Community-based Policing Research Articles

Analysis of the Impact of the Shift in Investigative Authority from Sector Police (Polsek) to Resort Police (Polres) on the Law Enforcement Process and Fulfillment of Justice for the Community in the Jurisdiction of the Bangka Belitung Islands Regional Police

The Indonesian National Police (Polri) holds a central role in safeguarding public security, maintaining order, and enforcing the law in Indonesia. The Chief of the National Police's Decision Number: Kep/613/III/2021 introduces a strategic shift of investigative authority from Sector Police (Polsek) to Resort Police (Polres) in designated areas, including within the Bangka Belitung Islands Regional Police jurisdiction. This transformation is designed to optimize preventive functions at the Polsek level. This study employs a normative juridical method combined with an empirical approach through regulatory analysis and interviews with law enforcement officers and community members. The results reveal that this policy shift positively affects the efficiency of case handling while refocusing the Polsek’s role on community security and public service. Several determining factors, such as geographical distance, report volume, and accessibility, significantly influence the selection of Polseks exempt from investigative duties. The findings suggest that delegating investigative tasks to Polres supports better resource allocation for Polri personnel, enhances community-based policing, and ensures preventive measures are implemented effectively. These changes aim to create a more efficient and equitable system of law enforcement that accommodates the specific needs of various local contexts.

Systemic Factors Leading to Incarceration and Its Impact on Marginalized Communities

This paper critically examines the systemic factors contributing to mass incarceration in the United States, with a particular focus on the overrepresentation of marginalized groups such as African American, Hispanic, and economically disadvantaged individuals. Drawing on recent quantitative data and literature review, the study explores how income inequality, racial disparity, family structure, and policing practices contribute to the cycles of incarceration. The research highlights the systemic inequalities that lead to harsher sentencing, over-policing, and limited post-incarceration opportunities for marginalized communities. By using multivariate regression analysis, a strong correlation between indicators of inequality and rates of crime was shown, which perpetuates systemic injustice in these communities. The findings suggest that while recent reforms—such as the reduction of mandatory minimum sentencing—have had a modest impact on incarceration rates, they fall short of addressing the deeper racial and economic inequalities that drive mass incarceration. This study advocates for comprehensive criminal justice reform beyond surface-level decriminalization efforts to address the root causes of inequality, particularly economic investment, community-based policing, and rehabilitation-focused prison systems.

Community-based policing of natural disasters in Vietnam: analysing the ‘four-on-the-spot’ model

ABSTRACT Vietnam, one of the few remaining communist countries in the world, is a unique and under-researched context for exploring the governance and provision of security before, during and after natural disasters. Its geographical location means that it is extremely vulnerable to the environmental impacts of climate change, particularly hydrometeorological disasters such as typhoons and floods. For this reason, policing scholars worldwide are increasingly interested in how Vietnam’s police agencies manage natural disasters. Up to now, most of the existing literature has centred on the experiences of Western countries. The lack of empirical research in countries like Vietnam accounts for our lesser knowledge of how communist approaches to community-based policing support disaster management, recovery, and resilience-building. In this study, we use a combination of desktop research, case studies, and interviews with police officers to describe how Vietnam’s ‘four-on-the-spot’ (FOTS) community-policing model aligns with the country’s disaster mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery capabilities. We consider the strengths and limitations of a FOTS-based approach to ‘resilience policing’ noted in the wider literature on adaptive governance and present some practical recommendations for enhancing the adaptability of Vietnamese police in disaster-prone regions. These lessons may potentially be applied to other climate-affected regions in Vietnam.

The challenges of community policing in maintaining community security: the case of Harar City, Ethiopia

ABSTRACT The adoption of community policing was expected to bring a paradigm shift in preventing crime and disorder. However, regardless of the practice of community policing as a strategy to maintain public security, the programme faces several challenges that hinder its proper implementation. The purpose of this article is to examine the challenges of community policing implementation in Harar City, Ethiopia. This article employed a qualitative research approach with a grounded theory design. The article used both primary and secondary data sources and the study participants were selected using a purposive sampling technique. Data was collected using key informant interviewees, focus group discussions, non-participant observation, and document analysis. The thematic analysis method was applied during the data analysis process. The study revealed that conceptual and practical, institutional, infrastructural challenges and political constraints derived from the community, the police organisation, and the government agencies limit the successful practices of community policing for maintaining public security in the study area. It is, therefore, recommended that the community, police organisation, government agencies, and other stakeholders have to coordinate and collaborate to alleviate or at least minimise the challenges of community-based policing in Harar City.

