POST Community Policing Principles 4 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which type of partnership is MOST critical to the success of a community policing initiative?
- Partnerships exclusively between law enforcement agencies
- Partnerships between police, community organizations, local government, and businesses (Correct answer)
- Partnerships between police and federal agencies only
- Partnerships limited to school resource officers and educators
Correct answer: Partnerships between police, community organizations, local government, and businesses
Effective community policing requires broad, multi-stakeholder partnerships that reflect the diverse needs of the community.
Question 2: An officer practicing community policing is approached by a business owner who says loitering teens are hurting sales. The officer should FIRST:
- Issue dispersal orders to all teens in the area
- Ask the business owner to install cameras and call when problems arise
- Listen to the concern, gather information, and engage both the business owner and teens to understand the situation (Correct answer)
- Refer the matter entirely to code enforcement
Correct answer: Listen to the concern, gather information, and engage both the business owner and teens to understand the situation
Problem-solving begins with understanding all perspectives before taking action, which aligns with the community policing model.
Question 3: Which of the following is an example of 'place-based' community policing?
- Assigning officers to precincts based on their seniority
- Targeting a specific high-crime intersection with foot patrols, environmental changes, and community engagement (Correct answer)
- Deploying officers nationally based on federal crime data
- Rotating officers monthly to cover different districts
Correct answer: Targeting a specific high-crime intersection with foot patrols, environmental changes, and community engagement
Place-based policing concentrates resources and community engagement at specific locations identified as crime hotspots.
Question 4: The concept of 'restorative justice' as used in community policing focuses on:
- Maximizing punishment to restore public confidence
- Repairing harm caused by crime through offender accountability and victim involvement (Correct answer)
- Restoring officer authority after use-of-force incidents
- Returning stolen property to victims through civil courts
Correct answer: Repairing harm caused by crime through offender accountability and victim involvement
Restorative justice emphasizes repairing relationships and harms rather than purely punitive outcomes.
Question 5: During a community meeting, residents express that they feel police only show up to make arrests. To address this perception, a community policing officer should MOST likely:
- Explain that arrests are necessary and residents should support them
- Organize non-enforcement community events and increase positive officer presence (Correct answer)
- Reduce patrol in the area to lower arrest visibility
- Transfer to a different assignment to avoid the conflict
Correct answer: Organize non-enforcement community events and increase positive officer presence
Non-enforcement positive contact events help shift community perception and demonstrate that police serve multiple roles beyond enforcement.
Question 6: A major goal of community policing is to reduce 'fear of crime' even when actual crime rates are low. This is important because:
- Fear of crime has no real impact on community health
- High fear of crime reduces community engagement, economic activity, and quality of life (Correct answer)
- Reducing fear improves officer morale more than community outcomes
- Officers can only address actual crimes, not perceptions
Correct answer: High fear of crime reduces community engagement, economic activity, and quality of life
Fear of crime, independent of actual crime rates, can devastate community cohesion, economic vitality, and residents' wellbeing.
Question 7: Which leadership approach BEST supports a community policing organizational culture within a police department?
- Strict top-down command that limits officer discretion
- Empowering officers at all levels to make decisions and build community relationships (Correct answer)
- Centralizing all community contact through a single public affairs officer
- Rewarding officers exclusively based on arrest and citation statistics
Correct answer: Empowering officers at all levels to make decisions and build community relationships
Community policing requires decentralized leadership that empowers frontline officers to exercise judgment and engage authentically with communities.
POST Community Policing Principles 4
Which type of partnership is MOST critical to the success of a community policing initiative?