Stephen Reames

Rural Community Policing and Religiosity: Two Opportunities That Exist for Law Enforcement in Rural West Texas Stephen Reames

We are living in the era of community policing. Unfortunately, no extant scholarly literature has examined the effects of community policing practice in smaller, rural communities, especially in the rural West Texas area. Specifically, there is a need to broaden the scope of perspectives to gain more in- depth knowledge of rural community policing practice. In response, a survey was administered to both community leaders and law enforcement leaders in rural West Texas to rate their perception on current and future crime problems, police effectiveness, police training needs, and community leaders' involvement in police training. A discussion of two distinct opportunities that exist in rural West Texas are provided. Each opportunity can be combined and provide a duality of criminal justice services for the non-populous areas of Texas and of the United States. The first opportunity exist in a faith-based correctional facility and second in law enforcement training for rural West Texas.