Ommunity Policing as a Strategy for Crime Reduction in Nigeria. (A Case Study of Yola North Local Government Area of Adamawa State)

Community policing is a symbiotic and concerted effort of the police and members of the host communities to reduce the incidence of crime and criminal activities. Nigeria, as a country, has embraced the concept of community-based policing to forestall crime and criminal activities since the return of democracy in 1999. This research critically scrutinizes the ideology and beliefs of community policing in the Nigerian context, aiming to offer solutions to the major setbacks of community policing inNigeria. A non-probability sampling technique was employed for the current study. Self-constructed questionnaires were used to acquire data. Results revealed that the community members are in constant healthy relationship with the police, but the police collaboration with the community members regarding crime control/detection is not encouraging. The effort of the police authority in crime detection and control is commendable, and the fear of crime has been declining since the initiation of community policing. Success was attributed to the constant collaboration of the police with other security agencies. The residents fully supported the concept of community policing. Still, they suggested that massive employment, funding security agencies, and organizing skill acquisition programs to engage the unemployed will greatly help in crime reduction in addition to the concept of community policing. The challenges faced by the security agencies include recruitment of unqualified personnel, insufficient crime-fighting equipment/patrol vehicles, inadequate remuneration of the security personnel, and lack of trust in the security agencies by the residents.

The Paradox of Child's Diversion Policy in Conflict with the Law in the Indonesian Child Criminal Justice System

This research aims to examine the paradox of implementing the diversion policy for children in conflict with the law in student brawl cases in DKI Jakarta. The research uses a qualitative approach with a case study method. Case analysis uses forecasting analysis framework by William Dunn (2003) and Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis by Chermack and Kasshanna (2007). There are three conclusions from this research. First, the problems of the diversion policy for children in conflict with the law are generally not caused by primordial factors but are caused by law enforcement investigators who often do not follow the mandate of the Law on The Child Criminal Justice System to determine child diversion. This is because the police apply criminal offenses based on the perpetrator's actions and can consider the recommendations of the Community Counselor of the Correctional Center. Second, there is a paradox in the implementation of the diversion policy for children in conflict with the law, starting from the high use of the Emergency Law in the Indonesian Legal System, the low competence of law enforcement officers in implementing the diversion policy for children in conflict with the law, terminating investigations without involving Community Counselor of the Correctional Center, to carrying out detention in correctional centers that are not child-friendly. Third, based on forecasting and SWOT analysis, it is necessary to transform juvenile justice legal policies in the future, especially increasing competency of the law enforcement officers, ensuring the availability of child-friendly infrastructure, supporting the child in conflict with the law advocacy and extensifying community-based policing.

Why we break the law and relapse: Exploring the societal factor-recidivism nexus among selected inmates in a custodial center

ABSTRACT Despite consistent literature supporting recidivism, data-based studies that explore the societal factor-recidivism nexus are essentially of Western sources, so only little empirical evidence linking the two variables exists in Nigeria. A cross-section of 38 recidivists were recruited using purposive and snowballing techniques. Thematic method was used to analyze the interview data. Different predictive variables were found, showing their areas of convergence and divergence, in recidivism causation. While lower class, poverty, sociocultural exclusion, inequality, discrimination, and stigmatization accounted for the leading causes, unemployment was not acknowledged as a main and/or direct predictor. The problem has severely impacted prison reforms, criminal justice administration, and norm validation that are aimed at (re)socialization of people within and outside the correctional institutions. Conducting in-depth oral interviews with offenders presents diverse practical pathways toward understanding the dynamics of offending and offenders, as well as missing links in the existing policy, research, and practice with a view to strengthening the evidence base and establishing what works in the real world. Gaining firsthand knowledge and insider information from the recidivists themselves will add to the global call for synergy and mutual reinforcement in both State and community-based policing, justice, and corrections for better performance outcomes.

