In a nutshell, community policing means the same cop on the same regular beat. It is a "back to basics" approach, where the police get out of their cars and get to know and become known in a specific community.

By integrating the police into the community, it gets rid of the "us versus them" element of police - improving community relations.

There are three main elements to community policing:

1. Prevention: this involves education work in schools, talking to community groups, etc.

2. Intervention: this involves steering offenders away from crime after a first offence. At this stage, social services might be brought in, the offender might be offered therapy or counselling, or helped into secure employment.

3. Enforcement: when the first two stages fail, an arrest will be made and a period in prison might follow.

The most important element of community policing is the forming of partnerships with other law enforcement agencies and with community groups.

By sharing information early, intervention is possible and crime prevention is more successful.

The community policing approach, which has been slowly evolving and spreading since the 1970s, has been very successful in lowering crime figures in areas where it is used.