focuses on clear identification and analysis of problems with respect to the conditions that exist in the local circumstances. It is a novel policing strategy that aims at ensuring that the police effectively deal with criminal problems that have been brought to the fore by the public (Leigh et al 2004).