PLMAR Police Community Relations (PCR) PDF

Rule 7 Police Community Relations (PCR) A. Community Policing Community policing is a philosophy that promotes organizational strategies, which support the systematic use of partnerships and problem-solving techniques, to proactively address the immediate condit...

Rule 7 Police Community Relations (PCR) A. Community Policing Community policing is a philosophy that promotes organizational strategies, which support the systematic use of partnerships and problem-solving techniques, to proactively address the immediate conditions that give rise to public safety issues such as crime, social disorder, and fear of crime. Community policing is comprised of three key components: 1. Community Partnerships 2. Organizational Transformation 3. Problem Solving 1. Community Partnerships Collaborative partnerships between and among other law enforcement agencies and the individuals and organizations they serves to develop solutions to problems and increase trust in the police as follows; a. Other Government Agencies; b. Community Members/Groups; c. Nonprofits/Service Providers; d. Private Businesses; and, e. Media. 2. Organizational Transformation The alignment of organizational management, structure, personnel, and information systems to support community partnerships and proactive problem solving. a. Agency Management 1) Climate and culture 2) Leadership 3) Labor relations 4) Decision-making 5) Strategic planning 6) Policies 7) Organizational evaluations 8) Transparency 9) Organizational Structure b. Geographic assignment of officers 1) Specialization 2) Resources and finances c. Personnel 1) Recruitment, hiring, and selection 2) Personnel supervision/evaluations 3) Training The process of engaging in the proactive and systematic examination of identified problems to develop and rigorously evaluate effective responses. a. Scanning: Identifying and prioritizing problems. b. Analysis: Researching what is known about the problem. c. Response: Developing solutions to bring about lasting reductions in the number and extent of problems. d. Assessment: Evaluating the success of the responses. e. Using the crime triangle to focus on immediate conditions (victim/offender/ location).  Problem Victim The crime triangle offers an easy way to visualize and understand crime problems. Three things must exist in order to have a crime: an offender, a victim, and a location. Lacking any one of these, a crime will not occur. Example – A jogger runs through a dark parking lot and is assaulted by someone who has been lurking in the shadows. If the jogger never entered the parking lot, the assailant would be left lurking in the shadows. Eliminate the victim, and no crime occurs. If the dark parking lot did not exist, the jogger would have taken a different path, as would the assailant. Eliminate the location, and no crime occurs. Without an assailant, the jogger would safely run through the parking lot. No crime occurs. Community Policing also revolves around the basic principle that the “Police are the Public and the Public are the Police” (Principle #7, Sir Robert Peel, Founder of the British Police system). It is a policing concept that requires every member of the community to exercise self policing, restrain other members against doing things that may harm each other, and require other members to conduct themselves in an orderly interaction. Requiring community members to follow certain orderly interaction means specific obedience to a set of rules or common beliefs and aspirations with the community. It is necessary, therefore, that the basic policing in the community should focus on the core concept of Police Community Relations. A policing concept that wins the trust, confidence and support of the people in the community such that policing becomes a norm and not just obedience to a set of rules. When community policing becomes a way of life in the community, then there will be no more need for organizations to police the community. To influence more individuals to join programs for a common cause, these basic steps may be implemented: 1. Forging relationships – establishing relations, either personal or professional, is a key factor that establishes credibility and confidence so that the information intended to be conveyed to the other party can be trusted and relied upon. To influence more individuals to join programs for a common cause, these basic steps may be implemented: 2. Use of information – public information is a vital tool to raise awareness and knowledge that creates impression over certain facts. When various information become substantial to form a belief that a thing is probably true or an event is certain to happen, then the credibility of the source and the reliability and accuracy of the information becomes a persuasive tool to influence shaping the perception. This also influences the decision-making of the receiver of the information. To influence more individuals to join programs for a common cause, these basic steps may be implemented: 3. Shaping perceptions and influencing their thoughts – when the use of information is properly done, (i.e. appropriate in the environment), then the educative and illuminative process of injecting information to the consciousness of the receiver becomes the dominant and the controlling factor that affects the decision making process of the receiver of the information. 