The Implications of Community Policing for Police–Citizen Relationships

Abstract

This article deals with the quality of the Dutch police and its relationship with the authority of the police. During the previous decade, the concept of community policing was introduced as a quality impulse for the Dutch police. The implementation of community policing was assumed to have far‐reaching consequences for the relationship between police and citizens and with that for the authority of the police. However, this article illustrates that community policing did not fully reach its goals, as, despite the fact that community policing may have contributed to the actual safety in neighborhoods, citizens remain dissatisfied with the most important ground of police authority: the effectiveness of the police.