Dr Alistair Henry (SIPR) Dr Simon Mackenzie (SCCJR)

1. Dr Alistair Henry (SIPR) Dr Simon Mackenzie (SCCJR) Understanding community policing: knowledge transfer and police perspectives

2. Outline Why knowledge transfer with the police (and how does it differ from research)? Main themes from our literature review, and how these are brought out in the data generated by the KT processes. Emerging themes from the KT which are new and/or interesting.

3. The project 3 years (2009-11) Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council Focus on community policing in L & B Detailed schedule of police-academic engagement activities Greater than average focus on dissemination as a form of communication

4. Aims and objectives 1. To build a workable system of KT between the partners that can continue beyond the funded life of the project. 2. For this system of KT to include: a. A conduit for the transfer of academic research findings and theoretical developments into community policing practice, and b. A conduit for the transfer of operational community policing experiences, successes, failures and constraints into the academic research database. Also four initial key themes: • institutional memory • appreciation of the role • relationship between particular initiatives and long-term vision • measuring the benefits.

5. Why KT? • KT relatively new for criminology • Our KT model is a collaborative form of research in which participants perform some of the research tasks • Researcher and researched • Evaluation, documentation, monitoring of good practice • Efficiency in research • Enables open ended research, without the constraints of pre-decided research questions and methods • Directly responsive to police experiences • New ground-up research questions

6. Methods • Literature review • Focus groups and workshops • Strategic command level • Chief inspectors and sector inspectors • CBOs • Diary: diary-interview • Shadowing and virtual shadowing • Systematic self-observation

7. Research and practice: understanding CP from the literature and the KT process Overview of the academic literature review The ambiguity of CP Challenges of CP in the literature and from the KT process (Specificity vs. fluidity of definition; valuing difficult-to-measure work; partnership working; the challenge of ‘community engagement’)

8. Overview of the academic literature review Historical development of the concept of ‘community policing’ Defining community policing Comparative perspectives and the Scottish experience The international ‘what works’ literature Key challenges to implementing CP

9. The ambiguity of CP “(T)he concept (of CP) itself was very difficult to pin down. Rather like trying to catch hold of soap in the bath.” (Williamson, 2005: 153) “CP is not a set of specific projects; rather, it involves changing decision-making processes and creating new cultures within police departments. It is an organizational strategy that leaves setting priorities and the means of achieving them largely to residents and the police who serve in their neighbourhoods. CP is a process rather than a product.” (Skogan, 2006: 5)

10. Broadly agreed features of CP: Decentralisation of responsibility Partnership with other public agencies Community engagement Proactive and problem-solving orientation of the police organisation Philosophy of CP as ‘real’ police work (See: Skogan, 2006; Alderson, 1979; Friedmann, 1992; Tilley, 2008)

11. Challenges of CP in the literature and from the KT process Specificity vs. flexibility in CP - tensions in the literature (see Skogan, 2006) – recognised value in being clear about what CP is/is not - without reducing it to a pre-set list of products/prescriptions to be deployed - tensions noted in KT – recognition of “individual community needs” - “one size does not fit all” – CP requires “imagination and creativity” – “we can give them general guidelines…but I don’t think we can be prescriptive”

12. Valuing difficult to measure work Literature: it’s difficult to measure the success of preventative strategies (Pease, 2002; Tilley, 2001); deployment of PIs in organisations can result in low status being given to tasks that are not easily measured (Hough, 2007; Fitzgerald et al, 2002) KT: “It’s difficult to measure what a CBO does, in a target driven organisation like the police, where everything’s got to have a number attached to it.”

13. Partnership working Literature and KT: - partnership is an essential component of CP - nature of community problems and quality of life issues requires ‘joined-up’ responses - problem-orientated cooperation amongst partners ensures ‘something gets done’ KT: Extensive and creative partnership working at multiple levels in L&B and Edinburgh: Edinburgh Capital; NAUs; Community Safety; joint patrol schemes; TAC meetings

14. The challenge of ‘community engagement’ Literature: - problem of ‘the usual suspects’ (Crawford, 1997; Myhill, 2006; Herbert, 2006) – less of a problem where beat areas are small enough for residents to probably share concerns (Skogan, 2006); - difficulty of accessing ‘hard to reach groups’ (Jones and Newburn, 2001) - limited evidence of CP enhancing community capacity (Tuffin et al, 2006) – evidence it’s needed for real community engagement

15. KT: - problem of ‘the usual suspects’ - “It’s the same people all the time” - “We need to get them to tell us what their priorities are - instead of me going ‘well, your priorities must be ASB, drinking and vandalism, therefore I’m going to solve that’” - police take the lead on things and make them happen – but better if the community have more capacity to be proactive

16. Emerging themes • Individual factors • ‘Fluidity’ and ‘discretion’ manifest in much individual-level local creativity in best practice • Organisational factors • Employment conditions • Difficult fit with conventional PIs • Cultural factors • A role which is highly valued in some senses, but not in others • Emotional labour and the personal investment in being a CBO

17. Going forward Website for dissemination: http://police.sccjr.ac.uk/ Simon Mackenzie s.mackenzie@lbss.gla.ac.uk Alistair Henry a.henry@ed.ac.uk