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Research focussing on US citizen attitudes of police has concentrated on city policing agencies, neglecting varying attitudes toward county and state police. Attempts to fill this void by testing the effects of individual and contextual variables on citizen evaluations and police performance across city, county and state levels using data collected from a state in the western USA. Finds differences in evaluations depending on age, gender, initiation of contact and previous experience. Discusses the implications of these results and suggests topics for further research.

Community policing, which appears to have captured the interest of many criminal justice professionals and scholars, places strong emphasis on police/community relations. To date, however, little attention has focused on the underlying theoretical foundation of this evolving policing strategy. This paper attempts to contribute to the ongoing discourse by examining the parallels between communitarianism and community policing, and by doing so, assist in refining the current definitional ambiguity surrounding the concept of community. In the end, the author works toward a moderating resolution to the inherent tensions of the rights-based and community-seeking presuppositions.

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