Coactive Policing
Dynamic of Coactivity

the only way to solve community problems relating to crime is for law enforcement and communities to work together in creative ways to solve them.

Understand, first of all, that crime is not a police problem. In other words, solving the problem of crime does not rest exclusively with the police. Crime is a community problem. And as such, it demands a community response.

Three Models of Law Enforcement

There are three basic approaches, or models, of policing:

Reactive Policing
Proactive Policing
Coactive Policing

You can take all of the law enforcement strategies, tactics, and programs that we have implemented over the years and lump them into one or more of these three categories.

The Police Are the Public…

In 1829 Sir Robert Peel founded the Metropolitan Police in London based on nine ethical principles. One of the most famous of Peel's principles said that "the police are the public and the public are the police..." According to Robert Peel, the police are members of the community that get paid to do on a full-time basis what is really the responsibility of every citizen to do for themselves.

The point is: we can’t do it alone. If the citizens are not willing to partner with us on at least a part-time basis, we have no hope of being truly effective in our full-time responsibilities.

Cops instantly recognize the truth of this statement. However, many citizens do not. They think that the police are the police … and the police are the police.

They view crime as a police problem. And, if crime is prevalent in their neighborhood, they often come to one natural conclusion… You’re not doing your job very well.

Maybe you’re corrupt, or maybe you’re incompetent, or maybe you just don’t care. Either way, they have lost confidence in you and your ability to protect them. In other words, it’s all your fault! Now you can begin to see why we have such a lack of trust in our relationships.

By building strong, trust-based relationships with our citizens, we tap into a powerbase that has the potential for accomplishing an awful lot of good.

A basic truth is that the power for effective change rests within our relationships. This is true of virtually any human endeavor and it is the essence of coactivity.

Coactive Policing vs. Community Policing

Coactive Policing is similar to the concept of Community Oriented Policing but with some new twists. One is the focus on good character and the power of relationships.

I taught Community Policing for years as a consultant working under grants from the federal government. I saw many agencies succeed in their Community Policing efforts and I saw many fail miserably.

I began to ask myself what was the difference between those that did well and those that didn’t. I believe the answer can be found in the character of the officers and the amount of trust they have been able to build in their relationships with the citizens. In many ways, this revelation led to the development of the Police Dynamics program.

Four-wheel Drive Policing

In conducting training seminars for police, I’ve often used the term Four-wheel Drive Policing to describe Coactive Policing. Envision your community as a four-wheel drive monster truck with the wheels representing the various components of your community, such as the business community, the education community, the faith community, and the local government. Coactive Policing is when all of the "wheels" in a community pull in the same direction toward accomplishing a common agenda.

Reclaiming the Ground

Criminals often take over neighborhoods and rule them through fear and intimidation. We call these criminal strongholds.

Vital, trust-based relationships can reduce the fear, apathy and tolerance for crime which allow strongholds to thrive. It is the disruption of these strongholds and the restoration of moral integrity in our neighborhoods that are our best weapons in the fight against crime.

In Dorchester County, we designed a plan for crashing these strongholds through the application of Coactive Policing principles. This approach has proven effective in many neighborhoods. You will learn about this strategy in detail when you examine the Dynamic of Strongholds later on.

A Problem or a Symptom?

Coactive Policing focuses on crime prevention, relationship building, character development, and problem solving. Think about it. Is crime really the problem… or is crime merely the symptom of the problem.

The problem of crime goes way below the surface of our culture. Coactive Policing digs deep to root out the problems and solve them. Most approaches to law enforcement deal with the symptoms rather than the problems. The problem is the breakdown of moral authority in our neighborhoods and the lack of public confidence in the police.

If I go to the doctor with a screaming headache and he prescribes a pain-killer, is he treating the problem or the symptom? The problem might be as serious as a brain tumor. Maybe I need surgery, or radiation, or chemo, or some other radical treatment. If all he does is give me something for the pain, I might feel better but I’m still going to die!

Many of our communities are in the same fix. Many of them are sick and dying and in need of radical treatment.

When I was conducting a Police Dynamics seminar in Collier County, Florida, one of the officers in the class said, “Our job is to stabilize the community until it can heal itself.” What insight! That is exactly the role of law enforcement. It’s just like being the doctor.

A wise physician knows that he doesn’t really heal anybody. He just stabilizes the body until it can heal itself. God planted the ability in the body to heal itself. The power is already there. In many ways this is like our communities. The power to bring about effective change is already there. We just have to learn how to tap into it. Coactivity is the key.

The Definition of Policing

Years ago, a colleague of mine, who had been one of my officers in the past and was now an instructor at our police academy in South Carolina, asked me if I had ever looked up the definition of the word “policing.” My response was, “No, why should I? I’ve been doing it for twenty-something years. I ought to know what it means by now. It means law enforcement. Somebody breaks the law, we try to catch them. That’s what policing is.”

He said, “You ought to look it up. You might be surprised at what you find.”

So, I took his challenge and looked it up in my American Heritage Dictionary. It says that policing is:

The regulating and control of the affairs of a community especially as it relates to such things as law, order, health, safety, and morals.

Wow! That’s a whole lot more than just locking people up. This definition expands what we might typically think of as the police mandate.

And Sir Robert Peel told us that we do this for a living. In other words we have full-time responsibility for maintaining the law, order, health, safety, and morals within our communities. Now, we also agree with Peel that the citizens themselves have at least a part-time responsibility to maintain the law, order, health, safety, and morals within their spheres of influence. But we do it for a living.

Given this fact, what component of our communities should have the highest standards in these five areas? In other words, what component of our communities should be the most law-abiding, the most disciplined and squared away, the most fit (I get reactions from that one), the most safety-conscious… and what component should have the highest of standards in the area of character and professional ethics.

The answer is: US! It’s law enforcement.

And that’s how it should be. Do you realize the power that our citizens have entrusted to us? Who else has the power to take away life, the power to take away freedom, the power to take away property, and the power to take away children? Of course they have a right to hold us to a higher standard. And I believe that beyond that, we have an absolute duty to hold ourselves to the highest of standards.

There is a principle that says: “He who has been given a trust must prove himself faithful.”

And that gives me a great segue into the next principle,
the Dynamic of Character.

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