Neighbourhood Policing Research Articles

Shelter in place: neighborhood policing of homelessness in Montreal, Canada

ABSTRACT Montreal police officers are increasingly called on to respond to visible homelessness. While previous research has focused on strategies of containment or banishment (where individuals experiencing homelessness are removed from certain areas of the city to more homelessness resource–rich areas by the police or expelled entirely), this study presents evidence of a different strategy: that of maintaining individuals within a given neighborhood. Drawing on 29 semi-structured interviews conducted with officers from the Service de Police de la Ville de Montréal (City of Montreal Police Service or SPVM) about the nature of their work with homeless individuals, a neighborhood-level analysis of these interventions found that officers often saw the neighborhood location of a homeless individual as key. The findings revealed officers bonding and creating alliances with homeless individuals, the presence of neighborhood-specific homelessness resources as central to their interventions, and a concern around the migration of homeless individuals from one area of the city to another. In addressing the role of police officers in frontline interventions with individuals experiencing homelessness, a consideration of the centrality of the precinct neighborhood is essential.

Neighborhood Safety and Neighborhood Police Violence Are Associated with Psychological Distress among English- and Spanish-Speaking Transgender Women of Color in New York City: Finding from the TURNNT Cohort Study.

Transgender women of color (TWOC) experience high rates of police violence and victimization compared to other sexual and gender minority groups, as well as compared to other White transgender and cisgender women. While past studies have demonstrated how frequent police harassment is associated with higher psychological distress, the effect of neighborhood safety and neighborhood police violence on TWOC's mental health is rarely studied. In this study, we examine the association between neighborhood safety and neighborhood police violence with psychological distress among TWOC. Baseline self-reported data are from the TURNNT ("Trying to Understand Relationships, Networks and Neighborhoods among Transgender Woman of Color") Cohort Study (analytic n = 303). Recruitment for the study began September 2020 and ended November 2022. Eligibility criteria included being a TWOC, age 18-55, English- or Spanish-speaking, and planning to reside in the New York City metropolitan area for at least 1year. In multivariable analyses, neighborhood safety and neighborhood police violence were associated with psychological distress. For example, individuals who reported medium levels of neighborhood police violence had 1.15 [1.03, 1.28] times the odds of experiencing psychological distress compared to those who experienced low levels of neighborhood police violence. Our data suggest that neighborhood safety and neighborhood police violence were associated with increased psychological distress among TWOC. Policies and programs to address neighborhood police violence (such as body cameras and legal consequences for abusive officers) may improve mental health among TWOC.

Neighbourhood-level policing as a racialised gendered stressor: multilevel analysis of police stops and preterm birth in Seattle, Washington

BackgroundMost studies capturing the health effects of police violence focus on directly impacted individuals, but a burgeoning field of study is capturing the indirect, community-level health effects of policing. Few...

Autonomy and Connection: How Ward Panels Support Neighbourhood Policing

Abstract Neighbourhood or community policing is receiving renewed attention internationally as a means of responding to a perceived legitimacy crisis in police forces globally. However, with budgets still tight in the post-Covid environment, understanding which activities are most effective and efficient in supporting confidence and legitimacy is vital. This article looks at the workings of London’s community-driven ward panel system, chaired by volunteers but administered by the Metropolitan Police. It reports on a study that asked how ward panels contributed to neighbourhood policing; one of very few to explore ward panels as a community policing structure. A series of observations and interviews were carried out as part of a case study of a single London borough. The study found that ward panels contributed in a number of ways, facilitating partnership working, building connections with hard-to-reach communities, and enhancing police accessibility. Significantly, several panels had begun to develop autonomy in identifying and resolving local problems. This article discusses the potential for semi-autonomous community bodies such as ward panels to contribute to the work of community or neighbourhood policing, thereby relieving demand on forces, and weighs up the risks entailed.

