Örebro University
School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences Political science
Mutual trust - Community policing as a
trust-building method in a Swedish
police context
Political science, Second Cycle Independent project, 30 credits, 2020 Author: Sara Hallman Jecic Supervisor: Joachim Åström
ABSTRACT
Community policing has been developed in the Anglo-American countries and implemented in the Swedish Police Authority during the last years. One of its main goals is to reach a proximity to citizens and thereby increase the level of trust. A qualitative interview study is used to scruti-nize how community policing stands as a trust-building method, by looking closer into the police trust to citizens connected to their approach to community policing and identifying potential dif-ferences in the police organization. The result shows a deviation in the police’s trust in citizens which relates to their approach to community policing. Partially, a difference is reflected in the police perception of the citizens’ perspectives and ability to comprehend the police profession, indicating that the citizen role should rather be of informative than of participating character. To-gether with a review on earlier research of what constitutes trust and demonstrated deficiencies in the implementation of community policing in the Swedish Police Authority, the results imply a weak foundation for police pledges as an effective measure to gain trust.
ACKKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The writing of this thesis has been followed by a great learning experience for the author regard-ing improvement of academic skills and gainregard-ing of new insights. I would especially like to thank my supervisor Joachim Åström for indispensable guidance and thoughtful input, which has been essential for the quality and completion of this thesis. Also, a special thanks to the two Swedish Police Regions for their cooperation and helpful approach making this study possible. The police officers’ positive attitudes towards having somebody scrutinizing their field of work and their readiness to give off sincere and straight responses is something I include in this experience. Not least, I’m grateful for the support from my family and my classmates for empowering attitudes and inspiring discussions.
May 2020
TABLE OF CONTENT
1 INTRODUCTION 5
1.1 Purpose and research questions ... 8
2 BACKGROUND 9 3 RESEARCH REVIEW 10 3.1 Review introduction ... 10
3.2 Review results ... 12
3.3 Review conclusion and discussion ... 14
4 THEORETICAL APPROACH 15 4.1 The concept of trust ... 15
4.2 Community policing and citizen participation ... 17
4.3 Proximity policing ... 18
4.4 “Where you stand depends on where you sit” ... 20
5 METHODOLOGY/METHOD 21 5.1 Case selection and choice of method ... 22
5.2 Research process ... 23
5.3 Analysis procedure ... 26
5.4 The quality of the study ... 26
5.5 Ethical considerations ... 28
6 RESULT AND ANALYSIS 29 6.1 The police’s trust in citizens ... 29
6.2 The police’s trust and their approach to community policing ... 32
6.3 Variation of trust in the police organization ... 37
6.4 Conclusions ... 40
7 DISCUSSION 41 8 LIST OF REFERENCES 45 9 APPENDICES 48 9.1 Appendix A - Interview guide ... 48
9.2 Appendix B - Overview of reviewed articles ... 51
LIST OF TABLES Table 1 – Description of respondents’ professions ... 24
Table 2 – List of interview respondents ... 25
1 INTRODUCTION
Citizen participation has become an important matter for public institutions and has led to politi-cians and policy makers depositing a part of their power to include everyday people in decisions affecting them. To what extent and under what circumstances this should function is widely dis-cussed. The concept of including citizens in the decision-making process has also become a pri-ority for the Swedish Police Authpri-ority allocating an increased amount of resources in developing the police-citizen relationship accordingly to community policing.
Community engagement in policing is developed as a strategy to involve citizens to participate, influence and engage, at different levels, to solve local problems. Social mechanisms are ought to function more effectively compared to enforcement-based policing in reducing crime and dis-order as well as increasing the feeling of safety and improve the police-community relation. This applies to both the community’s perception of police officers and the police officers’ attitudes and approaches towards citizens, whilst the improved relationship between the police and citi-zens is further expected to generate an increased level of trust. (Myhill, 2012, pp. 1-4). The need of citizen participation is described as not only an expansion of democracy, but as an importance to include a society characterized by diversity to strengthen the citizens’ self-reliance and confi-dence in empowering others. This is brought forward as a necessity to deal with the complex problems that society faces. (BRÅ, 2016a, p. 4).