4. Community organization and mobilization The visible indicators that community perceptions have been shaped in favor of law enforcement action is the reduced resistance or non-resistance of the members of the community towards any forms of policing actions. This makes them willing to be organized and form groups for the welfare of the community and harmony of its interaction. “This willingness to participate in policing action is necessarily construed to mean Public Support”. In community policing however, mere public cooperation would be sufficient for the police as this would mean working in a nonhostile environment. B. Activities in Community Policing Community Policing is a system that links and bonds the police to the community and creates a stronger and cohesive community interaction. Exchanges of information are fast due to established Police Community Relations. Everyone knows one another, talks to and trusts each other, and confident that their police can be relied upon for keeping the peace and making the community safer. Policing the community can be done through three (3) types of activities: patrol activities, organizational work and community interactions. 1. Patrol activities 2. Organizational work 3. Community Interaction  Patrol activities These activities are conducted so that police and its auxiliaries can be seen and felt by the community. This can be accomplished with patrolling combined with other patrol related activities such as; a. Traffic Direction and Control – to keep the movement of people and goods in an orderly manner and avoid potentials for conflict.  Patrol activities b. Fixed and Mobile Checkpoints – to deny the proliferation and movement of instruments of crime, and prevent movement of people with criminal records and intents. Enforcement of traffic laws/ordinances, Firearms laws, Drug and Human Trafficking laws, Anti-fencing and Piracy laws, etc. that protect lives and properties can also be done along side the patrol and checkpoint activities.  Patrol activities c. Standing and watch duties – a visibility form of duty that is intended for the protection of important public vital installations and establishments such as communication towers, bridges, banks, etc.  Patrol activities d. Beat Patrol Duties – a “walk and observe” duties to protect pedestrians, workers, houses, streets, offices, etc., from being molested and burglarized by criminals. It is also an avenue for communicating with people and forging friendly relations with the members of the community. The Police connects and communicates with the kids to know their problems in their homes and in schools, how they fare with other kids and their relationships with their mentors, their neighbors and their peers in the streets. The police acts like a second father and complements some form of discipline that has not been given by their (kids’) respective parents. This also gives the police the opportunity to communicate with adults about the crimes in the area and other issues within the neighborhood. It is important that the police record these conflicts. During the beat, the police also checks houses whose owners are on out-of-town visits, checks on those elderly that are sick and those that are living alone and take action to serve them, bring them food and medicines and console them during their lonely isolation. The police keeps track of various problems in the community and records them starting from problems on sanitation, health, engineering, livelihood and reports these to appropriate offices for appropriate actions.  Organizational work Community policing cannot be undertaken solely by the police. It will need the help of various sectors in the community. The following organizations are material in the upkeep of peace and order and public safety activities:  Organizational work a. Barangay Peacekeeping Action Teams (BPATS) b. Anti-Drug Councils and Movements c. Council of Elders d. Radio and Social Networking Clubs e. Fire and Disaster Brigades f. Livelihood Cooperatives g. Sports Club h. Skills Development Club  Community Interaction It is an indispensable tool in bringing the police closer to the people. This requires the police to be visible in the community and make its presence physically felt. Community interaction is done in two ways - the Area Visit and the House Visit:  Community Interaction a. Area Visit – The Community or Area visit is conducted for several specific purposes and is designed to attain the following objectives using an 8-man team composition.  Community Interaction a. Area Visit: 1) A police visibility or presence to neutralize or drive out a larger group of insurgents or criminal gangs in the community. If needed, the 8-man team, which may come from the Philippine Provincial/City Public Safety Companies (P/CPSCs) assisting the Community BPAT supervisor or from the MPS/CPS or a combination of both, shall patrol the area, check specific target, serve warrants or check tasks embodied in the six (6) campaign plans (from illegal logging, illegal fishing and illegal poaching to sketching road maps and updating important routes and reference points). 