The informal tripart relationship between the state, neighbourhood police and community groups: community safety perceptions and practices in a Midlands neighbourhood in the UK

PurposeThis paper aims to explore the tripart relationship between British police officers, Local Authority representatives and community members based on a Midlands neighbourhood case study. It focuses on experiences of the strengths and challenges with working towards a common purpose of community safety and resilience building.Design/methodology/approachData was collected in 2019 prior to enforced COVID lockdown restrictions following Staffordshire University ethical approval. An inductive qualitative methods approach of semi-structured individual and group interviews was used with community members (N = 30) and professionals (N = 15), using a purposive and snowball sample. A steering group with academic, police and Local Authority representation co-designed the study and identified the first tier of participants.FindingsCommunity members and professionals valued tripart working and perceived communication, visibility, longevity and trust as key to addressing localised community safety issues. Challenges were raised around communication modes and frequency, cultural barriers to accessing information and inadequate resources and responses to issues. Environmental crime was a high priority for community members, along with tackling drug-related crime and diverting youth disorder, which concurred with police concern. However, the anti-terrorism agenda was a pre-occupation for the Local Authority, and school concerns included modern slavery crime.Originality/valueWhen state involvement and investment in neighbourhoods decline, community member activism enthusiasm for neighbourhood improvement reduces, contrasting with government expectations. Community members are committed partnership workers who require the state to visibly and demonstrably engage. Faith in state actors can be restored when professionals are consistently present, communicate and follow up on actions.

Between trust and resentment: Examining competing views toward the police in Latino neighborhoods

ABSTRACT In this paper, I examine citizen-police interactions in Latino communities near the US-Mexico border. Drawing on evidence from sixty-one in-depth interviews with residents, activists, and nonprofit workers living in San Diego, I explore Latinos’ perceptions of the police. Interview data, in conjunction with observational evidence from work with community-based organizations, revealed heterogeneity in the views of Latinos toward the police. Some Latino residents were skeptical of the police and resented policing practices, including sobriety checkpoints, vehicle seizures, and investigatory stops that targeted people concerning documentation status or prior system involvement, while other Latino residents trusted the police and their efforts to reduce crime. Yet still, some Latino residents expressed critical and positive views about the police. Interview data also highlight the financial, psychological, and social strain of local police practices on Latinos who have uncertain status or live in mixed-status households. These findings underscore the centrality of the criminal legal system in the lives of many Latinos and draw attention to heterogeneity in their experiences with, and views about, the police.

Heterogeneous causal effects of neighbourhood policing in New York City with staggered adoption of the policy

Abstract In New York City, neighbourhood policing was adopted at the police precinct level over the years 2015–2018, and it is of interest to both (1) evaluate the impact of the policy, and (2) understand what types of communities are most impacted by the policy, raising questions of heterogeneous treatment effects. We develop novel statistical approaches that are robust to unmeasured confounding bias to study the causal effect of policies implemented at the community level. We find that neighbourhood policing decreases discretionary arrests in certain areas of the city, but has little effect on crime or racial disparities in arrest rates.

The Past as Prologue: Police Stops and Legacies of Complaints About Neighborhood Police Misconduct

Quantitative analyses show that police stop and frisks are highly concentrated by neighborhood. Interview and ethnographic studies show that police routinely share information about neighborhood attributes including crime rates and demographic characteristics such as racial and ethnic composition and economic conditions. Investigations suggest that police also share information about complaints against them. Our analysis bridges these three literatures and examines whether a neighborhood's historical and contemporary complaints about police mistreatment are a significant source of police stops. Our research focuses on complaints and stops in Chicago. We find that stops are more frequent in neighborhoods where historical and contemporary complaints are high, as well as in communities with high concentrations of economically disadvantaged, Hispanic, and especially Black residents. We find that these associations hold net of potential sources of spuriousness, including prior police stops and crime. Police perceptions of the race of the person stopped contextualize the relationships between stops and complaints: they are exacerbated for people the police identified as Black. Our findings suggest that complaints and the narratives they engender may be enduring systemic sources of bias in police behavior.

