Ten Ways to Undermine COPPS
- Oversell it: COPPS should be portrayed as the cure for all evils which plague the nation, the city and civilization. Though it is possible for COPPS to solve some of these concerns in certain situations by raising the optimism and expectations of the public, politicians and the press, an attack on COPPS can be staged later if it does not deliver (Eck, 1992).
- Don’t be Specific: This proposal is derived from the first principle. Eck discourages definition of the intended meaning using terms such as problem solving, neighborhood, empowerment and community. This is because at first, the public will have high expectations about the department and will not ask for details. Once people catch on, the department can fault the amorphous character of COPPS and resume to its previous status (Eck, 1992).
- Creation of a special unit or group: To completely put off COPPS, the department should involve less than 10% of the department in this effort. Given that the main purpose is to resume to conventional policing, there will be no need to involve few officers after COPPS has been attacked (Eck, 1992).
- Creation of a soft image: the best image for COPPS is a uniformed female officer embracing a little child. This maternal and compassionate image warms the hearts of members of the community capable of suspecting police. Playing the conventional sexism stereotypes within policing will put off most COPPS (Eck, 1992).
- Leaving the impression that COPPS is just for minority neighborhoods is the outcome of the third principle. Given that a small unit of officers will be engaged, only a few neighborhoods can be attended to. With any luck, racial antagonism might work against COPPS since it will seem that poor neighborhoods are not getting the service (Eck, 1992).
- Divorcing COPPS officers from “regular police” work: By delinking COPPS officers from handling calls or making arrests and drawing them soft jobs such as visiting schools and speaking to community groups, their image as “real” police officers will be destroyed. This will further undermine their credibility and capability to do any meaningful thing (Eck, 1992).
- Obfuscating means and ends: While describing COPPS, means should be made more important than the ends. This approach can lead to the occupation of everyone’s time but leaving the problem unresolved (Eck, 1992).
- Presenting community members with problems and plans: This will help in avoiding changes on the operations of the department while indicating the difficulty of police work and the impossibility of accomplishing anything. Eventually, no problems will have been solved but the public will be convinced that the police are nice (Eck, 1992).
- Not trying to understand why problems occur: Officers should not be let to gain knowledge about the underlying causes of problems. COPPS should be barred from analyzing the problem and little information should be sought from the community. Listening skills should also be suppressed (Eck, 1992).
- Not publicizing an achievement: Examples of effective policing should be ignored as much as possible, and nobody should hear about them. If it becomes impossible to ignore them, they should be described in the least significant way. In every problem solved, a piece of equipment or tactic should be mentioned rather than the accomplishment itself (Eck, 1992).
Reference
Eck, J. (1992). “Helpful Hints for the Tradition-Bound Chief,” Fresh Perspectives . Washington, D.C.: Police Executive Research Forum.
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