Twitter Feed

“Trying to catch soap in the bath” Observations on getting to the core of the slippery idea of community policing

Fife Constabulary - Community Engagement_LoRes

Written by Dr Alistair Henry, Associate Director (SIPR) and Lecturer in Criminology (University of Edinburgh).

It was the late Tom Williamson who characterised efforts to define or “pin down” community policing as being like “trying to catch soap in the bath”. As a former deputy chief constable of Nottinghamshire constabulary, who also completed a PhD and became an academic at Portsmouth University, he was writing from both professional experience and with an understanding of the extensive research and policy literatures. To be sure, there is no single, agreed definition of community policing and the purpose of this post is not to scrabble around in the bathwater for one. Instead I’m just going to suggest that although indeed slippery (in that it can mean different things to different people and in different places – no bad thing really) ‘community policing’ does have some generally agreed and distinctive features (all policing is not community policing). For another chief officer, academic and one of the most radical thinkers about community policing – John Alderson – these core features of community policing were really about helping the police to adapt and be responsive to new problems in an ever-changing world – to be a ‘learning organisation’ in current management speak.

Community Policing is all about the Ps – working in partnership, engaging with and consulting people, being proactive, being problem-orientated, and giving priority to such important (and demanding) work. For Alderson (and many others) working in partnership with other agencies and consulting local people are important not least because they involve the police in active communication with others; hearing their views and taking account of different perspectives on problems (there may even be disagreements on what the problems are and that’s a healthy conversation to have). Organisations that learn do so from looking outside to the world and what is going on. This in turn provides the wider perspective on problems that can help the police to be more proactive in responding to emerging or new problems, preventing harms before they occur, very often with necessary input from partner agencies because the police are not magicians and cannot be doing everything (and should not be expected to be). All of this is challenging work to do in practice that just won’t happen if it isn’t made a priority.

It’s clear that community policing offers no simple (or single) recipe for action, but it does describe an outward-looking engagement with the world that allows for some creativity. The police in Scotland have a documented track record of such creativity and there is a lot of good research evidence out there to support its further development, but the world keeps changing and so the community policing practice and the community policing research needs to keep changing too. We might never quite be able to “pin down” community policing but we can keep learning.

Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.

Alistair Henry
Associate Director (SIPR)
Lecturer in Criminology

Picture : Police Scotland. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License

Social Share:

Other Latest News

Seldom Heard Voices: Community Impact Event 

01/05/2023

In 2021, SIPR, Police Scotland and Scottish Police Authority funded 5 grants to support research into ‘Seldom Heard’ communities. On Wednesday 26th April, we hosted a collaborative event to present the final research projects to an audience of academics, community members, NGO members, and Police Scotland staff and serving officers. First up, Kirsty Forrester from Dundee City Council and Dr Jonathan Mendel from the University of Dundee discussed their collaborative research with BAME communities and serving officers, highlighting the need for trust. Second, Dr Andrew Williams from St. Andrews and Inspector Jason Peter from the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit presented their ‘Photovoice’ Project which aimed to encourage young people in areas of inequality to engage with their community by taking pictures. Third, Dr Julie Berg and Emily Mann from University of Glasgow and University of Edinburgh respectively presented their project’ Accounting for Complexities: an Intersectional Approach to Enhancing Police Practitioner Accountability, Legitimacy & Sustainable Reform’. Fourth, Professor James Moir and Dr Corinne Jola from Abertay University focus on the topic of empathy with LGBT youth who are care experienced or are from other disadvantaged background. Finally, Bryony Nisbet from Queen Margaret University presented her and Dr Nicole Vidal’s research into refugee and asylum-seeker experiences, trust and confidence with Police Scotland. Following the presentations, representatives from Police Scotland and the Scottish Police Authority were invited to reflect on the findings and recommendations, and to provide assurances of the SPA and Police Scotland’s ongoing commitment to the communities and the issues raised. Assistant Chief Constable Emma Bond, said: “This important research underlines our commitment to listening to all our communities so we can continually improve how we represent, reflect and serve them. “Providing every citizen with a just and effective police service is fundamental to policing legitimacy and to our ability to keep people safe. “A great strength of Police Scotland is that our officers and staff are drawn from different backgrounds and experiences. What unites us is our shared and non-negotiable set of values – integrity, fairness, respect and a commitment to upholding human rights. “I am grateful to everyone who contributed to this work and we are already considering the recommendations made so that we can continue to design our services to best meet the needs of our communities.” Tom Halpin from the Scottish Police Authority said “The Authority is committed to policing in the public interest, to do that we must understand public views, opinions, and concerns. The research published today will allow us to gain more insight into where to target our activity and attention to ensure we build the strongest relationships we can with all communities in Scotland.” SIPR Director Liz Aston underlined SIPR’s commitment stating that “SIPR will continue to support the dissemination of these important research findings in order to ensure that they impact policing policy and practice”. SIPR hopes to continue to support research into Seldom Heard Communities.

Announcement

28/04/2023

After seven years as a SIPR Associate Director, Professor Denise Martin has made the difficult decision to step down.

SIPR Associate Director

28/04/2023

Following Professor Denise Martin’s decision to step down from her role as SIPR Associate Director and lead of the Education and Leadership network, SIPR is now inviting applications from prospective candidates to take on this role.

SIPR Newsletter Sign Up

You will be added to our mailing list to keep you updated with future events and activities from the Scottish Institute for Policing Research

This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. For further information please read our Privacy Policy.