Long-Term Exposure to Neighborhood Policing and the Racial/Ethnic Gap in High School Graduation.

Researchers are increasingly exploring the consequences of policing for the educational outcomes of minority youth. This study contributes to this literature by asking three questions. First, what are racial/ethnic disparities in long-term exposure to neighborhood policing? Second, how does this exposure affect high school graduation? Third, how much of the ethnoracial gap in high school graduation would remain if neighborhood policing was equalized? To address these questions, we use data from the New York City Department of Education and follow five cohorts of NYC public school students from middle to high school. Our findings reveal starkly different experiences with neighborhood policing across racial/ethnic groups. Using novel methods for time-varying treatment effects, we find that long-term exposure to neighborhood policing has negative effects on high school graduation, with important differences across racial/ethnic groups. Using gap-closing estimands, we show that assigning a sample of Black and Latino students to the same level of neighborhood policing as White students would close the Black-White gap in high school graduation by more than one quarter and the Latino-White gap by almost one fifth. Alternatively, we explore interventions where policing is solely a function of violent crime, which close the Black-White gap by as much as one tenth. Our study advances previous research by focusing on cumulative, long-term exposure to neighborhood policing and by assessing various counterfactual scenarios that inform research and policy.

Detecting Abnormal Activities in ATM Centres

Abstract: A given user enters the ATM, conducts the various tasks that are available, such as withdrawing cash, checking the balance in their bank account, and many other things. This is how an ATM of a particular bank operates in today's world, and it is not that difficult. In this study, we concentrate on what is overlooked amidst this normalised situation. A user may enter the ATM with his or her face partially or completely covered, making it impossible for the security camera that might be installed in that space to identify that person's facial features. In addition, there may be unlawful acts going on in the room without anyone taking urgent action to stop them or regulate them. Some users might bring illegal firearms into the ATM room, which might not even be seen by the installed CCTV camera. In this study, we want to enhance the facial recognition of ATM users such that their faces can be recognised even when partially or completely hidden. Then, if a certain user enters the room carrying an illegal weapon, a trigger should be sent to the neighbourhood police station. This is part of our effort to improve weapon detection

Trust in the police and policing by consent in turbulent times

PurposeThis paper aims to explore the potential impact on policing by consent and trust in the police of diminished political and generalised trust.Design/methodology/approachThis paper draws on a range of academic literature on trust, the legal foundations of policing by consent, police occupational culture, disproportionality and neighbourhood policing.FindingsAn analytical framework is developed by recognising that policing by consent can be conceived as comprising two complementary facets, police state consent and police citizen consent and drawing lose mappings between police state consent and political trust and police citizen consent and generalised trust. This supports the argument that the importance of tackling disproportionality in policing practices and an increased emphasis on neighbourhood policing are not only valuable for reasons recognised in existing literature but also because they may bolster policing by consent in circumstances of reduced political trust and contribute to increased generalised trust across society.Originality/valueThis paper builds upon existing work on trust in the police and policing by consent to give novel insights into the importance of neighbourhood policing and tackling disproportionality. The analytical frame developed also highlights new areas for nuanced research questions in the field of trust and provides grounding from which policy objectives for policing can be developed.

History of the Neighbourhood Police Officers’ Service 3. From political transition

Target: The last element of the series of articles dealing with the history of the local officer service examines the period since the regime change. The aim of this article is to investigate how the democratization processes in the period since the change of regime have affected this form of service.Methodology: We examine the period under discussion primarily in relation to the population and local governments and the tasks of the criminal service as indications. We established our results by comparing the contemporary literature and normative provisions. We also relied on our own observations.Findings: From our results, it can be concluded that by 1978 the form of service had reached its existing form at the time of writing this article. However, contact with the population and local politicians has been increasingly relegated to the background since the time of the regime change. The same can be said for criminal service tasks and, in general, for the complexity of local police service.Value: Based on our findings, it seems necessary to reform the form of service otherwise, its existence will become questionable.

