The community oriented policing strategy (COPS) is a partnership between local residents and the police in charge of the district. The government of Malaysia tries to allocate more resources towards fighting crime and establishing more agencies to review police rules and conduct and investigate public complaints. The need to achieve greater efficacy in the delivery of police service led them to seek support and legitimacy within and from the public. In the middle of 2007, throughout Royal Malaysian Police (RMP) five years strategic plan (2007-2011), the government has introduced COP into Malaysia’s policing strategies. COP comes with its own unique set of challenges. It reduces crime by engaging the public as a partner in the fight against crime rather than relying on aggressive law enforcement as the only solution to community problems. COP is a belief that by working together, the police and the community can accomplish what neither can accomplish alone. It involves a rethinking of the role of the police and a restructuring of the policing. The purpose of this paper is: (a) to investigate community awareness towards COP implementation; (b) to investigate community perception towards COP implementation; (c) to evaluate community participation towards COP implementation .

Keywords : Community oriented, policing, community, crime, awareness, perception.