Principles Of Community Policing Research Articles

Community policing practice in the Nigerian police: Implications of employee burnout

The Nigerian police force's implementation of community policing has coincided with increased criminal activities, exacerbated by factors like high youth unemployment, inadequate healthcare, malnutrition, poverty, banditry, and intercommunal conflicts. Against this backdrop, this aimed at assessing how burnout affects the implementation of community policing within the Nigerian police force. It specifically aimed to explore how three dimensions of burnout—emotional exhaustion, personal accomplishment, and depersonalization—influence officers' adherence to and practice of community policing principles. By examining these factors, the study sought to provide a comprehensive understanding of how the psychological well-being of police officers impacts their ability to effectively engage in community-oriented policing strategies. Participants were 369 police personnel, which consisted of 266 males and 94 females, with a mean age of 36.6 years. The study adopted the cross-sectional research design. The Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), and the Community Policing Inventory were used as measures of burnout and community policing respectively. Three hypotheses were tested with the multiple linear regression. Results revealed that emotional exhaustion did not significantly predict the practice of community policing (β = -.087, t = -1.332, p = .184), accounting for 8.7% variability in the practice of community policing. Personal accomplishment did not significantly predict the practice of community policing (β = .113, t = 1.951, p = .052), accounting for 11.3% variability in the practice of community policing. Depersonalization significantly negatively predicts the practice of community policing (β = -.275, t = -4.425, p <.001), accounting for 27.5% variability in the practice of community policing. It was recommended that future studies investigate the mediating and moderating variables that can provide a deeper understanding of the intricate relationship between burnout and community policing in the Nigerian setting.

Front porch roll calls: an innovative approach to community-oriented policing in Saginaw, MI

PurposeThis study aims to evaluate a promising community-oriented policing strategy called “front porch roll call” (FPRC), which involves conducting roll calls in public forums.Design/methodology/approachA mixed methods approach was used by drawing on survey data, field observations and qualitative interviews to describe how FPRCs were implemented in Saginaw, MI from 2019 to 2022, and how they can be successfully implemented to operate in accordance with the theoretical foundations of community-oriented policing.FindingsSurvey data from FPRC attendees reported improvements in their perceptions of police legitimacy, trust in the police and procedural fairness—each of which are vital pathways to developing collaborative crime prevention initiatives in community-oriented policing. Qualitative interviews and field observations provided unique insights into areas of improvement and ways to enhance sustainability for future use.Originality/valueCommunity-oriented policing offers a philosophical approach to addressing crime problems through the formation of localized, collaborative solutions that come from police-community partnerships. A key implementation challenge is that such programs can fail to align their initiatives with the theoretical principles of community policing. FPRCs offer an innovative solution that operates closely with the spirit of community-oriented policing. Data from a mixed-methods evaluation provide further insights into their challenges with implementation and ways to improve upon them.

Prevention Strategies for Policing Gun Violence

The police have the unique capacity to preempt and deter violence and to reduce the use of firearms in violent encounters. But overly aggressive policing tactics have contributed to a fraught relationship with low-income minority communities in which gun violence is heavily concentrated. Increased resources should be devoted to policing gun violence, but efforts of this sort must be targeted and disciplined. Effective policing requires a focus on the places and people that are at greatest risk; and there is a strong case for police agencies to increase the resources devoted to investigations of all criminal shootings, not just homicides. Successful policing of gun violence requires a productive working relationship with victims and their neighbors, which can be facilitated through observing community policing principles and respect for residents’ interests.

Best Practices for Community Policing and Crime Prevention in Nigeria

Community engagement lies at the core of policing. Therefore, through collaborative efforts, community and police members address crime and disorder using approaches determined to be best practices for their communities. Today, community policing involves a new philosophy of police operations and management; hosting an accountability system involving the entire organisation. Nevertheless, to be effective in preventing crime, Nigerian police must place renewed emphasis on community engagement and practices. Based on this premise, this paper examines the best practices for community policing and crime prevention in Nigeria. The paper began with an introduction which x-rayed community policing as evolving to meet the new expectations that emerge in the 21st Century. The paper further looked into the philosophical principles of community policing, crime prevention, community policing best practices for Nigeria, organisational changes for implementing community policing best practices for Nigeria, and the expected benefits of community policing to Nigerians. The paper concluded that while the ways of implementing community policing may differ in practice in accordance with certain conditions in the communities, it is imperative to know that the basic philosophical principles of community policing should always be adhered to, if the best practices for community policing is to be achieved in Nigeria.