2) Conduct peripheral visit and forge relationships with the people in the area by conducting interpersonal dialogue, establish rapport and offer friendship. 3) Educate the people in the community about recent news that may capture their interest and when reciprocated, volunteer other information about current events, livelihood and important laws that may affect their lives.  Community Interaction b. House Visit – it is an interpersonal interaction that brings the police closer to the communities, connects the police with the public, informs the community of various matters that affect their lives starting from issues involving peace and order, laws that affect their daily activities (FAs, Anti- fencing, Anti-Illegal drug and human trafficking. etc),  Community Interaction economics, social and cultural issues, health, social inventions, to as odd as lives of celebrities. Issues in promoting discipline within the household and other issues may also be discussed during the visit. C. Important Basic Principles of Community Policing The DPCR shall assist the appropriate directorates in the conceptualization of community oriented trainings and program development of police officers through an appropriate reorientation training strategy in order to develop a policing ideology anchored on the Professional Police Principles advocated by Sir Robert Peel, Founder of the British Police System, and Edward Davies, the Chief of Police of California.  Sir Robert Peel, Founder of the British Police System  Edward Davies, the Chief of Police of California The Nine Principles of Sir Robert Peel Principle No. 1. - PREVENTION OF CRIME IS THE BASIC MISSION OF THE POLICE. The basic mission of the Police is to prevent crime and ensure a peaceful and orderly community interaction without the necessity of resulting into a military intervention to repress crime and severity of legal punishment. The need therefore to enforce laws and ordinances, protect lives and properties and maintain peace and order, are preconditions that limit the formation of conflict in the environment and therefore ensure public order and safety. When the Police are already in crime deterrence and control function, then it is approximating a failure to perform its basic mission. The Nine Principles of Sir Robert Peel Principle No. 2. - POLICE MUST BE RESPECTED BY THE COMMUNITY. The ability of the Police to perform their duties is dependent upon public approval of police existence, actions, behavior, and the ability of the Police to secure and maintain public respect. Mr. Davis wrote that no policemen can work in a hostile environment. The Police must have a conscious and deliberate effort to influence the community about the need to enjoin or at the very least, persuade every citizen not to violate the law or tolerate among those who do. The Nine Principles of Sir Robert Peel Principle No. 3. – A CITIZEN’S RESPECT FOR LAW DEVELOPS HIS RESPECT FOR THE POLICE. The police must secure the cooperation of the public in voluntary observance of the law to be able to secure and maintain the respect and approval of the public. The Police must have a conscious and deliberate effort to influence the community about the need to enjoin or at the very least, persuade every citizen not to violate the law or tolerate amongst those who do. The Nine Principles of Sir Robert Peel Principle No. 4. – COOPERATION OF THE PUBLIC DECREASES AS THE USE OF FORCE INCREASES. The degree of cooperation of the public that can be secured diminishes proportionately the necessity for the use of physical force and compulsion in achieving police objectives. An Officer with the ability to firmly but pleasantly solicit the cooperation of individual or groups can frequently accomplish, through their cooperation, what it might take scores of officers to accomplish through the use of a “hard” approach to the situation. In areas where there has been a pattern of using strong physical force to achieve police objectives, a concurrent pattern of resistance develops within the individual or group. The result is resistance and lack of cooperation on the part of the law violator and the subsequent necessity for resorting to force on the part of the police. The use of force is thus self perpetuating. The Nine Principles of Sir Robert Peel Principle No. 5. – THE POLICE MUST RENDER IMPARTIAL ENFORCEMENT OF THE LAW. The police seek and preserve public favor, not by catering to public opinion, but by constantly demonstrating absolutely impartial service to the law, in complete independence of policy, and without regard to the justice or injustice of the substance of individual laws; by ready offering of individual service and friendship to all members of society without regard to their race or social standing, by ready exercise of courtesy and friendly good humor; and by ready offering of individual sacrifice in protecting and preserving life. It is not the job of a policeman to determine what the legislators should say what constitute a