Making the Match: Law Enforcement, the Faith Community and the Value-Based Initiative

摘要

Since its founding in 1994, a central goal of the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) has been to help law enforcement agencies implement and enhance community policing. Community policing has been defined as 'a policing philosophy that promotes and supports organizational strategies to address the causes and reduce the fear of crime and social disorder through collaborative problem-solving strategies and police/community partnerships.' As COPS forged many innovative approaches to community policing and problem-solving over the years, we kept hearing the question: But where is the faith community . COPS recognized that the faith community has always been an important force in cities and towns across the country, bringing together area residents to address the hard issues facing their neighborhoods. Law enforcement professionals understood that many times when everyone else had walked away from a problem, the faith community was still there, serving its congregations and engaging in community outreach to improve the quality of life for residents in the area. Through the COPS Value-Based Initiative (VBI), the faith community is at the table as a full partner in community policing with local law enforcement. The Value-Based Initiative is a COPS-funded strategy that emphasizes training and technical assistance for problem-solving on a community level, through community-led initiatives that explore and promote what a community values most. The COPS Office has expanded the VBI program to encourage law enforcement agencies to create or strengthen local projects that build trust between the police and their faith-based communities. The initiative is designed to identify and meet the individual needs of residents, thereby promoting the overall health of a community. The VBI infrastructure builds upon past community-based initiatives by leveraging existing resources in the community and providing training and technical assistance to enhance a community's capacity to address its own issues.