NCJ Number
195131
Journal
Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management Volume: 25 Issue: 1 Dated: 2002 Pages: 60-79
Date Published
2002
Length
20 pages
Annotation
This article describes the evolution of community policing in the Netherlands during the last 30 years.
Abstract
Dutch police are socially conscious and have learned to combine “hard” and “soft” elements in their philosophy and practice. Initially the structure and culture of policing in the post-war period remained fairly rigid with a predominantly legal interpretation of the police role. The 1960's ushered in a more progressive and tolerant society. From the early 1970's on Dutch policing became socially conscious and engaged in a range of experiments. Many forces were structured on the three-layered model of reactive patrol, prevention patrol, and beat constables. At the end of the 1970's the legitimacy and credibility of the police in relation to citizens was seriously questioned. This criticism argued for changes in policing through a problem-oriented organization and initiated the start of the “neighborhood teams” movement. The most recent step has been the introduction of the new-style community beat officer during the 1990's. The specific tasks of the new community officers include building and maintaining networks with partners such as local government and social agencies. Nearly all forces work with a combination of neighborhood teams and community beat officers that are better integrated into the organization than previous efforts at community-oriented policing. In Amsterdam, the inner-city presents specific dilemmas for the police in terms of big city problems, a diverse range of residents, a highly political environment, the need to balance service delivery with a public order capacity. Community policing cannot solve the “hard-soft” dichotomy in police work, or the dilemma of proactive and reactive policing. The reality of policing means that the police have to fulfill their reactive duties in the field of calls for emergency service and criminal incidents as well. Police still retains its duality between force and service. Contemporary policing in the Netherlands has drawn on its own past and on models from abroad to combine a tradition of social policing with order maintenance and crime control. 47 references