Policing in the 21st Century: What Works and What Doesn't

Abstract

This presentation provides some general observations and specific suggestions about policing in Australia into the 21st Century. I make three general observations about policing in Australia: that the police continue to erroneously regard 'quality of life' concerns as 'soft policing'; that there continues to be an unacceptable distance between the police and the communities that they serve; and that the police are under-resourced in many aspects of information technology. These problems with policing in Australia come, I believe, from a mis-guided adherence to traditional policing strategies that we know don't work. For example, we know that strategies such as rapid response, random patrolling and reactive arrests are out-dated, they fail to reduce crime problems, and scarce police resources would be better used focusing on other, more contemporary crime control strategies. I conclude that the police would increase their effectiveness (in terms of controlling and preventing crime) if they adopted strategies that we know work. For example, we know that the police are highly effective when they adopt crime control strategies such as third party policing, problem-oriented policing and directed patrolling. These contemporary strategies are explicated and discussed.