Community Policing: An approach for Countering Youth Radicalization in Eastleigh Area of Nairobi County

Community policing approaches have been used successfully to prevent crime, reduce the fear of crime, and improve public safety. A raging debate, however, is emerging as to whether this approach can be used with equal effectiveness in the prevention of terrorism. Over the last sixteen years, Kenya has tried several approaches to “the war against terrorism.” However, none of the approaches has succeeded in stamping out terrorism. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to find out ways in which the philosophy of community policing could be modelled to fit a citizen based-counter terrorism strategy. The study established that community policing principles can be used to create sustainable partnerships between law enforcement agencies and residents, thus facilitating the identification of root causes of youth radicalization. Training of police officers on community policing principles and trends in youth radicalization was strongly recommended. Further, police officers should invest more in trust-building initiatives in establishing a joint early warning system with the local communities they serve. The study further recommends an intensive public awareness campaign on the nature, indicators, and symptoms of youth radicalization within Eastleigh and the country at large.

Community policing implementation in the Republic of Serbia: A view from the managers's perspective

Activities aimed at bringing the police closer to the local community and promoting the building of partnerships and common solutions to security problems are referred to as community policing. In the Republic of Serbia, community policing implementation formally started in 2003 through the 'Community Policing' project. After the initial period of implementation, community policing principles were expected to become part of the organizational culture of police organization and a distinctive feature of everyday police practice. Based upon research results presented in this paper, the authors sought to determine to what extent the concept of community policing came to fruition in Serbian police practice and how it works today. The research was directed towards the middle management of the Serbian police, where the sample included all regional police departments in Serbia. The paper concluded that at the time this research was conducted, community policing was not sufficiently implemented in the Serbian police practice, that reactive work still dominated over prevention and proactive work, the organizational structure did not allow greater representation of CP activities, there was a need for additional training of police officers and the legislation which could facilitate partnership between the police and the community was missing.

Community Policing in Schools: Relationship-Building and the Responsibilities of School Resource Officers

Abstract School resource officers (SROs) have become nearly ubiquitous in North American schools in the last three decades. Most research on SROs has examined their impact on violence and disorder at school, yielding mixed results; however, it is widely accepted that traditional law enforcement responsibilities comprise only one element of SROs’ triad of responsibilities, which also includes teaching and counselling. Although their responsibilities are based in community policing models, little research has explored the place of community policing principles within the work of SROs. Drawing upon mixed methods data collected from school administrators and SROs in a large Canadian city, this study examines relationship-building within the context of SROs’ triad of responsibilities. The results suggest that SROs follow a community policing approach and strategically foster mutually beneficial relationships to support their law enforcement, teaching, and counselling objectives. Further, as a result of their established relationships, SROs are positioned as key sources of support for school administrators.

“The Eyes and Ears on Our Frontlines”: Policing without Police to Counter Violent Extremism

As the US public has grown more concerned about domestic terrorist attacks and the abrogation of civil liberties in the pursuit of national security, law enforcement agencies increasingly have applied the principles of community policing to the problem of homegrown terrorism. This community policing approach has anchored Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) initiatives that mobilize local communities to combat terrorist radicalization and recruitment. To do so, this emerging model has tasked community members and social service providers like teachers and mental health professionals with identifying, reporting, and working with potential terrorists. Drawing from a two-year interpretive qualitative research study of CVE policy making and taking across the United States, I examine these emerging police–citizen practices, paying particular attention to how these new institutional arrangements enhance, rather than rein in, policing powers in the name of national security.

Attitudes and experiences of students at Basic Police Training Centre on community policing in Serbia

Community policing, as a new system of police organisation and functioning, which is based on the concept of police and community working together as equal partners in identifying, prioritising and problem solving, has been gaining more and more attention among researchers and scientists over the past few decades. Empirical research based on the premises of the new concept of policing is the focal point of this paper. In this paper, the authors present the study of attitudes and experiences of the students of the Basic Police Training Centre (hereinafter: BPTC) in Sremska Kamenica, Serbia, related to community policing. The survey conducted over 265 respondents from 8 regional police directorates in Serbia determines their attitudes and experiences related to community policing, as the new concept of policing. It is important to note that the research was focused on the attitudes of students as citizens, based on experience they gained before they entered the BPTC. The research has produced significant findings, since the starting point was that one of the basic principles of community policing is visibility and accessibility in the wider community. However, the data collected showed that about 2/3 of the respondents had never seen a pedestrian patrol in his/her community, and a little less than half of them had not seen a car patrol in his/her community for more than a month. The paper, apart from the introduction and conclusion, consists of four parts: the conceptual framework of the research, the methodological framework of the research, the research results and analysis and discussion.

