Mansfield Chief Talks 'Future Of Community-Oriented Policing'

MANSFIELD, MA —Mansfield Police Chief Ron Sellon said the future of community-oriented policing will require departments to convey the goals and intents of laws, not simply demand compliance with them, as part of the communication necessary to build trust and legitimacy within those communities.

Sellon's analysis was included as part of an International Association of Chiefs of Police magazine piece called: "How Will Community-Oriented Policing Evolve in the Next Five Years?"

"As police departments embrace what is important to the communities they serve, the communities will respond in kind, facilitating a communication and feedback loop," Sellon wrote. "We have seen that the role of policing is not simply law enforcement alone."

Sellon said communication with the community will be vital, and that social media outlets provide both a "great avenue for engaging the communities we serve, (but) also represent a barrier as we strive for the attention of the people in our communities."

"Technology and expanding entertainment options continue to challenge the limits of people's attention spans, and individuals' time is increasingly scarce," Sellon wrote. "Police agencies will have to continue to compete for the attention of the community and must find more imaginative and creative ways to do so. This will challenge us to broaden our communication and engagement skills to be more human and artistic, leveraging education and entertainment to get our messages across.

"All of these factors result in an evolving definition of community and a moving target for local policing agencies as they strive to maintain working relationships with the communities they serve."

Sellon said police are moving from a mentality of "That's not our job" to "How do we help?" and that the change comes "with the understanding that public trust and legitimacy positively impact the community's mental health and reinforce positive social norms, which leads to more effective and frequent communication."

Sellon said the biggest challenges will come in times of crisis — such as the current coronavirus health emergency — to keep moving forward with new ideas instead of reverting to past habits.

"This will test the commitment to community policing in seeking new paths and evolving," he wrote. "Increases in specialization, such as POP teams, will also help redefine our metrics for success. POP teams, with their preventive mindsets, look at the community like engineers, entrepreneurs, and architects, envisioning and re-engineering a better way forward.

"This philosophy helps agencies to work collaboratively with the community to find the root cause of problems and reinforce the two foundational keys to all community-police relationship goals: maintaining local control and accountability."