Watchman and Community: Myth and Institutionalization in Policing

• NCJ Number: 154083
• Journal: Law and Society Review Volume: 28 Issue: 2 Dated: (1994) Pages: 325-352
• Author(s): J P Crank
• Date Published: 1994
• Length: 28 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

The author uses a conceptual framework grounded in the theory of institutional process to assess developments in the theory of community-based policing.

Abstract

Community policing involved the adoption of elements of structure, activity, and policy designed to make the police look like an organization that is responding to problems associated with police professionalism (among them, abrasive enforcement practices that alienated minority communities and police inability to do much about crime. By the 1980's community-based policing was rapidly being institutionalized. Its popularity stemmed from its seeming potential to alleviate a broad range of social and moral dilemmas confronting contemporary urban society. In this essay on institutionalization in the policing sector, the author argues that institutionalization is a process guided by myth construction. He holds that the community policing movement is guided by powerful myths of community and watchman (Klockars 1991). Images of watchman and community do not derive their power from historical accuracy and thus are not vulnerable to inaccuracies in historical reporting. They derive their power to mobilize sentiment from the mythic images of watchmen as community protectors and communities as enclaves of traditional American values. The author further argues that institutional entrepreneurs have latched onto these myths and have modified them in an effort to influence the direction of policing at the outset of the 21st Century. Both liberal and conservative advocates for reform have drawn on these myths to support reinstitutionalizing police as community protectors with broad authority, including authority to arrest unconstrained by law enforcement or due process considerations. The essay discusses fundamental differences in the ways in which liberal and conservative reform advocates perceive the relationship between the myths. 54 references