The Third Generation of Community Policing: Moving Through Innovation, Diffusion, and Institutionalization

Abstract

Community policing has become the paradigm of contemporary policing, evolving significantly over the past 20 years. That which was called community policing in the late 1970s and early 1980s only somewhat resembles community policing as it is practiced today. This article presents a conceptual framework characterizing community policing as having moved through three generations, which can be labeled appropriately as innovation, diffusion, and institutionalization. Conceptualizing community policing as having evolved through three generations can alleviate some of the confusion over the term, and knowing where we have been can assist us in knowing where community policing is going in the future.