Doing the right thing? value conflicts and community policing

ABSTRACT Research on police legitimacy and public confidence underlines the importance of the police demonstrating moral alignment with the communities they serve. However, less attention is given to conflict between values, either within communities or between communities and the police. This study explores value conflicts in community or neighbourhood policing from a perspective of political realism, which suggests that such conflicts are inevitable and can only be resolved in temporary and contingent ways. It does so through a case study of neighbourhood policing, seen through local ward panel meetings, in one London borough. In total, 33 semi-structured interviews with 43 participants were undertaken, and seven hours of observations. This paper identifies four value-based conflicts that emerged through the meetings, and shows how neighbourhood police officers were able to provisionally resolve them, thus supporting confidence and legitimacy. However, it also shows how austerity has put this capacity at risk, both operationally, and through a receding of confidence as an organisational priority, with potential long-term consequences for public confidence in the police. With global protests such as Black Lives Matters, and anti-lockdown demonstrations, underlining the importance of public confidence and legitimacy to police organisations across the world, this paper adds to the evidence on the capacity of community policing to support this, offers a new perspective to understand the role of values in policing, and discusses the policy implications.

Hacer legible a Ciudad Neza: reestatalización del gobierno mediante la reforma policial democrática

Based on an ethnographic review of professional experiences in “democratic security” policies in Mexico (2011-2017), this paper analyzes the appropriation of community policing schemes by certain local authorities. As illustrated by the neighborhood police service in Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl, this process involves diverse actors such as social scientists and members of civil society organizations, whose co-production of security and citizen participation programs can be aligned with illiberal and, in fact, characteristically state projects –i.e., introducing police intermediation in the clientelist management of services and demands, as well as making the population socially and spatially legible in terms of planned intervention.

Gestational exposure to neighborhood police-reported crime and early childhood blood pressure in Durham, NC.

Gestational exposure to police-reported crime is associated with adverse birth outcomes, but no previous research has evaluated the effects of gestational crime exposure on early childhood health or attempted to disentangle the health effects of neighborhood crime from the effects of neighborhood policing. Using data from 672 Newborn Epigenetics Study participants, we evaluate the effects of gestational exposure to violent crime and racialized drug policing on early childhood blood pressure. We demonstrate that violence and drug policing are consistently associated with increased blood pressure among children born to Black participants but not White or Latinx participants.

The Cumulative Discretion of Police over Community Complaints

Many policing practices that scholars have identified as deeply flawed are precisely those demanded in police-community meetings. How do initiatives intended for police reform become dominated by demands for more policing? I analyze 1.5 years of ethnographic data on the New York Police Department’s neighborhood policing meetings. Amid highly publicized police violence, America’s largest police force is curating the public’s complaints—not ignoring them—from constituents strategically cultivated through community initiatives. Whereas existing studies conceptualize complaints as grievance tools or liability risks, this case reveals how police conceive community complaints as endorsements of services. This conception guides “cumulative discretion” or selective decision-making across multiple stages: police mobilize, record, internalize, and represent complaints demanding police services, while excluding those seeking reforms to over- and unequal policing. Gaps thus persist between the reforms that some residents seek and the services that police offer. This article offers insights into how organizational imperatives for legitimacy can undermine institutional reforms.

