Proactive Policing

Proactive policing has continued to gain popularity throughout the years as law enforcement agencies and communities try to find ways to keep citizens safer. This method of "serving and protecting" has been shown to reduce crime rates and improve the relationship between police officers and residents.

Proactive policing is often confused with community policing. While there are many similar attributes, proactive policing focuses on preventing crimes from occurring. The vast majority of the effort is made by law enforcement officers, and there is minimal involvement from citizens. Community policing is also about preventing crime, but focuses on doing so by creating close relationships between citizens and officers. The success of community policing depends on citizen involvement, while the success of proactive policing lies mainly with the law enforcement agency.

Proactive policing takes on many forms. Some of the more common are bike patrols in crowded pedestrian areas, night-time business checks, safety seminars, distribution of items such as gun safety locks and child car seats and creating a highly visible presence at large events. In each case, the idea is that the action or presence of police officers will deter or prevent crime or other unsafe situations. For example, officers checking businesses at night on a regular basis and notifying business owners when they find an unlocked door or other safety problem greatly reduces the chance that the businesses will be burglarized.

In one sense, proactive policing has existed as long as police officers have. But in many ways it is a recent movement among agencies, who hope to reduce or prevent crime rather than only respond to it. Historically, officers may have individually taken proactive actions, such as patrolling neighborhoods or speaking with citizens about how to protect themselves, but there was no organized effort. As crime continued to steadily increase in large cities and street gangs grew in numbers and strength, police departments began creating programs to prevent crimes before they happened. The success of these programs gained attention, and gradually law enforcement agencies everywhere began making coordinated proactive policing efforts.

Since law enforcement agencies and officers have started regular proactive policing efforts, crime has been reduced in many areas. In addition, an uncountable number of lives may have been saved through the distribution of safety information, gun locks, child restraint seats and child identification kits. The effort has made citizens safer and has also saved taxpayers millions of dollars.

While proactive policing saves property, lives and money in the long run, it does take some expenditures up front. This is an important consideration for communities and police departments who may have limited budgets or personnel. The extra officers that it takes to be proactive can be hard to fit into some budgets. If there are limited officers, however, they will spend most of their time responding to calls and being reactive rather than working on programs to prevent crime. Materials and equipment often used in proactive policing can also put a strain on already tight budgets.

Слова к тексту 5:

1. to reduce crime rates - сократить уровень преступности

2. similar attributes - похожие признаки, свойства

3. involvement - вовлечение

4. distribution [ˏdɪstrɪˊbju:ʃən] - распределение

5. to deter crime [dɪˊtə:] - сдерживать преступность

6. to notify [ˊnəutɪfaɪ] - уведомлять, объявлять

7. steadily[ˊstedɪlɪ] - постоянно, неизменно, прочно

8. an uncountable number [ˊʌnˊkauntəbl] - неисчислимое количество

9. kit - ранец

10. in the long run - в конечном итоге

11. to put a strain on a tight budget - усиливать нагрузку на жесткий бюджет

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