Extending the Police Role: Implications of Police Mediation as a Problem-Solving Tool

Abstract

This article discusses ramifications of role shifts that occur when police officers with traditional law enforcement expectations are placed in community policing assignments. Shifting from a control perspective to a partnership role often requires officers to abandon confrontation, command, and coercion in favor of participation, promotion, and persuasion. Types of police mediation arising in community policing are discussed relative to social distance and legal obligations across a spectrum of disputes: domestics, landlord-tenant, acquaintance/neighbor, frictions between neighborhoods and attractive nuisances, and between place guardians and regulating bodies. The New York City Community Patrol Officer Program (CPOP) and the Minneapolis Repeat Call Address Policing (RECAP) experiment provide examples. Potential problems include burnout, tunnel vision, personalization, overidentification, overcommitment, and unanticipated consequences.