Residents, business owners and other citizens in the community must help the police to define their goals and to identify where problems exist. This must be an ongoing commitment from the community. In addition to the Police Department, other City departments must be committed to COP for it to be effective. Personnel from Housing, Code Enforcement, Planning, Public Works, and Recreation Departments are sources of information for the police planning, and offer many of the resources needed to prevent crimes. When a neighborhood is run down, the signal is even stronger.
Leadership is the key to success.
The Mayor and City Council must be firmly committed to COP and provide direction that ensures its implementation. As a community moves toward COP, the City Council must set the tone that ensures cooperation between departments and they must establish the standards that will measure success. COP is not merely putting officers on foot patrol or sending officers to neighborhood association meetings, nor is it a public relations strategy. In reality, community policing is nothing less than a completely new paradigm, in which a focus on crime prevention replaces the old reactive policing model. Within the Police Department, implementation of COP likewise requires strong leadership.