The impact of community policing in giving special attention to vulnerable groups: a social work perspective

Abstract

This paper reports on an investigation on the impact of community policing especially as it relates to vulnerable groups. The study employed descriptive research design to survey the study area; sources of data collection were primary in nature within which the tool for data collection was face-to-face questionnaire. The findings indicated that community policing has a positive impact in giving special attention to vulnerable groups but there are still some challenges. It was revealed that some respondents such as women, children, elders and disabled involved in this study were optimistic that community policing is paying attention against crimes that direct or indirect affect their wellbeing. Furthermore, the study depicts that significant number of respondents were from police sector, followed by education sector, private security company sector, agricultural sector and the media sector. This has an implication in policing function in the country that the police sector is the key stakeholders in security matters in Tanzania. The study recommends the government to set up policy that will articulate explicitly the authentic role of police officers and social workers in helping vulnerable people in the community. Furthermore, community policing strategy should focus more on awareness creation, capacity building and assisting vulnerable groups and the community at large to participate aggressively in solving crime related problems.

Keywords: community policing, police, policing, social work, multi-agency, human service agency, Tanzania