Community policing officer position: combining public order and social work roles
Review
Social work profession is a new profession in Lithuania. However, nowadays we can meet this profession in various institutions, in which social work practices coincidence with activities of workers of those institutions.
This ide are vealsmain research question – social work identity equation with the disciplines in which field social work is practicing. A social worker who is working in health care isidentified as a nurse; a social worker who is working in probation services is identified as an officer, or a social worker who is working in school is identified as a pedagogue.
This coincidence of all kinds of disciplines with social work complicates the identification of socialwork as a profession in institutions. This topic also talks about prestige. Is it possible that social work can lose its identity and assimilate with other professions? The main purpose of this article is to reveal relationship of social work and community policing officers. This study showed the changes of social work identity that has happened in the flow of time, revealed challenges which community-policing officer faces trying to humanize police inside and outside police system. This study showed that social work coincides with community-policing officer's activities very much, by the work methods which community-policing officer is using, while working with communities.
