Community policing and reassurance: Three studies, one narrative

Abstract

Drawing on data from three separate studies of community policing (CP) in Scotland this article identifies common themes in the practice of contemporary CP. First, following in the wake of the global financial crisis, we have an austerity drive with cuts to policing budgets setting the context in which CP practice is now negotiated. Second all three studies evidence an increasingly entrenched performance management framework for policing which exerts pressures on beat officers to depart from established, valued and often ‘unmeasurable' activities within CP practice. Third, we see the depletion of the traditional ‘tools of the trade' of CP as new recruits, lacking the skills of the traditional beat officer, are assigned CP functions, while mentoring opportunities for supporting their professional development become increasingly inadequate. Finally, the idea of reassurance as a core policing goal has informed the re-organization of Scotland's main police forces towards models which purport to increase CP numbers, visibility and public engagement. In the context of the preceding three themes however, these re-inventions of CP have been problematic in various ways: conflicted, superficial and unconnected to developments in policing and procedural justice theory around legitimacy and public confidence. Indeed, we will argue that given the formal increase in public-facing CP numbers across the sites examined here, the procedural justice perspective, with its focus on the quality of police-public encounters, has real potential to enhance the efficacy of CP in Scotland

“There goes the fear”: feelings of safety at home and in the neighborhood: The role of personal, social, and service factors

“…It is notable that factors such as interacting with and trusting one's neighbors had a slightly greater effect upon feelings of safety than the perceived quality of policing services. Reassurance, therefore, is not simply something to be provided to communities through policing strategies (Innes, ; Hamilton‐Smith, Mackenzie, Henry, & Davidones, ). While some affluent consumers can secure their own reassurance and safety through “withdraw[al] into increasingly insulated enclaves” (Atkinson, , p. 819), those in more deprived communities may have to be enabled to create their own reassurances.…”

An examination of the influence of procedurally just strategies on legal cynicism among urban youth experiencing police contact

“…For example, the effectiveness of community policing has been related to procedural justice because community‐oriented policing strategies positively affect community member satisfaction, perceptions of disorder, and police legitimacy (Gill, Weisburd, Telep, Vitter, & Bennett, ). In the other direction, it has been shown that procedural justice can effectively enhance community policing strategies and raise the perceived legitimacy of the police (Hamilton‐Smith, Mackenzie, Henry, & Davidones, ; Mazerolle, Bennett, Davis, Sargeant, & Manning, ). Improving perceptions of procedural justice through community policing initiatives, or enhancing existing community policing initiatives with an emphasis on procedurally just strategies may be one promising route for improving perceptions of the justice system.…”

Trust Through Intelligence?

“…However, there are widely established philosophies which constitute the community policing concept, and characterise the approaches' overarching theme of effective police-public relations (Bennett 1994). A review of community policing literature by Mackenzie and Henry (2009) put forward key components of effective practice, which have appeared (in some degree) consistently in a number of other academic sources (Bennett 1994;Hamilton-Smith et al 2013;Skogan & Hartnett 1999;Skogan & Williamson 2008).…”