The report looks at the concept of community engagement in a policing context. It suggests that informal mechanisms of social control work best, with potential benefits including reduced crime and greater community capacity. It also looks at community engagement in practice. A draft definition of community engagement for the area of policing policy is offered and the consistency of international evidence for aspects of community engagement is assessed. The report addresses how to take community engagement forward as part of the police reform agenda.

Community engagement has become an increasingly important part of policy on policing in the last five years. The Home Office Police Reform Unit (PRU) commissioned the review as part of a wider project on community engagement in policing. The aim of the review was to

The literature review used the findings from existing reviews of outcome evaluations. Evidence from the literature was categorised into ‘empirical’, ‘practitioner self-assessment’ and ‘theoretical’. If three or more sources supported a specific theme, this was presented as ‘consistent’ evidence.

Consistent evidence was found around the implementation of community engagement, particularly in evaluations of large-scale community policing projects in the Unietd States. Various implementation issues were identified as being critical to the success of community engagement in policing, including the following:

Home Office
Phone: +44 20 7035 4848
public.enquiries@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk

01/03/2006

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Andy Myhill

research

Urban Policy > Security & crime prevention > Tackling crime

Enforcement & civil intervention