Toward Enhancing Police-Community Relations in Nigeria: Problems and Prospects

<div><p>This paper examines the existing relationship between the police and members of the public in Nigeria, highlighting the various problems endemic in both parties (the police and the public). The paper provides the essential pragmatic means of further enhancing this relationship for a better and peaceful society through the principles of community policing. The authors take a multi-dimensional approach to the police public relationship (P-PR) in Nigeria positing thatprimarily, there are structural, organizational, and attitudinal factors that led to the deteriorating nature of the P-PR in Nigeria. The paper posits that co-operation between the police and the public is a prerequisite for the success of any law enforcement agency, notably the police as well as a better, peaceful, and harmonious society. The police alone cannot achieve this without support from the members of the public whom they serve. For that kind of good working condition to be created, the police need to be polite, friendly, approachable, honest, law abiding and demonstrate high sense of responsibility in dealing with members of the public and in discharging their duties. On the other hand, the public must understand that maintaining law and order is a collective responsibility between the parties and should do everything possible to assist the police in protecting lives and property. Good and objective partnership between the community and the police will help bring positive response to crimes and other social problems.This can be achieved by ensuring proper and genuine police reform in the country to overhaul the organization and by bringing to book corrupt officers and men as general and specific deterrence.</p></div>

British Counter-Terrorism After 7/7: Adapting Community Policing to the Fight Against Domestic Terrorism

After the Madrid and London train-bombings, perceptions of the sources of Islamic terrorism changed. The British response to domestic jihadism was to apply community-policing principles to counter-terrorism enforcement. This essay describes the origins and intentions of the community-based policing of terrorism and partnership programmes with Muslim faith organisations. Collaboration with Muslim partners has helped to build confidence within government agencies that Muslim leaders are keen to curb terrorism, but has failed to build trust among the general Muslim public. The application of community-policing principles is, it is argued, an effort to bridge steep trade-offs between effective prevention and the social and political integration of Britain's Muslims.

Canadian Muslims, Islamophobia and national security

Demographic changes in Canada have resulted in an increase in the Muslim portion of the Canadian population. The anti-Muslim “Islamophobia” reaction to the 9/11 attacks led to an isolation and marginalization of Canada's Muslim citizens and residents. As the isolation and marginalization of any community creates a National Security vulnerability, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police has been working with Muslim-Canadians using the principles of community policing to create trust and work towards the mutual goals of the safety of all Canadians.

Community Policing and Disputed Norms for Local Social Control in Post-Apartheid Johannesburg

Ryan Carrier (1999), reflecting on policing in South Africa, has pointed out that there may be different types of order that are not necessarily mutually exclusive: he argues that the type of order that the state seeks to guarantee may be different from the type of order that businesses, affluent suburbs, townships and corporations wish to establish or preserve. He concludes by saying that different types of order may call for different types of policing. Whilst this idea seems interesting regarding the way communities can gain control over their direct environment, it is also quite challenging when thinking of equality in the access to security – especially in South Africa, where the idea of ‘separate but equal’ development has sinister overtones. In the current worldwide context of security governance and of development of community policing principles, the line between what communities are entitled to do and what they should leave to the police is very blurred, particularly so when norms regarding social order vary in space and time. Security norms to be implemented at the neighbourhood level have to be negotiated between communities and public authorities, and within communities themselves. This article, based on field study in suburbs and townships in post-apartheid Johannesburg, argues that there are different ‘cultures’ of policing and different conceptions of local social order embedded in different local histories and contrasting socio-economic settings. The South African state is currently attempting to homogenise security practices and to ‘educate’ people in a democratic policing culture. At the same time it is also firmly setting some limits (for instance by rejecting road closures and vigilantism) to the local security experiments developed in the period following the demise of apartheid. However, its current policy, supposedly designed to ‘unify’ the policing systems under common principles, is based on the broad encouragement of community participation in the production of security, as well as on the promotion of zero-tolerance principles. These policies actually serve to exacerbate local differentiation regarding the content and practice of policing as well as the undemocratic principles rhetorically resisted by the state.

Homeland Security and Community Policing: Competing or Complementing Public Safety Policies

In the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist atrocities in the United States, a new organizational policy was introduced as “Homeland Security.” Both a concept and a governmental department, homeland security became the “in” policy, and as such invented a new organization and a new approach to public safety. As a result, however, the dominant policing policy up to that time — Community Policing — was largely sidestepped by homeland security efforts as well as budgets. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate that the two public safety policies actually have a great deal in common, and that homeland security is to benefit from integrating principles of community policing in its localized strategies.

