Community Policing and Crime Reduction

The fourth and final part of this section exploring the role of the police in reducing

crime focuses on the role communities can play. Community policing The concept of community

policing first emerged in the 1970s, and has subsequently built up widespread support.

Problem-oriented policing (see above) and community engagement (see below) are both

central to effective community policing, which is built around the idea

of enhanced local accountability. Community policing tends to mean different things

to different people and lacks a clear definition, while the term community is itself

‘notoriously slippery’ (Tilley, 2008). And as with other models of