Question 11 :

As a way of serving the citizens well, community oriented policing seeks to establish a working relationship between the police and, as well, the community members. In essence, the police work with the community rather than doing work to the community. As such, COP is very beneficial to the police, the Police agency and the community (Whisenand, 2011). About the police, community oriented policing enables individual Police officers to establish strong working relations with the individual members of the community. In this way, they are able to provide individual-oriented services, which are very effective in curbing crime and related evils. Through community oriented policing, the Police officer partners with the members of the community. The community members serve to provide relevant information to the Police officers, enabling them to perform their duties well. The Police officer has a chance to relate with the members of the community and establish trust, which enables them to work with minimal stress. Their work is thus made easier (Whisenand, 2011).

About the Police agency, its duties and responsibilities are made efficient through community oriented policing. The agency carries and adheres to the mission of engaging the entire community in the work of the police. As such, the community members partners with the police to prevent crime, identify offenders, organize to solve community problems, as well as to foster and maintain peace and mutual trust. The maintenance of an element of mutual trust between the police and the community members translates to efficiency in service delivery on the part of the Police agency (Whisenand, 2011).

The community also reaps greatly from community oriented policing. Through the COP, crime rate reduces in the community. Further, a good working relationship between the community and the Police agency ensures the community members maintain peace and live in harmony. Lastly, the observance of the law and maintenance of order is enhanced in the community. COP seems to be failing when relations between the community and the police agency fails. Such is facilitated by the breakdown of the communication process and lack of trust between the stakeholders. This can be strengthened through intensive training of police officers on interpersonal skills such as active listening (Whisenand, 2011).

Question 12:

Measuring performance is very advantageous in any business or organization. It enables the management to know where the business is doing well, and where the organization is failing. The management thus takes measures to enhance the performance through such indicators, and correct where there is a need (Waal & Kourtit, 2013). For example, by setting performance indicators, the management can tell when they are achieved as per the expectations, and, as well, when they are not achieved. However, measuring performance is disadvantageous in that one may end up not following their progress, and/or waste time and resources following targets that are not important, though initially thought to be important.

In an organization where I worked for in a year; performance measurement is done through setting performance targets. Every departmental manager is required to set targets in line with the main objectives and short-term goals of the organization. The targets from the different departments are then centrally analyzed and aligned with the organizational goals. At the end of the period, an evaluation is done to ascertain the achievement of the set targets (Waal & Kourtit, 2013). The system works well and has been very effective. I attribute this to the good coordination offered by the management, and the support staff, as well as the commonality of organizational purpose among the entire staff.

References

Waal, A., & Kourtit, K. (2013). Performance measurement and management in practice: advantages, disadvantages and reasons for use. International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, 62(5), 446-473.

Whisenand, M. P. (2011). Supervising police personnel: the fifteen responsibilities (7^th ed). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Learning.