Community Policing in Taipei

1Community Policing in TaipeiSandy Yeh


IntroductionIntroduction


COMMON CHALLENGES

•rapid change in social and demographic patterns

•crime & fear of crime

•drugs•urban decay

•====> COMMUNITY POLICING


MODERN POLICING

• 1829: Sir Peel founded modern policing

• Early 1900s : a public force with specific

organizational structures==>known as “Poli

tical Era”


POLITICAL ERA


POLITICAL ERA

•crime prevention and control

•maintenance of public order

• providing a wide variety of social services.

FUNCTIONS:


POLITICAL ERA

• served as a link between the politician

and community

• relied heavily on foot patrol and face-to-

face contact with citizen

ROLE


POLITICAL ERA

•the foot patrol integrated police into

neighborhoods they served, and the

community believed that police patrol

helped to prevent crimes from

happening and to solve them when they

occurred.

STRENGTH


POLITICAL ERA

• the intimacy with community and the d

ecentralized organization design resulte

d in several drawbacks of policing: corru

ption, inefficiency, and disorganization.

WEAKNESS


REFORM ERA

To remedy the weaknesses of policing

in the political era, O. W. Wilson

launched the first shift of the policing

paradigm by systematically testing the

ideas and theories in police

administration in 1960s.


PROFESSIONAL MODEL

(TRADITIONAL POLICING)


TRADITIONAL POLICING

• rapidly responding to calls for service

• arresting offenders

• preventive patrol

• increased police visibility

EMPHASES



• quantifiable indicators were created to

measure police officers’ effectiveness

• more advanced technologies, efficient

communication, and mobility were utilized

• tighter management through centralized

command and control systems

CHARACTERISTICS



• mobility

• power

• conspicuous presence

• control of officers

• professional distance from citizens

IMPRESSION



• Regardless of the quantitative indicators

used to measure police effectiveness, police

failed to meet expectations regarding their

capacity to prevent or solve crime.

DIFFICULTIES



• Fear of crime rose dramatically in cities

regardless of the actual level of crime (crime

rates).

DIFFICULTIES



• Police failed to play an impartial role, as

evidenced by increasing reports of police

mistreatment and brutality, especially to

minority citizens.

DIFFICULTIES



•Being more efficiency driven, police spent

less and less time with their clients, and

created an image of being indifferent and

distant to people.

DIFFICULTIES



• Some cities found themselves in fiscal

difficulties and could not sustain their

financial support for police to improve and

update their equipment and personnel.

DIFFICULTIES


RISING OF

COMMUNITY POLICING


COMMUNITY POLICING

• foot patrol

• mini-station

• neighborhood watch

• team policing

• problem solving oriented policing

EARLY EFFORTS


COMMUNITY POLICING

• reduce high crime rate

• reduce racial conflict

• reduce fear of crime

• reduce disorder

• enhance quality of life

GOALS


COMMUNITY POLICING

A renewed philosophy of policing, based on the

concept that police officers and private citizens,

working together in creative ways, can help

solve contemporary problems related to crime,

fear of crime, social and physical disorder, and

neighborhood decay

DEFINITION


• police department

• community

• elected civic officials

• business community

• other agencies

• media

COMMUNITY POLICING

JOINT EFFORTS OF BIG SIX


• partnership

• an idea for the time

• a practical approach to problems

• getting back to people

COMMUNITY POLICING

WHAT IS?


Over-quantified performance measurement

Measurement officers’ ability to solve problem and to interact with citizens

Centralized control and commandDecentralized autonomy

Top-down decision making Officer\citizen empowerment

Focus on handling the calls for service

Focus on citizen satisfaction

Responsible for activities during duty time

Responsible as a team, all the time

Rotating beat assignment

(mobility)

Permanent beat assignment

Individual capacity Department-wide consent and commitment

Short term perspectiveLong term effort

Reactive(the ability to clear crime)Proactive

(reemphasis on crime prevention)

Incident driven basisProblem solving basis

Traditional PolicingCommunity Policing


POLICING IN TAIWAN


• a Chinese + Japanese co-design

• long-existing community officer system

• Koban vs. Jin-Chin-Chu

• police operation district (POD)

POLICING IN TAIWAN

BRIEF HISTORY


• population: 22.3 million

• area: 36188 km2

• 76,000 police officers

POLICING IN TAIWAN

PROFILE


• 2 municipal police departments (Taipei

and Kaohsiung)

• 23 police bureaus in each county and c

ity Respectively

• 151 precincts corresponding to townsh

ip

•1568 substations, and 15,482 POD

POLICING IN TAIWAN

POLICE’S STATISTICS


• develop roots into community

• promote efficiency

• more flexible administration

• more effective crime prevention

• better knowledge of community

• improve community relations

POLICING IN TAIWAN

MISSIONS OF POD OFFICER


• household visit

• patrol (foot & bike)

