NCJ Number
225443
Journal
British Journal of Criminology Volume: 48 Issue: 6 Dated: November 2008 Pages: 778-797
Date Published
November 2008
Length
20 pages
Annotation
This study assessed the delivery of community policing by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), with attention to police engagement with Northern Ireland’s grass-roots community organizations.
Abstract
The study found that the PSNI’s attempts at community policing have been impeded by the historic divisions and diversity within the population. Still, the findings show more fundamental reasons for the PSNI’s inability to develop a cooperative interaction with community organizations in identifying and addressing problems of crime and disorder. Efforts at community policing have lacked focus and effective leadership. The person in charge of developing and implementing the PSNI’s community policing efforts was a junior, middle-ranking civil servant with no background in policing and no relevant leadership or management experience. In addition, in many areas of Northern Ireland, the reactive style of policing is deeply entrenched. There is little evidence that police officers as a whole are familiar with, let alone embrace, the concepts and practices of community policing. Thus, the difficult issue of how to involve the local community in cooperative enterprises with the police has just begun to be addressed. One of the most important challenges that must be addressed is the unwillingness of some segments of the public to accept the legitimacy of the PSNI. The PSNI is in the position of having to prove that it can deliver unbiased, beneficial services to a diverse or mistrusting sectarian population. Community policing, effectively learned and implemented across the broad spectrum of police activities can help in this effort. Research for this paper drew from extensive, qualitative interviews with the PSNI personnel, community-based organizations, members of the District Policing Partnership, and politicians in Loyalist/Unionist and Republic/Nationalist areas of Northern Ireland. Sixty-seven interviews were conducted between November 2007 and May 2008. 104 references