Community engagement in policing has been developed in the US and UK, although the devel-opment has gone in different directions and has functioned parallel together with other kinds of policing in both countries. Along with community policing, other strategies with similar basic principles have been developed including more or less of community engagement, e.g. neigh-bourhood policing, problem-oriented policing, intelligence-led policing etc. (Myhill, 2012, pp. 13-14). Earlier policing models were mainly represented through enforcement-based policing, consisting of a reactive approach and a large focus on crime control. There were not much room for civil dialogue or citizen involvement, there was rather a one-way communication were the citizens had an informative role towards the police (Myhill, 2012, p. 12). As an example, ‘Bro-ken windows’ policing, refers to a visible disorder in a community, such as vandalism or graffiti, implying a risk of a negative development and increased disorder. This approach, unlike commu-nity policing, indicates that criminal activities are committed by ‘outsiders’, rather than members
of the community and intensive police enforcement is advocated as a solution. (Myhill, 2012, p. 23).
In research, it has been stated that there is a lack of a coherent definition of community policing (Fielding 2005; Holmberg 2005; Johnston 2013). But some common traits of the fundamental idea can be discerned and consists of decentralisation of police work, more focus on prevention than enforcement, increased police visibility and presence and creating a partnership and a closer relationship with the community (Holmberg, 2005, p. 206).
To ensure an effective implementation of community engagement, certain conditions, or imple-mentations issues, needs to be addressed. E.g. the institutional context is considered important, community engagement is somehow described as a ‘philosophy’ for the organization to accept and embrace and is to be considered as a part of the organizational culture and the core work. Community policing requires an approach of the authorities of sharing their power, and a notion that their actions are performed together with the community, rather than for the community. Flexibility and local adaptations are important, as well as communication and creating a relation-ship build on confidence and trust (Myhill, 2012, p. 4).
Some critiques against community policing has been proposed from different directions. E.g. the fact that the citizens’ feeling of safety and perception of problems risks becoming an important incidence rather than statistics and experts’ opinions (Terpstra, 2011, pp. 88-89). Peterson (2010) describes implementation difficulties in different cultural contexts where implementation of community policing in Britain as a part of a greater organizational development, generating cer-tain presuppositions which differ from other contexts. Whereas the Swedish police officers when introduced to community policing rather approached the method as ‘social work’ rather than ‘real police work’, producing an organizational division in the police force (Peterson, 2010, pp. 41-43). Further critique is participation related to the level of democracy, where low participa-tion not only reduce the representaparticipa-tion, and the voice of the community belongs to a small, per-haps already privileged, group of the community, but also undermines the legitimacy of neigh-bourhood policing for the police officers (Bullock & Leeney, 20, pp. 6-7).
Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (BRÅ) have together with Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (SALAR) and the Swedish Police Authority developed a method to work in partnership for local crime prevention work. The method advises
knowledge-based formalized cooperation among different interests to create a better understanding of the lo-cal conditions and form a joint force against crime. An important element in the process consists of community engagement and citizens’ participation, accordingly with the principles of commu-nity policing (BRÅ, 2016b, pp. 11-13).
In the Swedish Police force operational plan for the period 2020-2024, community engagement in policing is emphasized. One of the overall goals is a strong local presence, and it’s determined that: ‘Local community participation regarding police crime prevention and security work will
be strengthen trough ‘police pledges’ and a dialogue with the citizens’ (my translation),
(Polismyndighetens verksamhetsplan 2020-2024, p. 19).