crime. It is not the mission of the police to judge whether any law is good, bad, too harsh, or too lenient. Laws are subject to change. However, when the law is established, it is the job of the policeman to enforce that law impartially. The Nine Principles of Sir Robert Peel Principle No. 6 – PHYSICAL FORCE IS USED ONLY AS A LAST RESORT. The Police should use physical force to the extent necessary to secure observance of the law or to restore order only when the exercise of persuasion, advice, and warning is found to be insufficient to achieve police objectives. The police should use only the minimum degree of physical force which is necessary on any particular occasion for achieving a police objective. The Nine Principles of Sir Robert Peel Principle No. 7. - THE POLICE ARE THE PUBLIC AND THE PUBLIC ARE THE POLICE. The Police at all times should maintain a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and the public are the police. The Police are the only members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen in the intent of the community welfare. The Nine Principles of Sir Robert Peel Principle No. 8. – POLICE REPRESENTS THE LAW. The police should always direct their actions strictly towards their functions and never appear to usurp the powers of the Judiciary by avenging individuals or the state, or authoritatively judging guilt or punishing the guilty. The Nine Principles of Sir Robert Peel Principle No. 9. – THE ABSENCE OF CRIME AND DISORDER IS THE TEST OF POLICE EFFECIENCY. The test of police efficiency is the absence of crime and disorder, not the visible evidence of police action in dealing with them. Salaam Police (\suh·lam\) Salaam Police Center (SPC) is established to foster better Police- Muslim Community relationships. Assigning dedicated PNP personnel, preferably Muslims, with the SPC provides a proactive and forward- looking response to promote law and order within Muslim communities taking into consideration indigenous cultures, traditions, and institutions of the Muslims as well as building awareness about their rights and responsibilities as part of Filipino society. Physical presence of Salaam Police personnel is essential in cultivating community trust, thereby building and sustaining community support and engagement that will further build cooperative relationships between Muslims and the PNP. a. Islamic Cultural and Religious Sensitivities Filipino Muslims, traditionally located in Mindanao, came from many cultural and ethnic backgrounds. They further spread in other parts of the country due to migration. However, there were negative issues concerning Muslims in the community, affecting relationships which become a law enforcement concern. It is therefore imperative for the PNP to understand their culture and sentiments to gain their trust and respect. All PNP personnel shall observe the following guidelines to preserve cultural and Islamic religious sensitivities (CMC 08-2021): 1) Bridge the culture gap with good communication skills; 2) Be respectful during interaction with Foreign Islamic Missionaries; 3) Practice good manners; 4) Honor and respect traditional holidays, festivals and food; and 5) Respect cultural differences. Engagement with Muslim communities: All PNP personnel are encouraged to observe or respect these Muslim customs and traditions including but not limited to the following: 1) When addressing a religious leader, use formal religious titles such as brother/sister or imam unless instructed otherwise; Engagement with Muslim communities: 2) When greeted by the Arabic salutation “As-salamu Alaikum” (peace be upon you), the response is “Wa Alaikum as Salaam” (and upon you be peace) and vice versa; Engagement with Muslim communities: 3) When interacting with Muslims of the opposite sex, do not initiate handshakes or embrace unless offered; Engagement with Muslim communities: 4) When entering a mosque, prayer room or Islamic center, remove shoes as respect to their sacred space. If not wearing a PNP uniform, PNP personnel should dress modestly. Policewomen should cover their heads, arms, and legs. Ask permission before participating in religious worship services; Engagement with Muslim communities: 5) PNP personnel shall respect the Muslims’ observance of the Holy Month of Ramadan. Regular duty schedules shall, as far as practicable, be flexible to accommodate Muslim PNP personnel who are fasting and rendering five ritual prayers daily. In engaging the Muslim community, schedules should be flexible and food/ drinks should not be served; Engagement with Muslim communities: 6) PNP personnel should be aware of Muslim religious dietary laws written in the Quran. These dietary laws are defined by the Arabic terms halal (permitted) and haram (prohibited). Engagement with Muslim communities: 7) As far as practicable, Muslim PNP personnel shall be given consideration with respect to Friday as the day of congregational prayer; and Engagement with Muslim communities: 8) PNP personnel should recognize the two important Islamic festivities, “Eid al Fit’r” and “Eid al Adha”. A typical greeting to be observed for these holidays is “Eid Mubarak”, which means blessed celebration.