The Collaboration Toolkit For Law Enforcement

Law enforcement alone cannot implement and advance community policing. Community leaders, researchers, and police officials recognize the need for a strong, well-articulated role for community members in community policing efforts. They know that the police cannot substantially impact crime by themselves, so they advocate for the community to act as a full partner in preventing and responding to problems. Community involvement and collaboration is an integral part of any long-term, problem-solving strategy. At the most basic level, the community provides law enforcement agencies with invaluable information on both the problems that concern them and the nature of those problems. The Collaboration Toolkit for Law Enforcement: Effective Strategies to Partner with the Community is designed to help law enforcement initiate partnerships within their communities to collaborate on solving crime problems at the neighborhood level. The goal of this toolkit is to help law enforcement agencies accomplish the following objectives: strengthen partnerships between them and the community; enhance the community's role as a partner in crime-reduction efforts; identify and address social issues that diminish the quality of life and threaten public safety in communities; and link those in need to services and resources that currently exist in the community.