Aggressive patrolling is one of the policing methods used by law enforcement agencies to respond to rising crime levels in the community. Patrols enhance police units’ responsive nature because of their presence that discourages individuals from engaging in criminal activities. Notably, police crackdowns involve multiple arrests because of law enforcement agents’ improved presence in the streets to address crime and disorder. Aggressive patrolling in minority communities creates additional problems where police officers might demonstrate racist behavior when arresting African-Americans, Hispanics, or other population groups. Importantly, crackdowns are recommended because of their ability to reduce crime by creating a perspective that offenders will get caught due to the high police presence in a specific geographical location. However, aggressive patrolling has a short-term impact because of police units’ inability to sustain their massive presence in different parts of their jurisdiction. Hence, crackdowns harm the identity of minority communities because of the approaches used by law enforcement agencies to curb crime and disorder.
Pros of Aggressive Patrolling
Crackdowns are highly effective because of the displacement of crime and disorder from one region to another, where it can be managed effectively. Crime prevention efforts target minority settlements where individuals are mostly affected than their counterparts in other areas (Grant & Terry, 2008). When used alongside different approaches, aggressive patrolling proves to be useful than one-time responses, which are often short-sighted. Given the main objective of law enforcement agencies, creating a climate of fear has a significant impact on crime reduction in minority communities.
Cons of Aggressive Patrolling
Given the pressure applied to minority population groups, aggressive patrolling has a limited timeframe that discredits police officers’ efforts to reduce crime levels in minority communities. Surprisingly, offenders adapt to the approaches used by police officers, a move that enables them to maneuver the traps set to catch them in the act. Likewise, aggressive patrolling affects police relations with the public because of the approaches that affect people’s lifestyles (Hassan, 2020). From this realization, police officers should develop alternative strategies to achieve their desired objectives in regions occupied by minority population groups.
How Aggressive Patrolling Should be Executed in Minority Communities
Police officers should comply with the law enforcement regulations that discredit stereotypes and prejudice when making random arrests in minority settlements. On many occasions, law enforcement agents have been accused of violating laws and human rights because of their crude arresting methods. In this case, officers should read out the rights when making arrests to uphold the policing standards. Besides, officers should work closely with community leaders to increase awareness of their desired objectives and incorporate the public’s views in their decision-making process to avoid adverse outcomes that ruin their relations with the people.
Conclusion
Aggressive patrols hurt the identity minority communities because of the approaches used by law enforcement agencies to curb crime and disorder. In many instances, the effectiveness of the crackdowns is determined by the strategies used by police officers to conduct the arrests. In the U.S., many African-Americans and other people of color are targeted in the crackdowns, a move that attracts heavy criticism from the masses regarding the differential treatment offered by the police to different population groups. From this realization, police units should observe the stipulated human rights when making arrests to benefit from crackdowns’ high effectiveness levels.
