Police Operational Strategies

Problem-oriented policing, also known as operational strategies, have five core elements: preventive patrol, routine incident response, emergency response, criminal investigation, and problem solving. In addition to the five core strategies, there is also a lone ancillary operation strategy, support services. Law enforcement officers use this to help prevent crime by being pro-active and responding to calls. The first of the core operational strategies is the prevention patrol. Prevention patrol is an active response and most dominate operation of police strategy. It is used to deter people from committing criminal behavior, interrupt crimes that are in the process of being committed, and position police officers in positions for a fast response

Criminal investigation is the process of discovering, collecting, preparing, identifying, and presenting evidence to determine what happened and who is responsible The preliminary investigation includes all the activities that an officer performs when he/she responds to a crime. The officer is responsible for responding immediately and rendering aid to those that are injured. While the officer responds and renders aid, it is important for he/she to note important facts by either writing it down, contacting dispatch, or taking mental note. These facts include the position of the victim or injured, recording spontaneous statements, paying attention to unusual actions or activities, and an assessment of the crime scene. I know it is out of order, but I believe the second and most crucial step is to secure the crime scene. Doing this, helpws protect the evidence and prevent cross contamination. The crime scene is the physical area where a crime is thought to of occurred and where the evidence of the said crime is thought to reside. Vital evidence to a case, can be found at a crime scene. This includes, fingerprints, DNA, foot prints, bullets, bullet casings, fibers, etc. It is important to determine if a crime has in fact been committed, if so, the officer must initiate enforcement action, by arresting or pursuing the offender or dispatching apprehension information. The officer is

Problem solving is used to reduce offending in a community. It believes that crimes are caused by existing social conditions. It involves both law enforcement and the community in ways to reduce or prevent crime (i.e., neighborhood watch). The community is a very important aspect of this operational strategy. Departments need to do more to develop solutions with a partnership of the community. They have to gather knowledge of the crimes in the area and what the underlying causes of the social problems is. They must create a plan that works to deter crime, and assess the progress of those plans to see if it works or what needs to be changed. Because it is still a newer approach, all departments should (if they already haven’t), create a community policing division that focuses on what is going on in their community around them. Officers need to build trust between themselves and the communities they serve; which means, responding to the calls that are considered “non-emergency. This will help the community not only build trust, but hold the officers more accountable. These officers should encourage the community to be more involved in the prevention of crime. This will also help all communities, not just the big cities, feel more confident and comfortable in the system that serves them. There is currently so much tension between the police and the