‘Police pledge’ (medborgarlöfte), is a method with the purpose to create a closer relationship to citizens and a more available police force for society to achieve confidence and safety. This is achieved by a close cooperation between the local police and the municipality, and the commu-nity is constituting an important part of the process. Specific local problems are defined, partly developed through civil dialogue, and certain actions are thereafter implemented. When the citi-zens experience influence in the decision-making process, and actions are brought out accord-ingly, the police will gain more trust and improve the crime prevention work and create security (Polismyndigheten, 2015, p. 4-9).
The police need the citizens’ support and trust in order to carry out an effective law enforcement work. Studies have shown that societies with a higher level of trust in the police indicate that the citizens are more inclined to follow the rule of law and cooperate with the police. Further, the police are dependent on citizens’ cooperation for an effective work, that would mean low police trust in the public affect the police efficiency. (Mourtgos et al., 2019, pp. 1-2). Altough trust in a relationship is considered mutual, in most of the studies the focus lies on the citizens trust in the police. To better understand citizens trust in the police, we need to get a grasp of the reversed, the police approach to and trust in citizens. Afterall, it’s the police developing and carrying out strategies and methods aiming to increase the trust of the public. Hence, it’s the police defining a problem with trust with certain motivations and ideas of solutions. The trust operates mutually, when the police lack trust in citizens, it seems like citizens don’t trust the police (Mourtgos et al., 2019, p. 2). At the same time, mutual mistrust is considered an obstacle for community policing implementation and getting citizens involved (Myhill, 2012, p. 66).
1.1 Purpose and research questions
How does police pledges stand as a method to create more trust in the police? How the police as-sess community policing and police pledges as a trust-building strategy needs to be taken into consideration in order to achieve a better understanding. Based on the premises that a successful implementation of community policing relies on a coherent approach to its basic principles throughout the organization, the inquiry needs to cover the different professions at different lev-els in the organization. At the same time, this presupposition is by some advocates, considered one of the more difficult to achieve. Different measures demand different amount of resources and prerequisites. Opinions on what should compose a priority within the crime prevention work is constantly under discussion as well as what constitutes trust. It could e.g. consist of solving crimes, ensure procedural justice etc. Hence, the police could do other priorities, or should com-munity policing be prioritized?
While trust between the police and citizens is considered mutual, this study focuses on the police trust in citizens, partly because police pledges has been developed as a method and implemented by the police in order to gain trust. When studying whether the police trust their strategy aiming to gain trust, another aspect is if the police have the trust in citizens that they strive to gain. To understand how community policing and police pledges stands as an effective method to gain trust, the purpose is to develop the understanding of how the police adhere to and consider com-munity policing as a legitimate method to gain trust. Since the method is founded in comcom-munity policing principles which is dependent on the prerequisites of the organization, their institutional context is also taken into consideration. Since trust in the police is one of the intentions and trust is a joint phenomenon, the police’s trust in citizens makes up one part of the study as well as how community policing is assessed equally in the organisation. To clarify the analysis proce-dure and simplify a systematic inquiry, three research questions are formulated:
1. How does the police trust the citizens?
2. Does the police’s trust to citizens relates with their approach to community policing? 3. How can we understand the variation of trust within the police organization?
2 BACKGROUND
The Swedish Police Authority is a part of the Swedish justice system aiming towards reducing crime and increase security. The police organization is made up out of seven police regions which consists of a total of 97 police areas, which in turn consists of around 5-10 local police ar-eas. The organization structure within the local police areas can differ but in general consists of a local police area manager, municipal police officers, intervention, and crime prevention. Inter-vention includes patrol and managing unforeseen events while crime preInter-vention consists of working with long-term measures to reduce crimes and increase the security. (BRÅ, 2018:14, pp. 134-135).
