Summary
Detroit has high rates of criminal activities and significant numbers of at-risk residents who have challenges with different types of hardship that include economic issues. Although hardships may include various types of challenges, at-risk residents of Detroit are economically challenged because of Detroit’s economic downfall. The economic hardships lead to the inability to provide for dependent family members, to battle poverty and addiction, and to possibly other family and societal problems. In larger cities, particularly those economically challenged such as Detroit, because of the inability to hire more patrol officers as the result of insufficient financial resources, police seek the collaboration efforts of community members in the form of community policing to reduce crime. Community policing programs are used to reduce the crime and improve the perception of the police among the residents of Detroit, but they are not effective community policing programs as they do not relate to the needs of economically challenged at-risk citizens. The problem is that ineffective community policing increases the crime in Detroit. The purpose of this study was to investigate and identify the needs of the economically challenged at-risk residents of Detroit as perceived by those at-risk residents of Detroit who are identified through private-public organizations and to compare those needs with those perceived by the police pertaining to community policing programs. This may help in developing effective community policing programs. It was important in this study to identify the needs of the community residents who may perceive that there is no other way to survive but to commit crime that should be considered in developing community policing programs. The study identified education and training as the most significant issues that challenge the economically at-risk residents of Detroit. This study found that the economically at-risk residents of Detroit believe no help is available to them, but the members of the community police officers stated that some help is available for the economically at-risk residents; however, they are unaware of the programs that can benefit them. Police stated that various programs that can feed, clothe, educate, and teach various skills to the economically at-risk residents of Detroit are available and the community policing officers through current neighborhood policing programs can direct the residents to proper resources that they may need. The research instrument consisted of semi-structured interviews of at-risk residents focusing on issues that could identify the people’s needs and attempt to understand if the current community policing programs have been addressing these needs of Detroit’s at-risk residents. In this study, the results of the interviews and the questionnaires’ responses were used to identify, code, and categorize patterns found in the improving the community policing in Detroit data.