• on-station duty

• back-up duty

• community service

POLICING IN TAIWAN

STRATEGIES OF POD OFFICER


COMMUNITY POLICINGIN TAIPEI


• capital of Taiwan

• culture, political & economy center

• population: 2.63 million

• population density: 28,000 per km2

• police personnel: 7900

• 14 precincts & 92 substations

COMMUNITY POLICING IN TAIPEI

TAIPEI


• was elected the mayor of Taipei in 1998

•clearly identified “community policing” the model of Taipei policing

•emphasizes on partnership building & restore POD system


DR. MA YIN-JEOU


•decentralize police operation--back to grassroots: neighborhoods

•establish & empower the community’s self-defense system

•re-emphasize crime prevention

•redesign police performance evaluation

•simplify police operations and restore the essence of POD


MAYOR MA’S PROMISE


•establish a highly efficient 911 service

•citizen’s satisfaction guaranteed

•improve the benefits of police officers

•reprioritize the handling of burglary cases

•construct a safety network for women & children


MAYOR MA’S PROMISE



ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGES

•The organizational culture of Taipei

Municipal Police Headquarters is

redefined to emphasize and reward the

individual behavior and collective efforts

in fighting crime and helping to solve

community problems.




•Crime control and prevention are recognized

as dual crucial components of policing.

•The organization must reinforce integrity and

ethical behavior in policing all the time in

order to regain community’s trust.




• Break down the isolation between

the police and the community, and

share the responsibility with the rest of

the community to pursue effective

public safety.



PRECINCT COMMUNITY MEETING

•a mechanism to encourage cooperation

between the residents and police officers

•held periodically and open to public

•promote the awareness of crime prevention

and police efforts.

• 1,049 Precinct Community Meetings were

held, with attendance of 41,144 community

members



VOLUNTEER SQUAD

The volunteer Neighborhood Watch/Patrol

Squads patrol and watch their neighborhoods

reporting criminal activity and hazardous

situations. The squads work as the ears and

eyes for the police. So far, there have been

1,799 squads established and work as the

auxiliary police force to safeguard their

communities.



CRIME PREVENTION PROGRAMS

•versatile programs were created to reduce the fear of crime among citizen and to prevent the likelihood of victimization.

•In the headquarters and 14 precincts, advisory committees for crime prevention was set up to supervise and inform crime prevention campaigns.

• a radio show to promote the information of public safety is on air every weekday afternoon.



SAFETY DEADLOCK HOTLINE

Women’s groups or individuals are encouraged

to report any area with problematic safety. So

far 248 safety deadlocks were reported, and

have been alleviated by improving the lighting

and remove safety hazards, and increase patrol

frequencies in these worrisome areas



COMMUNITY PROTECTION NETWORK

Encourage and reimburse partly schools, banks,

shops, stores, and residence to install

surveillance video camera, alarm, and other

protection facilities. By far, 8698 household

security systems, 3464 alarm systems, and

7303 CCTV surveillance systems were installed.



SECURITY CHECK & INSPECTION

To strengthen the self-protection capacity of

banks and jewelry shops, a check-list of security

facilities with 36 items were distributed to each

store/bank owner. The Police department also

inspect periodically to help the store owners

reduce the likelihood of victimization.



CRIME STRATEGY MEETINGS

Taipei Police holds Crime Strategy Meetings

every other week. It is designed to help police

precincts target hot areas and hot criminals by

means of analyzing the patterns of crime with

computers, statistics, and mapping software.


LESSONS LEARNED


LESSONS LEARNED

• The greatest benefit of adopting community

policing is the regaining of people’s trust. In

Taipei, due to the economic recession and

political uncertainty, crime rates are actually

on the rise. However, when the community

sense the police’s efforts and sincere

engagement in the community policing, the

public bestow the police with full support.


LESSONS LEARNED

•To avoid unnecessary resistance inside the

organization, the police department has to

incorporate the community policing

philosophy in all phases of training within the

police department on a regular basis. This

should include retraining of field skills/tactics

and community policing strategies.


LESSONS LEARNED

•The Police Department should develop a

clearly and specifically defined vision and

mission statement through thorough

discussions and communications among the

members of the department. Without a clear

vision and mission statement, the strategies

and initiatives undertaken will have less

impact.


LESSONS LEARNED

•Try to involve the stakeholders in the

community policing planning process: the

public, elected officials, the business

community, the media, etc. A well organized,

collaborative planning process is especially

critical to the success of implementation.


LESSONS LEARNED

•The strong desire and support of the top

management must be obvious all the

time. The initiatives should be of

significant magnitude so that the entire

police department and the community are

aware of their accomplishment

THE END

THANK YOU

Documents

Community Policing in Taipei