Integrating Eastern Programme Features in Western Community Policing: Balancing Individual Freedom and Collective Wellbeing

Abstract

The community policing innovation was conceptualised on the basis of the Japanese koban system. It was introduced to the USA to democratise policing. However, the Empire of Japan initially learned modern policing from Western countries. In collaboration with the intelligence services, koban community policing effectively prevented crime as well as anti-government activities. The strategy was successfully replicated in Taiwan and Korea, the two colonies of Japan before World War II. The koban system has been transformed to become a strategy that delivers police services to citizens and simultaneously sustains national security while collaborating with the intelligence services. Western community policing programmes intensify police service delivery to citizens. In the post-9/11 era, the influence of federal law enforcement has expanded to include a collaborative and occasionally superseding role. If balancing individual freedom and collective wellbeing becomes possible in Western countries, Eastern communi...