Community Policing Chicago Style

"Police departments across the country are busy "reinventing" themselves, adopting a new "community policing" approach. This progressive method of law enforcement involves organizational decentralization, new channels of communication with the public, a sensitivity to what the community thinks a department's priorities ought to be, and the application of a broad problem-solving approach to neighborhood issues." "This book is the first to examine such an ambitious project. It focuses on a city which, having recently made this transition, now has the nation's largest and most impressive community policing program. Wesley G. Skogan and Susan M. Hartnett look closely at all aspects of this program, offering an unprecedented account of how and why it was adopted, and how well it has worked. Relating in detail the successes and limitations of community policing in Chicago, the authors describe and evaluate the many experimental districts where the program was first employed. They indicate how it has yielded substantial benefits for most residents of the city. Much attention is also given to Chicago's planning and implementation of the program, and how it overcame many of the obstacles that have delayed the appearance of community policing in other cities."--BOOK JACKET.