Social Media and Community Policing Implementation in South Eastern Europe: A Question of Trust

Abstract

At the present time, social media are increasingly used within community policing as a tool of fostering communication, and improving trust between the police and communities. Community policing programmes implemented in post-communist countries in South Eastern Europe, as well as processes of building police legitimacy in general, have been facing challenges related to insufficient public confidence in the law enforcement, and a necessity to re-define police roles. This paper uses the results of empirical research to argue that the still ongoing processes of bridging gaps in police-community communication can be supported by the use of social media. Presented argumentation is based on the analysis of selected quantitative studies on police legitimacy, and chosen findings of qualitative field research which was conducted in 2016 in Bosnia and Herzegovina as a part of the project Community-Based Policing and Post-Conflict Police Reform (ICT4COP). An implication of presented study should be a more in-depth analysis of key factors influencing both the formation of police legitimacy, and ways in which the use of social media in police–community relations, especially, in post-communist societies, should be designed to serve the purpose of building trust in the police.