Cultural diversity and social order: Rethinking the role of community policing

Abstract

One of the difficulties confronting anyone interested in community policing is understanding just what the term community refers to. For criminologists and police practitioners alike this presents a danger. Being less than specific about the use of this key term often serves to conceal cultural diversity and tame ideological differences between the police and the public's interest in social order. Rather than attempting to impose a definitive image of community, this article focuses on everyday strategies of interaction that, while promoting social order, also effectively eclipse the necessity of confronting the very plurality of values that any form of community involvement must consider. What becomes clear from this perspective is that many of the difficulties that beset community policing programs can be seen to take root in problems inherent in the practical achievement of community life itself.