Trends of Policing

Introduction

Law enforcement agencies are tasked with the provision of safe and secure policing services in an effort to ensure communities realize good quality of life, work and stable families (Cetron and Davies 2). Economic development has fostered significant population growth presenting public policing agencies with novel challenges such as professional and dangerous criminal elements. Communities also expect superior inputs towards the organization of law enforcement priorities while governments champion for improved accountability in the disbursement and expenditure of public funds. This paper seeks to highlight three policing trends that seek to meet all challenges posed to law enforcement agencies towards meeting obligations to the government and communities.

Technology

In order to meet the expectation of communities as well as the demands by government, law enforcement agencies have resulted in adopting technology as a necessity to meet these objectives (Cetron and Davies 9). Technology has become a necessity as personnel and officers within police agencies seek to not only curb crime but also discover, disrupt or prevent particular crimes such as drug trafficking, human trafficking and terrorism.

Specialization

Societies are trending towards high degrees of specialization. As such, law enforcements agencies have also embraced specialization as policing functions become more formalized with regard to the multifaceted nature of crime (Hess and Orthmann 580). Policing agencies are increasing collaborative ventures with technical consultants with some contending outsourcing such services. Specialization has led to the creation of formalized roles such as advanced forensics experts, criminal profilers and counter terrorism units.

Continual urbanization

Urbanization has resulted in situations where the poor become trapped by social factors within cities. The conditions facing poor populations within cities nurture ideal conditions for the propagation of violent rime, petty crime and more so religious extremism (Baker and Das 103). This implies that law enforcement agencies in urban centers tend to be overstretched and underfunded in comparison to those in rural areas. This has led to the development of policing strategies like community policing within urban setting towards safer communities and better outcomes with regard to government demands.

Conclusion

The dynamic pace at which society is changing today requires policing agencies to adopt strategies similar to those embraced in the corporate world. This is essentially because policing agencies have to ensure that the social environment supports economic development. These policing trends are bound to be increasing adopted to a greater capacity in the future in an effort to meet community needs as well as government demands for a stable, secure and safe society.

Works Cited

Baker, Bruce F. and Das Dilip K. Trends in Policing: Interviews with Police Leaders across the Globe, Volume Four. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2013.

Cetron, Marvin J. and Davies Owen. 55 Trends Now Shaping the Future of Policing. The Proteus Trends Series, 1(1). 2008.

Hess, Kären and Orthmann C. Hess. Management and Supervision in Law Enforcement. Clifton Park, NY: Cengage Learning, 2011.

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