Chicago Alternative Policing Strategy Essay

The Chicago Alternative Policing Strategy Community policing has produced several programs since its origination. Some of the initiatives were more successful than others but all of the programs have helped to bring community policing to where it stands today. The Chicago Police Department was responsible for constructing a highly respected initiative called the Chicago Alternative Policing Strategy. Beginning in the late 1960s, the United States government decided to start experiments that would encourage police officers nationwide to spend more time and become more involved with the communities they were assigned to. Although the experiments were unsuccessful the efforts were not entirely wasted. Numerous scholars were intrigued by

Training was not only provided for officers but also for community members. The Chicago Alternative Policing Strategy wanted officers to be prepared for all situations and community members to be able to help officers and help themselves in emergencies. The more efficient use of city services and new technology helped CAPS to be fully established as a respected community policing initiative. In an interview about the CAPS program reported on the American Bar’s website, Richard Daley says “New technology is helping police and community better analyze crime problems. We are using technology to strengthen the partnership between police and community, and to help us work together on identifying and solving crime problems in our neighborhoods. An excellent example of the innovative use of technology is ICAM (Information Collection for Automated Mapping)—an easy-to-use, PC-based, mouse-driven mapping system created by Chicago police officers. ICAM has been installed in all twenty-five of our police district stations so that police personnel—from beat officers to commanders—can quickly and easily generate maps showing the crime patterns in their particular neighborhoods. Just as important, ICAM is allowing police personnel to share this information with the community, so that it can be better informed and empowered to solve problems. ICAM is only one example of how we are using technology to support police.” Community members have been given cell phones specifically for contacting their beat officers quickly. A new emergency communications center will allow for quicker response to emergencies and provide information to be used for pinpointing and tracking neighborhood crime patterns which works perfectly to achieve CAPS goal of identifying and solving crime, not only reacting after the crime is