During 2013-2014 a large-scale reorganization took place within the Swedish authority. The aim of the reform was e.g. to create a clearer control and better conditions for higher quality, in-creased cost efficiency, greater flexibility and improved results for police operations. One of the goals consisted of a better contact to the citizens and it would be done e.g. through a cohesive authority (Statskontoret, 2018, pp. 11-12). In the previous organization, each county was a police district which consisted of a police authority. Each police authority was considered an independ-ent authority responsible for managemindepend-ent and implemindepend-entation of the police operations within their respective districts (SOU 2012:13, p. 112). This organization was considered contributing to an insufficient ability to make authoritative decisions for the National Police Board. The in-vestigation suggested one cohesive national authority which meant a centralization of speciali-ties, e.g. the establishment of a National Forensic Centre and a Department of Special Investiga-tions (SOU 2012:13, p. 194).
The Swedish Agency for Public Management compiled a final report of the police reorganization in 2018. The report states that the reform was found more difficult to implement than expected, among other things, the internal information and communication regarding the reform were con-sidered a deficiency. E.g. it took a long time to recruit squad commanders which contributed to difficulties to reach out with information throughout the organization (Statskontoret, 2018, p. 30).
The reform meant the introduction of local- and municipal police officers (områdes- och kom-munpoliser), which would create a proximity to the community and a focus on local problems, together with a developed cooperation with municipalities. Although, the report states that it’s
not possible to detect any measurable effects in this area. As a part of an effort to create a closer relation to the citizens, police pledges were introduced (Statskontoret, 2018, p. 47).
Moreover, the report determines that the presuppositions for a closer relation to the citizens have been created, but the police still lacks routines managing citizens opinions in a structured way. Also, a decreased trust in the local police work has been notified since the reform (Statskontoret, 2018, p. 46). Ambiguities in governance and difficulties to recruit personnel led to poorer ability to investigate crimes and to work proactively with crime prevention. (“Stora brister i polisorgani-sationen”, 2017).
In summary, the police reform was conducted to increase the efficiency and create a unitary po-lice organization. The reform involved both a centralization and a decentralization of the organi-zation. In the top of the organization, national departments were adapted to e.g. strengthen the analytical capacity. And in the bottom of the organization, a closer contact with the community and cooperation with local actors were promoted as a part of local crime prevention work. To carry out the new organization structure could perhaps have been easier in theory than in prac-tice, whereas the implementation of the reorganization has been received with criticism. 3 RESEARCH REVIEW
This section describes the conducted research review of community policing to scrutinize exist-ing research. This is preformed to gain an overview of accessible knowledge, and theories and methods used in previous inquiries.
3.1 Review introduction
The research review was conducted systematically according to Petticrew and Roberts (2006). This implicate that the review follows a planned research protocol in order to systematically im-plement the review and managing the, perhaps, large amount of results. The process is imple-mented to confirm that relevant literature is collected in a specific field, and to limit the risk of bias. (Petticrew & Roberts, 2006, pp. 44-45). The review aims at scrutinising relevant knowledge and experiences of community policing and the connection to trust. The following search string was used:
noft(policing OR policy) AND noft(police* OR cop*) AND noft(trust OR confiden*)AND noft(citiz*)
International Bibliography of the Social Sciences, IBSS, was used as the database. The police-citizen relationship and trust have traditionally been scrutinized by different scientific perspec-tives e.g. psychology, has considerably been used to explain trust in relationships. Although, the main focus has rather been to study trust at an individual level, whereas the aim of this study is to scrutinize trust from a broader perspective, at an organizational level. Also, a criminological perspective could be assumed to hold relevant articles, although during a brief examination of the topic in criminological databases, the result was found limited. And since IBSS is a multidis-ciplinary database, also articles published in journals of criminology were retrieved in the search, and the choice to use IBSS as a sufficient selection was made.
