Trust and expertise in policing

Abstract

The author analyses the paradoxical relationship between trust, community and expert knowledge in community policing. One of the greatest paradoxes it tackles is that in countries which started community policing, there seems to be a wide discrepancy between the intentions of community policing and the actual practice of crime-sentencing and high incarceration levels. Also, engaging the community is much more complex than traditionally believed.
This paper is divided into four parts. First, the author makes some preliminary statements to avoid misunderstandings and clears the way for the ensuing discussion. Second, he discusses three ways to conceive this cluster of relationships in light of the findings of research. In the third part, he considers how the police can contribute to building trust between themselves and the public and, more importantly, between the members of the public themselves. In the concluding section, he propose criteria for democratic policing.