Examining the Link Between Community Policing and De-escalation Techniques

Examining the Link Between Community Policing and De-escalation Techniques

Presenter(s)

Daniel Joseph Bandelaria, Colby Michael Tuttle

Description

One characteristic of community policing is the defining role of positive police-citizen relationships. Researchers and police alike have posited that this feature of community policing may influence de-escalation techniques during police-citizen interaction. However, empirical research testing this assumption is lacking. As such, the current study aims to explore the relationship between community policing and de-escalation techniques among one police agency in a Midwestern state. The current study used a cross-sectional online survey to ask a series of questions about community policing techniques and de-escalation. The sample consisted of 15 police officers who were mainly Caucasian (90%) and males (60%) and had served approximately ten years in the service. Due to the small sample size, univariate descriptive statistics were conducted. Findings show that many of the officers (73.3%) believe their department puts a great amount of focus on community policing. Furthermore, 86.7% of the participants strongly agree that community policing includes collaboration, with 66.7% of them believing that community policing includes problem-solving with community members. Out of the 15 participants, 46.7% of them somewhat agreed that community policing techniques increase their use of de-escalation techniques. Approximately, 40% of the participants said that they may feel safer knowing that their community policing techniques are being used to de-escalate situations. Findings and implications will be discussed in the results section.

Publication Date

4-22-2021

Project Designation

Capstone Project

Primary Advisor

Susybel R. Kallsen

Primary Advisor's Department

Criminal Justice Studies

Keywords

Stander Symposium project, College of Arts and Sciences

Examining the Link Between Community Policing and De-escalation Techniques

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