A total of 130 articles were retrieved. In order to sort out articles relevant for the research ques-tions, certain criterions need to be specified. (Petticrew & Roberts, 2006, p. 61). Only peer re-viewed articles written in English or Swedish were included. One exclusion criterion consisted of the geographical aspect, only countries that in some regards entitles as occidental, or western countries, were included. In this review, i.e. European countries, North American countries, Aus-tralia and New Zeeland. The reason was mainly due to the, in some respects, similar social and cultural contexts which can to some extent historically be traced to Europe. Implementation of community policing is to a high degree dependent on the local context, which implies a different functioning and other outcomes in different kinds of communities. Another exclusion criterion consisted of studies with a focus on e.g. deprived areas or minority groups. It might be assumed that trust building strategies addressing specific areas or groups of people, differentiates from strategies targeting larger contexts and entire countries. Trust building strategies focusing on spe-cific minority groups or deprived areas, could be assumed to hold certain presuppositions due to the choice of implementing a targeted effort, compared to the rest of the society. The aim in this review is rather to get information about general strategies and approaches.
Inclusion criteria
- Peer reviewed articles
- Published in scholarly journals - Available in Swedish or English
Exclusion criteria
- Studies applied on other than western countries - Focuses on minority groups or deprived areas
After applying the inclusion and exclusion criterion, 10 articles were left to be included in the review. Further, a summary of the respective article and their main conclusions were made and is presented in the following section.
3.2 Review results
Finland together with the other Nordic countries have usually been associated with a high level of trust, which Kääriäinen (2008) attempts to search for explanations for this. The results show that factors that are generally promoted when aiming to increase the trust to police, e.g. proxim-ity to citizens and police efficiency to solve and prevent crimes, has limited effects. Instead, broader social factors, such as a functioning welfare society, seems to be an important aspect. The study further explains trust as a rather general phenomenon and makes a connection to level of social capital in a society where inequality and corruption create distrust to public institutions in general, the police authority included (Kääriäinen, 2008, pp. 154-156).
Kääriäinen and Sirén (2011) approaches trust in the police by scrutinizing if the level of trust af-fects the inclination of victims to report crimes and finds that there is no such connection. There are rather other factors determine the propensity, such as the relationship between the victim and perpetrator and the significance of the crime. Further, the links between high or low trust in the police connected to high or low trust in fellow citizens, labelled as generalized trust is mentioned as an important factor when explaining the inclination of reporting crimes (Kääriäinen & Sirén, 2011, pp. 75-78).
A study conducted by Nalla et. al (2018) on the police-community relationship in Slovenia, found that community members’ willingness to cooperate and take part in crime prevention measures is higher than the police’s perception of their willingness to do so. The authors sug-gesting that this could be based in the police lacking confidence in citizens participation in police matters. The study also examined the divergence of attitude towards community policing in the police organization, and found a more positive approach in police officers with an older age, those who earned more money and those placed in smaller police departments (Nalla et. al, 2018, pp. 285-286).
Stanko et. al (2012) looks closer into confidence in policing and indicates the importance of the police to demonstrate trustworthiness, fair treatment and efficiency and is therefore promoted to be taken into consideration in policing development. The desire to gain more trust has challenged
the police culture, at the same time, it’s stated that change in the police organization takes a long time (Stanko et al, 2012, pp. 328-329).
Van Craen & Skogan (2015) looks closer into earlier research on police treatment of citizens as a determinant for trust to the police and if responsiveness of the police affects the trust. The study shows that different theories can be used to explain trust to the police, but that the perception of the police responsiveness determines trust to a higher degree than e.g. perception of equal treat-ment by the police and feelings of security (Van Craen & Skogan, 2015, pp. 143-144).
Based on the premise that in order for the police to do an effective job, it relies on cooperation with the community, Moravcová (2015) does research on what factors enhances people’s will-ingness to cooperate with the police in four central European countries. Two different perspec-tives were used, the normative perspective, i.e. that police legitimacy is based on people’s per-ception of police as fair in their treatment, and the instrumental perspective, i.e. that police legiti-macy is based on their effectiveness. The results support parts from both perspectives, although the normative perspective might play a more important role in three of the countries (Moravcová, 2015, pp. 172, 183-184).
