Keeping an eye on the neighbours: Police, citizens, and communication within mobile neighbourhood crime prevention groups

Pridmore, Jason; Mols, Anouk; Wang, Yijing; Holleman, Frank

doi:10.1177/0032258x18768397

Cited by 34 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…Other research has highlighted the successful communitybased social media systems. For instance, WhatsApp neighborhood crime prevention group [27] was initiated by citizens in the Netherlands to empower social control and increase social cohesion and collective efficacy…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Designing Technologies for Community Policing

Zhang

Bandara

Price

et al. 2020

Extended Abstracts of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

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Community policing faces a combination of new challenges and opportunities due to both citizens and police adopting new digital technologies. However, there is limited scholarly work providing evidence for how technologies assist citizens' interactions with the police. This paper reports preliminary findings from interviews with 13 participants, both citizens and police officers, in England. We recognize four key types of actors in the current practice of community policing, alongside existing technologies and challenges faced by citizens and the police. We conclude with three design implications for improving citizen-police engagement.

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Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Designing Technologies for Community Policing

Zhang

Bandara

Price

et al. 2020

Extended Abstracts of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

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“…Research in this context has shown how these groups can lead to a (temporary) decrease in break-ins (Akkermans and Vollaard 2015) and can further social cohesion in local communities (van der Land, van Stokkom, and Boutellier 2014). However, WNCP groups can also lead to the displacement of criminality (van der Land, van Stokkom, and Boutellier 2014), raise privacy concerns (Pridmore, Mols, Wang, and Holleman 2019;de Vries 2016), and increase discriminatory practices and feelings of anxiety (Lub 2016).…”

Section: Articlementioning

confidence: 99%

“…When citizens actively monitor their streets, record events, and report about suspicious situations or persons, they are informally taking over police duties. Citizen policing (a term which is interestingly not directly translatable to Dutch, see Pridmore et al 2019) raises questions about accountability and responsibility. Mobilised citizens may act as "embodied surveillance units" (Larsen and Piché 2010: 197) who become responsible for the security of themselves and others, but can they also be held accountable when their safeguarding practices fail or a dangerous situation escalates?…”

Section: Reageren: React In a Safe Mannermentioning

confidence: 99%

When Citizens Are “Actually Doing Police Work”: The Blurring of Boundaries in WhatsApp Neighbourhood Crime Prevention Groups in The Netherlands

Mols

Pridmore

2019

Self Cite

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Neighbourhood watch messaging groups are part of an already pervasive phenomenon in The Netherlands, despite having only recently emerged. In many neighbourhoods, street signs have been installed to make passers-by aware of active neighbourhood surveillance. In messaging groups (using WhatsApp or similar communication apps), neighbours exchange warnings, concerns, and information about incidents, emergencies, and (allegedly) suspicious situations. These exchanges often lead to neighbours actively protecting and monitoring their streets, sending messages about suspicious activities, and using camera-phones to record events. While citizen-initiated participatory policing practices in the neighbourhood can increase (experiences of) safety and social cohesion, they often default to lateral surveillance, ethnic profiling, risky vigilantism, and distrust towards neighbours and strangers. Whereas the use of messaging apps is central, WhatsApp neighbourhood crime prevention (WNCP) groups are heterogeneous: they vary from independent self-organised policing networks to neighbours working with and alongside community police. As suggested by one of our interviewees, this can lead to citizens “actually doing police work,” which complicates relationships between police and citizens. This paper draws on interviews and focus groups in order to examine participatory policing practices and the responsibilisation of citizens for their neighbourhood safety and security. This exploration of actual practices shows that these often diverge from the intended process and that the blurring of boundaries between police and citizens complicates issues of accountability and normalises suspicion and the responsibilisation of citizens.

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“…The level of public confidence in the police will identify the effectiveness of its work. Police and community need to adapt to changing interactions and improve communication in an effort to increase cooperation in ensuring community safety (Pridmore et al, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Community Policing As a Prevention of Street Crime in Kuala Lumpur

Rahman¹,

Razak²

2021

IJARBSS

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Community policing has been introduced by PDRM since 2012 which brings the police closer to the community or in other words 'public involvement'. In Malaysia, based on community policing, the community needs a police organization. The concept of community police crime prevention has long been specially developed for street crime prevention in Kuala Lumpur. This study was conducted to explore the effectiveness of community policing distance in Kuala Lumpur in the effort to prevent street crime in the occurrence of index crime cases. Findings from this study to further increase the effectiveness of this police distance in addition to appropriate joint ventures carried out between communities at various levels with the police in the fight against street crime.

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Keeping an eye on the neighbours: Police, citizens, and communication within mobile neighbourhood crime prevention groups

Cited by 34 publications

References 32 publications

Designing Technologies for Community Policing

Designing Technologies for Community Policing

When Citizens Are “Actually Doing Police Work”: The Blurring of Boundaries in WhatsApp Neighbourhood Crime Prevention Groups in The Netherlands

Community Policing As a Prevention of Street Crime in Kuala Lumpur

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