NCJ Number
142287
Date Published
1992
Length
24 pages
Annotation
This report surveys existing French research concerning four aspects of community policing: the implementation of community policing, the collaboration of security agencies, the relationship between police and population, and an overall evaluation of this new police strategy.
Abstract
First, the limited existing research appears to indicate that the initial implementation of community policing in France has been successful, although it by no means represents a solution to the problems of the more troublesome neighborhoods. Second, security agencies agree that a close collaboration is desirable, but they are hindered by numerous administrative regulations and their highly hierarchical internal organization. Third, police-community relations have always been poorly developed in France, but recent attitude surveys show that the population is especially doubtful whether the police can create a safe neighborhood; consequently, experts believe that community policing can only be effective in neighborhoods which are already relatively safe. Last, no statistics are available on the overall impact of community policing on French crime; however, several studies show that the project has had a positive impact on the attitudes of the involved populations. Police officers also seem to respond favorably because the variety of community policing tasks makes their jobs more interesting.