The Hispanic Outreach: Network Analysis of a Community-Based Policing Program in South Los Angeles

This article examines the nature, movement, and controversies of the information flowing through a Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) community-based program in a predominantly Latino migrant neighborhood of South Los Angeles known as ‘the Hispanic Outreach’ (HO). Combining Actor-Network and Critical Race theories enables me to examine the world of police and Latino civilians through the groups, social actions, facts, and objects that compose it, as one single, unified set of interwoven associations and processes. Findings show that the HO claims to serve the public’s interests in safety in high crime environments but instead stirs local interracial conflict and Latino residents’ fears over questions of citizenship, belonging, and access to resources, and deepens state penetration into communities it deems as racial threats. I show how networks are state tools that reproduce and reinforce racial power and situate these findings within the field of Critical Sociology, particularly the areas of policing and Latino studies. And this article ends with a discussion of several potential research directions.

Community-based policing to control COVID-19 outbreak at communal clusters: A Vietnam perspective

The COVID-19 outbreak and its practical impacts are changing policing and police responses. Alongside the relentless efforts of the health sector, the role of police forces has been the subject of debate between the global South and North. As the first study in Vietnam, this paper explains how Vietnam’s police applied community-based policing to prevent and detect the interlaced occurrences among old and new patients at the communal cluster. Multiple sources were used to collect secondary data on police responses in the first lockdowns between February and March 2020. Online interviews with police leaders and six frontline officers were conducted to collect primary data. The findings show that, in each case, Vietnamese police implemented dynamic operations as much as possible in an effort to elicit voluntary collaborations to detect and contain COVID-19. Police used “onion-layer” and “door-to-door” approaches to coordinate and cooperate with their partners in the health sector. In addition, delivering persuasive propaganda was highly prioritized to incite local people to take up preventive measures rather than enforce them. The paper concludes with four specific recommendations and further discussions aimed at improving community-based policing’s effectiveness in future exceptional circumstances.

Pemolisian Intervensi dalam Situasi Kedaruratan: Studi Kasus Strategi Polresta Bogor dalam Penanggulangan Pandemi Covid-19 di Kota Bogor, Jawa Barat

This article argues for the importance of building an intervention-based policing model in an emergency situation. Through a case study of the Bogor Police's strategy in dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic, this article finds gaps in empirical and theoretical developments regarding the effectiveness of modern democracy-based and community-based policing models in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. This article looks at the importance of the intervention policing paradigm, which is a combination of values-based regulation in the community and the legitimacy-based regulation of the police authority. The intervention policing model emphasizes the importance of three police intervention approaches; participatory intervention, institutional intervention, and regulatory intervention as a policing model in emergency situations such as the Covid-19 pandemic

Politiser le « vide sécuritaire » : à propos des groupes d’autodéfense koglweogo au Burkina Faso

Au Burkina Faso, l’émergence récente des groupes d’autodéfense « koglweogo » est souvent mise en lien avec la notion de « vide sécuritaire ». Cependant, considérer l’émergence des koglweogo comme la manifestation de l’absence de l’État dépolitise les rapports de force qui sous-tendent le phénomène des groupes d’autodéfense. En nous appuyant sur l’analyse des justifications de l’émergence et du travail des koglweogo et de la politique de police de proximité censée leur donner un mandat officiel, nous mettons plutôt en lumière les luttes de pouvoirs qui se jouent autour de la détermination de la notion de sécurité même. C’est à travers ces rapports de force politiques et économiques que nous comprenons l’émergence et le « succès » de ces groupes dans une dynamique de formation de l’État.

A Bird’s-Eye View from the Field—How a Police Experts Network Can Be an Important Link in Facilitating Sustainable Community-Oriented Policing in Post-Conflict Contexts

Police reform in post-conflict societies is increasingly important in international peace support operations. Post-conflict situations are complex, and addressing security and insecurity issues is therefore challenging. Evaluations, field reports and research have frequently highlighted challenges related to how assistance is provided in connection with police reform. A common finding in these evaluations is that police reform programmes without local ownership and community involvement and support have little chance of succeeding. Community-oriented policing (COP) has therefore become an important policing philosophy and strategy in this context. This paper addresses issues related to the challenges in implementation of police reform by exploring the perennial question of how police assistance can be better utilised in a sustainable manner in post-conflict contexts. The paper is divided in two sections. In the first, we identify some key challenges facing international police assistance. Here we discuss six main challenges grounded in secondary literature comprising academic research and police mission reports. In the next section using the example of a broadly based police experts network (PEN) established in connection with the EU-funded research project ‘Community-Based Policing and Post-Conflict Police Reform’, the paper discusses how such a network can play an important role in contributing to policy formation, education and training programme development for use in police reform projects. The creation of the e-handbook and e-learning shows the potential for such a network to work and contribute in a cross-disciplinary manner. Furthermore, we identify four key ways in which this type of network can contribute to improved international police assistance. The work is exploratory and contributes to understanding of the complexities of police assistance in post-conflict contexts.

