What citizens think about the police: assessing actual and wished‐for frequency of police activities in one's neighbourhood

Abstract

The aim of the study was to find out what were citizens' assessments of actual and wished-for frequencies of 12 police activities in two typical Finnish neighbourhoods. Data were collected from 3271 adults and 986 young people with a mail questionnaire. Actual and wished-for frequencies were separately analysed using Homals. Both analyses produced a dimension indicating the assessed (actual or wished-for) frequency of police work, disregarding the content of the 12 police activities. In addition, each analysis produced a dimension describing the tendency to give a 'don't-know' answer. The latter two non-substantive dimensions were interpreted as indicating that the general level of knowledge of police activities was not high among the citizens. When comparing the frequency assessments of ongoing police activities and the wishes concerning these activities, it was found that citizens wished the police to increase all cited activities, particularly foot patrolling, helping and supporting victims and giving crime prevention advice. Citizens appeared to be responsive to the activities related to community policing and preventive police work. All four dimensions were related with background characteristics of respondents (age, gender, city and living conditions), but these relations were not strong.

South Korean business owners' perceptions of community policing in the Baltimore City

“…However, despite the substantial government support for the community crime prevention programs, crime rates did not reduce in some cities in the United States and demands and needs of citizens for community policing services continued to increase (Salmi, Voeten, & Keskinen, 2005). To better utilize police resources and to deliver higher quality community policing services, this study suggests that police should have deeper understanding of underrepresented business owners' perceptions.…”

“…Williamson (2005) stated, "It is a regret that there is no paper on minority ethnic communities, gay and lesbian communities or other interest groups addressing what community policing means to their particular 'community'" (p. 154). While various studies delineated community policing from police officers' perceptions or satisfactions with police services from general citizens' perceptions, little attention has been given to perceptions of underrepresented business stakeholders about their interactive experiences with police officers (Kumar, 2012;Salmi, Voeten, & Keskinen, 2005).…”

“…Public perceptions of community policing are constructed with complex and diverse factors such as, but not limited to, age, gender, race, ethnicity, socio-economic status, education, culture (Manning, 1986;Brown & Benedict, 2002;Salmi, Voeten, & Keskinen, 2005), and police officers' attitudes (Wycoff, & Skogan, 1994). Thus, in sum, it is argued that the future research of community policing should shed more light on the importance of understanding the perceptions of underrepresented business owners.…”

“…While various studies delineated community policing from police officers' perceptions or satisfactions with police services from public perceptions, little attention has been given to perceptions of underrepresented population about their interactive experiences with police officers (Kumar, 2012;Salmi et al, 2005). Moreover, the researcher found no literature that specifically studied South Korean business owners' perceptions in relation to community policing in the United States.…”

“…The researcher interviewed four South Korean business owners who are underrepresented ethnic community members in the Baltimore City and that he wanted to explore their perceptions of community policing in the Baltimore City. Salmi, Voeten, and Keskinen (2005) However, moving forward, the police should not only try to understand the participants' perceptions in this research study, but also reach out to understand other underrepresented ethnic community members in the Baltimore City. To achieve this goal, the effort of understanding underrepresented ethnic community members' perceptions should not only be the work of police because police forces often suffer from lack of manpower and resources.…”