Initiatives to Improve Police–Community Collaboration and Trust

Police organizations in many Western democracies had been experiencing reductions in serious and violent crime rates through 2020 and the unfortunate commencement of anti-police sentiment in many large cities. The enhanced effectiveness in crime control, which had been observed in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom since the mid-1990s, had apparently been correlated with the increased use of technology and the employment of proactive, enforcement-oriented strategies. As a direct result of this proactive approach, police resources had routinely been transitioned away from highly touted community policing efforts to investigative and enforcement units. While many law enforcement experts and administrators have viewed these initiatives as a ‘smarter’ form of policing, this has been countered by some advocates for predominantly minority neighbourhoods, who have often alleged racial and ethnic bias and other abusive conduct at the hands of the police, most notably in larger metropolitan centres. The purpose of this chapter will be to examine and identify practical options for direct community and victim engagement after highlighting prior legislation and agency practices that have been shown to increase transparency and police legitimacy in some Western democracies. Because of diminished trust and confidence in the policing profession over the last few years, it is imperative to revise policy to strengthen public and victim involvement in criminal justice processes. In particular, the ‘left realism’ theory of justice will be examined as a potential option for enhancing enforcement-oriented practices.