Sargeant (2017) scrutinize the relationship between policing and collective efficacy, more partic-ularly the ability of a community through collective acts, counteract community members inap-propriate actions in order to sustain a safe society. The findings demonstrate that through im-proving the citizens trust in police effectiveness and fair treatment, collective efficacy can be supported and further prevent crimes. Therefore, public perceptions of the police become an im-portant aspect in policing, which might promote an improved communication of efficient out-comes (Sargeant, 2017, pp. 16-20).
The citizens’ perception of the police is a recurring feature and Lee & McGovern (2013) investi-gate the importance of how people perceive the police work set against what they actually do, this by looking closer into the police public relation and media units’ part in maintaining a good image in their contacts with media and the communities. The results show that the PR-units re-late to two main goals, producing a positive image of the police to both the community and the own organization, as well as efforts concerning information and education to prevent risks. This is described as another part, or another form of policing to create legitimacy, ‘stimulated
polic-ing’. And the authors describe this development as a part of a new kind of multi-media environ-ment which is more or less a necessity for many institutions and organisation to be a part of (Lee & McGovern, 2013, p. 121).
The number of police officers can be used as an argument when calling on a more effective po-lice work, although the popo-lice authority as well as other public institutions are affected by budg-etary tightening in the public sector. Sindall & Sturgis (2013) demonstrates a decrease in the number of police officers over the last decade in Europe and other parts of the world, and ac-cordingly explore the amount of police and their visibility connected to public confidence in the police. Even if certain circumstances are taken into consideration, e.g. possible re-organizations to enhance patrol-officers, a decrease in the number of police officers is likely to have a negative impact on public confidence in the police (Sindall & Sturgis, 2013, pp. 147-148).
Bradford et al. (2009) studies confidence connected to personal experiences from contacts with police officers. The effect on confidence is scrutinized based on three specific components: ef-fectiveness, fairness and level of community engagement. The results show that the impact on confidence vary between the different components, but that there is a potential for even the slightest personal contacts to have a positive impact, especially through improved communica-tion, especially regarding fairness and community engagement (Bradford et al., 2009, pp. 42-43). 3.3 Review conclusion and discussion
The collected articles show a variety in approaches on the research about community policing and trust and several theoretical frameworks is stated, which suggest that it is a complex field. Further, several of the articles bring up the importance of trust to the police, and somehow a pre-sumption for the police to do an effective work by getting people to cooperate. The articles imply the citizens’ perception of the police as an important factor. Perception of police responsiveness or equal treatment, perception of police efficiency or the personal meeting.
Some studies demonstrate social factors as important aspects when explaining the level of trust in the police-citizen relationship. This can imply difficulties for the police authority to increase trust through implementation of certain measures. Although the effort to establish a dialogue with the community and a proximity to citizens could have other benefits. It might increase peo-ple’s social interactions and contribute to increased networking, which by extension might strengthen the social factors that are stimulating generalized trust to public institutions.
One distinction between the collected articles is the study of individual or organizational effect on trust, how the personal encounters and police visibility impact people’s perception and confi-dence in the police compared to structural strategies and measures. To some extent might these be interlinked. If implemented measures derives and are a part of the organization culture, it might perhaps affect the individual employee in its behaviour.
As also stated in the introduction, most of the studies regarding trust in the police-citizen rela-tionship, focuses on citizens’ trust in the police, rather than the reverse. Another notable fact was the number of studies conducted based on a survey. This could further make this study seen as a compliment to already existing research, both regarding the focus shift from citizens to the po-lice, as well as the distinction that this study uses a qualitative method.
4 THEORETICAL APPROACH
The following section presents the theoretical perspectives used to analyse and understand the collected material. Initially, the concept and definition of trust and what it implies for this study is discussed. The next two sections describe citizen participation as a core principle of commu-nity policing and an account for proximity policing as a scientific perspective. Further, an ex-planatory model for potential variations in the organization is described. The application of com-plementary theoretical approaches aims to generate an understanding of how the approach to community policing relates to police’s trust in citizen and by taking the institutional context into consideration.
