NCJ Number
185269
Journal
European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research Volume: 8 Issue: 3 Dated: September 2000 Pages: 353-378
Date Published
September 2000
Length
26 pages
Annotation
The first part of this article deals with the public opinion of the police and how the police deal with the public; the second part of the article considers the situation of a public policing service as an urban police force.
Abstract
Consideration of the relationship between the police and the public usually focuses on two sets of data. The first relates to the public image of the police in terms of reputation, prestige, confidence, and/or service quality. A highly honorable image of the police usually emerges from opinion polls, in Western countries at least. Fairly typically, however, the less actual contact the members of the public have had with the police, the more positive their assessment; persons who have actually used the police service are considerably less satisfied, and such dissatisfaction increases with contact with this service. This calls for a study of the basic interfaces of the daily relationship between the police and the public, ranging from the more straightforward and general types of contact to the more complex and specific tasks. The first part of this report notes that the rather positive reputation enjoyed by the police among the general public is not reciprocated. Specialists agree that the police force has a suspicious attitude toward the public, which is usually legitimated by a feeling of systematic public hostility. The persistence of these two concurrent yet contradictory facts shows that the relationship between the police and the public comprises a deep-seated misunderstanding that must be examined. The second part of this report shows that these internal dynamics in police action and priorities between competing pressures and demands from the authorities, the public, and the profession have been revolutionized over the last 50 years by two types of major social phenomena. The technical revolution in the transport and communications field has transformed the means of contacting the police, their modes of action, and consequently the relationship between the police, the area policed, and the local populations. By and large, the research, reflection, training, programming, experimentation, and reforms that have been conducted in and on urban police forces have focused on one issue: how to forge, renew, and develop a relationship based on mutual trust between the police and the public. 11 references