A Bird’s-Eye View from the Field—How a Police Experts Network Can Be an Important Link in Facilitating Sustainable Community-Oriented Policing in Post-Conflict Contexts

Police reform in post-conflict societies is increasingly important in international peace support operations. Post-conflict situations are complex, and addressing security and insecurity issues is therefore challenging. Evaluations, field reports and research have frequently highlighted challenges related to how assistance is provided in connection with police reform. A common finding in these evaluations is that police reform programmes without local ownership and community involvement and support have little chance of succeeding. Community-oriented policing (COP) has therefore become an important policing philosophy and strategy in this context. This paper addresses issues related to the challenges in implementation of police reform by exploring the perennial question of how police assistance can be better utilised in a sustainable manner in post-conflict contexts. The paper is divided in two sections. In the first, we identify some key challenges facing international police assistance. Here we discuss six main challenges grounded in secondary literature comprising academic research and police mission reports. In the next section using the example of a broadly based police experts network (PEN) established in connection with the EU-funded research project ‘Community-Based Policing and Post-Conflict Police Reform’, the paper discusses how such a network can play an important role in contributing to policy formation, education and training programme development for use in police reform projects. The creation of the e-handbook and e-learning shows the potential for such a network to work and contribute in a cross-disciplinary manner. Furthermore, we identify four key ways in which this type of network can contribute to improved international police assistance. The work is exploratory and contributes to understanding of the complexities of police assistance in post-conflict contexts.

Impacts of California Proposition 47 on crime in Santa Monica, California.

We examine patterns of reported crime in Santa Monica, California before and after the passage of Proposition 47, a 2014 initiative that reclassified some non-violent felonies as misdemeanors. We also investigate impacts of the opening of four new light rail stations in 2016 and of increased community-based policing starting in late 2018. Our statistical analyses of reclassified crimes—larceny, fraud, possession of narcotics, forgery, receiving/possessing stolen property—and non-reclassified ones are based on publicly available reported crime data from 2006 to 2019. These analyses examine reported crime at various levels: city-wide, within eight neighborhoods, and within a 450-meter radius of the new transit stations. Monthly reported reclassified crimes increased city-wide by approximately 15% after enactment of Proposition 47, with a significant drop observed in late 2018. Downtown exhibited the largest overall surge. Reported non-reclassified crimes fell overall by approximately 9%. Areas surrounding two new train stations, including Downtown, saw significant increases in reported crime after train service began. While reported reclassified crimes increased after passage of Proposition 47, non-reclassified crimes, for the most part, decreased or stayed constant, suggesting that Proposition 47 may have impacted reported crime in Santa Monica. Reported crimes decreased in late 2018 concurrent with the adoption of new community-based policing measures. Follow-up studies needed to confirm long-term trends may be challenging due to the COVID-19 pandemic that drastically changed societal conditions. While our research detects changes in reported crime, it does not provide causative explanations. Our work, along with other considerations relevant to public utility, respect for human rights, and existence of socioeconomic disparities, may be useful to law enforcement and policymakers to assess the overall effect of Proposition 47.

Possibilities of Advancing Police Reform in Guatemala through Community -Oriented Policing

The paper describes the process of security sector reform in Guatemala with reference to the efforts to implement community-based policing practices. The results point to the difficulties of shaking-off public understandings of security honed during the armed conflict and underscore the efforts of a still young police institution to position itself in a democratic context. The study posits that community-oriented policing strategies open opportunities to forward police reform in the high-violence, low-trust, weak-institutions, and post-conflict context of Guatemala. The argument is supported by field data gathered in indigenous territories in the Western Highlands, where traditional forms of social organization persist, and in metropolitan Villa Canales municipality, an urban, high-violence site of research.

