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community policing advocates a proactive posture, that is, a philosophy that involves anticipating problems and identifying solutions before they appear, thus once again underscoring the importance of training. Addressing this strategy, Miller and Hess (2005) explained that the term encompasses a more expansive definition; that is, not only does being proactive necessitate anticipating problems and identifying solutions, but it also emphasizes the importance of accountability on the part of officers. Rather than blindly following a prescribed set of uniform policies and procedures, which do not always produce the same desired outcomes, officers are encouraged to take entrepreneurial initiatives and exercise good judgment and discretion. Defining discretion as “the autonomy or freedom an officer has in choosing an appropriate course of action,” Champion and Hooper (2003) explained that police officers exercise discretion “whenever the effective limits of the officer's power leave him or her free to make a choice among possible courses of action or inaction.” Not only does the wide range of discretion represent a substantial deviation from the traditional, hierarchical, and autocratic culture of police departments of the past, but considering that it has now become an integral component of current-day policing philosophies, it necessitates skill sets and competencies that separate the modern police officer from his counterpart in previous eras (p. 343).
Changing Expectations in Police Competencies
Although the philosophy and practice of community policing has a relatively brief history, it is nevertheless important to realize that the move to community-based policing was driven by the needs and demands of contemporary society. Consequently, it is also important to recognize that as society has grown, matured, and evolved over the past half century, so too has the need for more diverse, complex, and sophisticated police and law enforcement services. Certainly, the social, cultural, economic, legal, political, and technological changes that characterize today's global society have placed unprecedented challenges and demands on today's police, including the ominous war on global terrorism. This is not to suggest that the foregoing eras of policing did