Search results

Although the private sector has long understood that a customer-focused service is synonymous with success, the concept is less embedded in public agencies such as the Police. Cultural studies consistently argue that police practitioners perceive “citizen focused” or “quality of service” approaches as distant to “real policing”, making the concept difficult to implement. The purpose of this paper is to explore the complex infrastructure required for the implementation of this approach, specifically focusing on senior police leadership.

Using semi-structured interviews across a diversity of police officers and staff it provides a case study of a city Police Force in England, who attempted to introduce a citizen focused approach between 2006-2010.

Senior police leaders were reported to exhibit distinct and consistent leadership styles with a “transformational” style more positively associated with the implementation of this agenda.

The study argues specific leadership styles are critical to the delivery of “quality” approaches.

No other case studies currently exist that have explored the role of police leadership in the field of quality service/citizen focused approaches.

The current drive for community engagement and the introduction of neighbourhood policing teams has highlighted the importance of gathering intelligence from communities. This article explores one initiative that seeks to do this, by discussing the method involved and the initial findings, which should inform crime reduction partnerships, the police and policy‐makers.

During the global economic downturn, those involved in the delivery of community safety and crime and disorder reduction must consider the economics of attempting to achieve their goals. Although there is a capacity for community volunteer schemes to be robustly implemented throughout crime and disorder reduction partnerships, (CDRPs), this paper will focus on the use of volunteers within the police service. This paper examines the use of volunteers within the police service in England and Wales and, in particular, the use of an economic costing model entitled VIVA, to illustrate the economic advantages of the volunteer approach. It is argued that increased use of volunteers would allow for greater public confidence and provide greater resonance in attempts by partnerships to engage with their communities.

The themes of accessibility and accountability have come to dominate the police reform agenda in the UK. They are evident, especially, in the rhetoric of ‘neighbourhood policing’, which has been delivered across England and Wales, and in the ‘policing pledge’, which sets out a series of commitments regarding what the public can expect from their local police service. This paper is concerned with exploring these themes and their application in neighbourhood policing. It examines how officers in two police services have sought to implement the requirements of neighbourhood policing and the policing pledge in terms of improving accessibility and accountability of local policing. In doing so, it focuses on arrangements for consulting with members of the public, providing updates regarding their actions and outcomes in addressing local problems and on the provision of data and maps about crime problems. Practice implications are identified.

The police service in London report a commitment to inspiring confidence from, and responding to the needs of black and minority ethnic communities. They are also committed to tackling the supply of crack cocaine and heroin, with which members of the Jamaican and Turkish communities respectively are strongly identified. Members of these communities report concerns about drug supply issues, but are extremely reluctant to co‐operate with the police to address them because they perceive that they are unfairly targeted, particularly by the stop and search strategy. The challenge is to implement a long‐term, community engagement programme with strategic level commitment.

UK government counter‐terrorism policy in the wake of the London bombings of 7 July 2005 has included an evolving set of measures seeking to engage the support of and productive interaction with UK citizens, so as to help oppose violent extremist ideology, to thwart potential sympathy for its proponents and to avert future incidents. The primary focus of such attempts has been Al‐Qaida‐influenced violent extremism. Government preventative measures have provoked controversy, especially in British Muslim communities. The article examines their reaction, from research commissioned by the Metropolitan Police Service and undertaken in London by the International School for Communities, Rights and Inclusion (ISCRI) from the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan), in its community engagement (CE) Pathfinder programme. The findings from this research find many parallels in recent academic literature and other commentaries. The authors contend that some government programmes have erroneously served to stigmatise UK Muslim communities ‘en masse’, which has been counter‐productive to the government objective of gaining community support and involvement, and has thereby compromised the effectiveness of counterterrorism preventative measures. The article highlights a different emphasis and some specific elements for a revised prevention policy in counter terrorism from consideration of these sources, including the primary evidence from Muslim communities themselves in the community engagement Pathfinder programme.

Neighbourhood policing is central to supporting public confidence in England and Wales. However, the delivery of neighbourhood policing models is increasingly fragmented and under pressure from austerity measures and from changes to demand and priorities. This research aims to understand the current state of neighbourhood policing in the county of “Rackhamshire” and its ability to support public confidence.

