Community Policing in Context: Has it Come of Age?

Abstract

This paper identifies some of the critical conditions that help or hinder the development of community policing. The findings are timely given the current political emphasis on neighbourhood policing. The research on which it is based took place in three police forces of varying sizes and was based on a systems approach. Following an extensive literature review that concluded there is “no one best way” of achieving community policing it also established that it may be possible to identify the conditions in which critical success factors can come together to develop what is described as a coactive (community-based) policing style within a process of change. The research sought to test this proposition and asks whether in this sense community policing has really come of age. It concludes that while the conditions are right for community policing, significant barriers still remain before it can be conceived of as the normal way of conducting policing business. Attention to the management of change is required and in particular, the cultural conditions.