Possibilities of Advancing Police Reform in Guatemala through Community -Oriented Policing

The paper describes the process of security sector reform in Guatemala with reference to the efforts to implement community-based policing practices. The results point to the difficulties of shaking-off public understandings of security honed during the armed conflict and underscore the efforts of a still young police institution to position itself in a democratic context. The study posits that community-oriented policing strategies open opportunities to forward police reform in the high-violence, low-trust, weak-institutions, and post-conflict context of Guatemala. The argument is supported by field data gathered in indigenous territories in the Western Highlands, where traditional forms of social organization persist, and in metropolitan Villa Canales municipality, an urban, high-violence site of research.

Policing in the Covid-19 Situation in Indonesia

Since March 2020, Indonesia has entered Covid-19 emergency status. Covid-19 pandemic situation forged various aspects, through social, economic, political, and cultural. This situation places Indonesia in a critical situation which has a great chance of social unrest. Indonesian National Police as the forefront of law enforcement in Indonesia, faces two real consequences: carrying out the main tasks of the police itself and additional tasks to deal with the Covid-19 emergency handling agenda. To support these tasks, Indonesian National Police issued at least 38 (thirty-eight) notice and internal regulation since March to May 2020. Thirteen of those 38 regulations ruled relation between police and community. By analyzing these thirteen regulations, I identified policing implementation in Indonesia. As a result, these thirteen regulations are dominated by points that indicate democratic policing where persuade, coordinate, anticipated, campaigns, encourage, and transparent being methods that mostly used in the enforcement framework. Indonesian National Police’s consistency in orienting towards community-based policing shows their commitment in promoting Indonesia values as democratic nation.

Community-based policing in COVID-19: a 4-P’s priorities of Vietnam’s police

ABSTRACT While the COVID-19 pandemic is still infecting without unpredictable estimations around the world, the role of law enforcement in the deal with this crisis is still debating. Mainly, among multidisciplinary research studies, the question of policing and police responses to deal with this virus is necessary to look for different approaches and several comparisons between national, regional, and international scale. This paper is the first study to introduce and analyse the model of community policing in COVID-19 in Vietnam as a new lens to balance between sensor and convince in policing. Using mixed methods research to combine between primary and secondary data in the period of five continuous phases, from January to July 2020, the study looks for how the 4-P's approach in policing of Vietnam contributed to limit the spread of the virus. Main findings pointed out that proactive activities, propaganda approaches, protective measures, and preventable forms are prioritised to implement in the community-based policing (CBP) to prevent and combat COVID-19. Depending on each scenario and relevant requirement, these four initiatives of Vietnam’s police will be conducted as flexible and harmonic as possible based on people-centred approaching. Finally, the paper identifies some practical recommendations that need further discussions to improve the effectiveness of CBP in health crisis in the future.

Administrative Reform in the Myanmar Police Force: Decision-Making and Community-Based Policing

The ongoing administrative reform in the Myanmar Police Force (MPF) has included adoption of community-based policing as the main philosophy of the police department since 2012; however, the democratic values inherent in the community-oriented concept have stagnated under the military influences in Myanmar caused by political instability and armed conflicts among the ethnicities of the country. Many research reports reveal that the success of reform with community-based policing is highly dependent on reducing military influences and establishing the police department as an independent organisation. Subsequently, the problem of adopting community-oriented policing has become chronic under the existing democratisation process. By utilising Herbert A. Simon’s decision-making study, the current study examined the decision-making process in community-based policing, and found that the problem of stagnation of democratic reform in the police department was caused by the nature of the MPF, cognitive limitations in the decision-making process, and value conflicts, rather than military influence.

Community-based policing

Psychology Proponents of community-based policing argue that positive nonenforcement experiences with police enhance citizens' trust and belief in the legitimacy of policing. Peyton et al. conducted a randomized field experiment to determine whether a single positive interaction could improve attitudes toward police. Police were trained in positive engagement strategies and assigned to talk with citizens for 10 minutes in a nonenforcement capacity. Surveys that were administered later found that citizens who had talked to officers held more positive attitudes toward the police 3 days and 21 days after those conversations compared with citizens who did not speak with an officer. These results have implications for improving relationships between citizens and police. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 116 , 19894 (2019).