The authors conducted six focus groups, three with officers who were part of Community Policing Teams (CPTs) and three with members of the community who were actively engaged with community policing and local concerns. These were supplemented by two interviews with senior officers (35 participants in total).

Austerity-driven changes to policing in Rackhamshire have damaged the capacities of CPTs and residents have begun to lose confidence in the ability of the police to respond to their fears. The authors argue that reforms intended to make policing more efficient and effective appear to have the opposite effect on community policing, by preventing it from working in a way that can support public confidence and that this could have longer-term consequences.

The effects of austerity on the mechanisms by which neighbourhood policing supports confidence have been relatively neglected. By exploring the state of these mechanisms in one English constabulary, this research has exposed serious weaknesses in the way that community policing is able to support public confidence and suggests practical operational responses. In light of these findings, this study argues for the urgent reinstatement of earlier models of neighbourhood policing.

This paper aims to contribute towards our knowledge and understanding of volunteer street patrols working within community safety and pluralised policing. Through the increased responsibilisation of communities and individuals, volunteers are taking to the streets to help others in need and support the community safety infrastructure. The example of volunteer street patrols is used to explore the motivations of individuals participating in the local delivery of community safety and policing.

This research is drawn from ethnographic research consisting of 170 hours of participant observation on the streets of a northern UK city, Manchester, supported by 24 semi-structured interviews with volunteers and stakeholders who participate in a street patrol and those working alongside them.

Using a three-paradigm perspective for volunteer motivations, the themes altruism, civil connection and volunteering for leisure are applied to explore volunteer motivations. Through their actions, volunteers in the street patrol are motivated volunteers who can offer an additional and important resource within the local community safety and pluralised policing infrastructure.

This paper highlights volunteer street patrols offer a caring and supportive function to people in need on the street, one in support of the police and other agencies. It contributes to the growing understanding of those who volunteer in policing and community safety landscapes. As responsibilised citizens, they have an increased awareness of social problems. They are motivated individuals who wish to create and maintain safety and play an important role in policing the night-time economy.

Citizen trust in police is important in terms of citizen consent to government policies and of police achieving their organizational goals. In the previous study, improvements in police policy, organizational operation and policing activities were developed to clarify which factors influence trust in police and how trust can be improved. This research raises the question, would changes in trust in police have an impact on trust in government? In this paper, this research question is discussed theoretically and the causal relationship analyzed empirically by applying OLS, ordered logistic, 2SLS and logistic regressions.

The basic analysis methods are to apply the OLS and the ordered logistic regression. OLS regression analysis is an analytical method that minimizes an error range of a regression line. The assumptions for OLS are: linearity, independence, equilibrium, extrapolation and multicollinearity issues. These problems were statistically verified and analyzed, in order to confirm the robustness of the analysis results by comparing the results of the ordered logistic regression because of the sequence characteristic of the dependent variable. The data to be used in this study is the Asia Barometer Survey in 2013.

Trust in police and citizen perception of safety are analyzed as important factors to increase trust in the government. The effects of trust in police are more significant than the effects of control variables, and the direction and strength of the results are stable. The effect of trust in police on trust in government is strengthened by the perception of safety (IV). In addition, OLS, ordered logistic regression analysis, which analyzed trust in central government and local government, and logistic regression analysis categorized by trust and distrust show the stability.

This paper has implications in terms of theoretical and empirical analysis of the relationship between trust in police and trust in government. In addition, the impact of perception of safety on trust in police can be provided to police officers, policymakers and governors who are seeking to increase trust in government. This paper is also meaningful in that it is the microscopic research based on the citizens' survey. One of the limitations of macroscopic research is that it does not consider the individual perceptions of citizens.

The results of this paper can confirm the relationship of the virtuous cycle, which is perception of safety – trust in police – trust in government. The police will need to provide security services to improve citizens' perception of safety and make great efforts to create safer communities and society. Trust in police formed through this process can be an important component of trust in government. By making citizens feel safer and achieving trust in police, ultimately, trust in government will be improved.

The police perform one of the essential roles of government and are one of the major components of trust in government, but the police sector has been neglected compared to the roles of the economic and political sectors. These influences of macro factors are too abstract to allow specific policy directions to be suggested. If we consider trust in police, and factors that can improve trust in government, we can suggest practical policy alternatives.