History of the Neighbourhood Police Officers’ Service 2. From the beginning to the regime change

Aim: In addition to presenting the first neighbourhood police officers’ regulation, the authors of the work undertake to process and describe the main changes and events of the 60s, 70s and 80s concerning the neighbourhood police officers’ service. In addition, it is important to adequately present the spirit of the neighbourhood police officers’ service of the era.Methodology: From a methodological point of view, the work is based on document analysis, in addition to the contemporary literature, the official legal sources of the period are also analyzed, using historical and taxonomic processing.Findings: The neighbourhood police officers’ service, which began in the 1950s, was consolidated into the 1960s. Replacing the orders of the Minister of the Interior, which previously regulated the form of service, the first unified neighbourhood police officers’ regulation was born in 1964. The rules formulated at that time in relation to the form of service proved to be timeless. As a special feature of the spirituality of the neighbourhood police officers’ system in the period under review, the duality of togetherness and discrimination can be highlighted. The neighbourhood police officers’ badge served that purpose, which on the one hand strengthened the district commissioner’s cohesion, and on the other hand distinguished perceptible to the outside world as well or if you like highlighted the neighbourhood police officers from the police force, referring to the high level of personal responsibility which can be derived from the complex system of tasks of the neighbourhood police officers.Value: The professional-historical review ranges from the stabilization of the neighbourhood police officers’ service after the initial period to the regime change, so it is limited to the period between 1960 and 1990. The examination of the activity of the neighbourhood police officers’ system operating in the smooth period of the Hungarian People’s Republic, also referred to as the Kádár regime, free of major internal and external conflicts, is suitable for detecting periodic tendencies and drawing conclusions based on them.

Assessing the deterrent effect of symbolic guardianship through neighbourhood watch signs and police signs: a virtual reality study

ABSTRACT This study examines the deterrent effects of neighbourhood watch signs and police signs as measures of symbolic guardianship on burglars versus non-offenders. In a virtual reality experiment, 181 burglars and 172 non-offenders scouted a virtual neighbourhood and were exposed to neighbourhood watch signs and/or signs suggesting police surveillance in the area. With neighbourhood watch signs present, both burglars and non-offenders perceived the neighbourhood residents as more likely to intervene. Burglars were also more likely to select a target closer to the exit than non-offenders when neighbourhood watch signs were present. The presence of police signs reduced the time spent scouting and the distance travelled for both burglars and non-offenders. Furthermore, as compared to non-offenders burglars selected houses with easier access, travelled less distance, and reported higher anticipation of neighbourhood resident intervention. Symbolic guardianship through neighbourhood watch or police sign seems to elicit only small effects in deterring burglars. They should not immediately be discounted as preventive measures, however, as small-effect interventions may be valuable as additions to well-established interventions.

Assessing the deterrent effect of symbolic guardianship through neighbourhood watch signs and police signs: a virtual reality study

Assessing the deterrent effect of symbolic guardianship through neighbourhood watch signs and police signs: a virtual reality study

History of the Neighbourhood Police Officers’ Service 1. The Beginnings

Aim: The purpose of the present study is to show how the district commissioner, a representative of the service that blurs the boundaries between disciplines and service branches, was born and how the complex policing mindset that formed the basis of it was created.Methodology: Numerous, critical and evaluative writings on the new form of service have been published by contemporary experts, providing an excellent source for presenting the eventful initial period of a revolutionary form of service that began in the specific circumstances of a particular system of the past. In terms of methodology, the work is based on document analysis, in addition to the literature, the official legal sources of the period are also analyzed, using the method of historical and systematic processing.Findings: In the early 1950s, it was recognized that the law enforcement tools previously used were no longer able to effectively meet citizens’ need for public safety and to deal effectively against the post-war crime structure. Therefore, in the political easing that took place in 1953, the actual home affairs leadership was committed to reforms. As a result, the practice of the police’s public order specialization changed, as the area responsibility system and then the neighbourhood police officers’ service built on its ruins professed completely different principles and methods compared to previous forms of service. After the introduction of the neighbourhood police officers’service in 1954, the decade was about finding a way out of childhood illnesses. Although the neighbourhood police officers’ service was created as an example, a system already operating and proven in the Soviet Union, this form of service could not be adopted without modification, so it seemed necessary to adapt it to the specifics of Hungarian society.Value: As a result of the review of the development history of the service form, we can draw conclusions about the purposefulness and effectiveness of the current operation.