Much confusion exists in police departments about what is community policing. To sort through this confusion, the staff of National Center for Community Policing and the Behavioral Sciences Unit at the FBI Academy collaborated to study community policing across the United States. Community policing faces many obstacles that challenge its viability. Some administrators claim they are engaged in community policing when they are not. To fully implement the philosophy, a department must make a long-term commitment to this manner of policing.
Many people are still unable to distinguish between problem solving and community policing.
Community policing should permeate the entire department. Forty-two percent said they were engaged in community policing. When examining the data, it should be remembered that these are the perceptions of police chiefs. The study does not directly measure public perceptions, the perceptions of other organizational members or levels of crime. Interpretation should remain in this context.