Community policing seems always in vogue, yet its essential qualities remain elusive. There has been a rush to evaluate community policing before commentators have got to grips with what community police officers do which is distinctive. This book demonstrates, in detail, how community police officers go about such matters as gathering crime-relevant information from people in the local community, how they apply informal social control to public disorder situations, and how they 'play' the police organization itself in order to obtain resources they need and to secure their own advancement. However, such a brief is not sufficient in itself. The point is to use such a discussion of working practices to assess the conceptual apparatus which has been developed to understand community policing, and to evaluate the potential of community policing to achieve the objectives which policy-makers have set for it. That is the agenda of this book.
Readership: Academics and professionals interested in policing issues. Profesional criminologists, Police studies experts, sociologists interested in crime and social control; policy makers.
Nigel Fielding, Professor of Sociology, Department of Sociology, University of Surrey
"'Hurrah for Professor Fielding's analysis of community policing practice, and his insightful grasp of its essentials...Professor Fielding's account is outstanding...and I cannot give it higher praise than to rank it in importance with the work of Michael Banton and Robert Reiner.'" - Criminal Justice
"'This is a most interesting book... Because of the style of the research this book contains much that is usually lost in discussions of police work.'"