Attitudinal differences between Taiwanese and American police officers

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to compare attitudinal differences between Taiwanese and US police officers.Design/methodology/approachThe paper studies interview and survey data collected from 288 officers in two Taiwanese departments and 638 officers in two US departments to assess police officers' role orientations and their attitudes toward aggressive law enforcement, legal restrictions, and citizen support. Mean comparison and multivariate regression were conducted to examine variation in officers' attitudes across countries.FindingsThe paper finds Taiwanese police officers differ significantly from their US counterparts in all attitudinal scales. Compared to US officers, Taiwanese officers tend to have a broader role orientation, positive attitudes toward aggressive patrol, and negative attitudes toward legal restrictions and citizen support.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper sees that future studies should analyze data collected from non‐English‐speaking countries in other regions. Future research should also collect data that reflect variation in economic and political developments. Multi‐level studies that incorporate both aggregate‐ and individual‐level predictors should be conducted to further broaden our understanding of officers' attitudes from an international and comparative perspective. More attitudinal dimensions should be considered in future research.Practical implicationsThe papers implies that Taiwanese and US police administrators should continue to cultivate attitudinal propensities that echo the underlying values and principles of community policing. Police administrators, especially Taiwanese police managers, should seek ways to improve officers' negative attitudes toward citizens.Originality/valueThe research in this paper examines officers' perceptions of the police role, law enforcement, and citizens, which have rarely been analyzed in previous cross‐national studies. This study enhances our understanding of police job‐related attitudes under different social and cultural contexts.

RESHAPING ORGANIZATIONAL SUBJECTIVITIES IN CANADA'S NATIONAL POLICE FORCE: THE DEVELOPMENT OF RCMP ALTERNATIVE DISPUTE RESOLUTION

This article examines how the Royal Canadian Mounted Police developed alternative dispute resolution mechanisms to reshape the organizational subjectivities of its members and managers in ways consistent with community policing principles. The governance of organizational conflicts is a significant aspect of police management. Moreover, since public conflict management is an important aspect of public policing, this article argues that public policing mentalities such as “legalistic-professional law-enforcement” and “community policing” directly influence how the police conceptualize and manage organizational conflicts.

Citizen police academies: Observing goals, objectives, and recent trends

The American police establishment is concentrating on a number of citizen-based tactics in an attempt to embrace the principles of community policing. One approach receiving widespread attention is the Citizen Police Academy. The idea of a Citizen Police Academy is being adopted at a phenomenal rate by a variety of law enforcement agencies. Administrators assume that the Citizen Police Academy is an effective technique for interacting with community members. The present research verifies the growth in this area and provides the first major descriptive analysis of this phenomenon.

Police Culture, Women Police and Attitudes towards Misconduct

It is frequently asserted that female police officers are less likely than their male counterparts to engage in misconduct or to approve of such behaviour by fellow officers. This paper assesses the extent to which such assumptions hold true in the case of Queensland police. The paper draws upon three sources of data: attitudinal surveys administered to serving police officers, police-initiated complaints, and public complaints against police. Attitudinal data showed few differences between male and female police officers in their views of ethical conduct and the stated willingness to report a fellow officer known to have behaved inappropriately. In addition, female recruits were found to be as likely as males to modify their views once they have spent some time ‘in the field’. Attitudinal results were supported by the finding that, regardless of gender, only a small number of officers below the rank of Sergeant were willing to initiate complaints of misconduct against a fellow police officer. Complaints against police data showed male officers were more likely than female officers to attract complaints, in particular, complaints of assault. Overall, the findings question the argument that female officers are inherently ‘more ethical’ in their outlook or that they are more willing to report misconduct than their male counterparts. While female police officers may not be inherently more ethical, their employment has some important organisational advantages, such as enabling a reduction in complaints, particularly those relating to the use of force, and a reinforcement of the principles of community policing.

Evaluating a Domestic Violence Program in a Community Policing Environment: Research Implementation Issues

The law enforcement response to domestic violence has changed dramatically in the last two decades. The most recent changes came about in the wake of community policing and its core elements: partnership and problem solving. This article traces the impact of these community policing values on the formation and operation of a domestic violence reduction program in Portland, Oregon. The differences between the police response to domestic violence in the context of traditional policing versus community policing are highlighted. Particular attention is given to the role of research in police policy formation when community policing principles are implemented.

Community Policing in Small Town and Rural America

Community policing has become a popular approach. Discussions of community policing have focused on urban and suburban departments, generally ignoring rural and small town police organizations. Ironically, many of these departments have a history of practices that correspond directly to the principles of community policing. For example, officers in these agencies typically know the citizens personally, have frequent face-to-face contact with them, and engage in a variety of problem-solving activities that fall outside of law enforcement. In neglecting small town and rural police, researchers have denied themselves an important natural laboratory for studying community policing.