Accreditation and Community Policing: Passing Fads or Basic Reforms?

Community policing is an idea whose time has come. It is apparent that an era in law enforcement is coming to a close as agencies attempt to build a more sensitive and closerpartnership with the communities they serve. This paper analyzes this trend and assesses its relative significance as a reform movement. The road to this idea of policing will not be easy and there are major questions that must be addressed. The accreditation movement will be one complication that community policing must place in proper perspective. This paper suggests that a change in management practices in law enforcement will largely determine whether community policing changes the basic paradigm in law enforcement or simply becomes an improvement to the status quo.