4.1 The concept of trust
Mayer et al. (1995) sorts out the different definitions of trust and has a discussion on the topic in terms of one parts willingness of taking risks in relation to other parties. Also, connected to vul-nerability, risking something by expecting the other part to perform in certain ways and appear as willing to take a risk. Further, a review of three concepts is conducted that has been used syn-onymously to trust but has, according to the authors, rather distorted the concept: cooperation, confidence, and predictability. As for cooperation, which has sometimes been used equivalently to trust, its stated that although trust might lead to cooperation, it is not a necessity for coopera-tion. Confidence differs from trust by risk-recognition, where in the sake of confidence there is no reflection of acting differently, while when there is trust, the risk is recognized and assumed.
Predictability on the other hand, is not considered sufficient enough to lead to trust, i.e. an emer-gence of a willingness to take a risk. (Mayer et al., 1995, pp. 712-713).
Both trust and confidence are used when describing citizens’ attitudes towards the police and Schaap (2018) demonstrated that the distinction between the two concepts does not seem to be very clear, although their implications tend to differ. Both concepts imply expectations, although confidence tend to be used systematically, more generally and dependent on previous experi-ences, while trust is considered rather individualistic in unpredictable situations. As for the po-lice authority, it can be regarded both as an institution, and a collective of individuals in the per-sonal meetings with citizens. Therefore, trust in the police-citizen relationship might not be ap-plicable in the same way as trust in other contexts. (Schaap, 2018, pp. 35-40). Altogether, Schaap, (2018) defines trust/confidence as “the belief and expectation that the police, either as
individuals or as an institution, fulfill their function ‘well’”. (Schaap, 2018, p. 40). Nevertheless,
trust might be interpreted differently by different persons, which might be important to keep in mind when scrutinizing trust.
Bachmann (2011) questions the traditionally dominating focus of trust at a micro-level, as an oc-curring phenomenon between two individuals. The individualistic approach is claimed to limit the understanding of trust crisis in business relationships, which could also concern collective ac-tors in other kinds of relationships. A distinction between interaction-based trust and institutional based trust is promoted, where its implied that the latter requires an emphasis on the institutional conditions, this in order to gain new insights in the understanding of trust. (Bachmann, 2011). To explain trust, Mayer et al. (1995) further provides a model to understand trust in an organiza-tional setting. Where trustworthiness of an actor is considered a presupposition for gaining trust, which is determined through the actor’s characteristics. Three characteristics, or factors, of trust-worthiness is determined to better understand the foundation and building of trust: ability, benev-olence and integrity. Ability refers to competence or expertise generating influence. The ability is limited to a certain field due to specific set of skills, hence there can be trust in accomplishing some tasks above other. Benevolence imply a relationship between two parties where a sense of good intentions prevails, a perception of the other part not acting based upon their own interests. Integrity denotes adherence to certain principles of a part which the other part finds acceptable. Thus, the causes for the perception of integrity is not considered important, but rather the level of
integrity as a factor for trustworthiness. The three factors are described separately, but not de-tached from each other, in the assessment of trustworthiness. Also, the factors are to be put in a spectrum, where there could be a variety in the characteristics. These three antecedents of trust have been developed from multiple theories on trust, where different models have been assem-bled for the creation of a comprehensible and legitimate model of trust, to understand its causes and effects (Mayer et al., 1995, pp. 716-721). Although there is a variety of models of trust to be found, this might be considered as one of the commonly implemented theories in trust-research. The three antecedents of trust are composed through considering and including previous re-search, where other theories might stand on their own. This might imply an advantage in the at-tempt to explain police’s trust in citizens.
4.2 Community policing and citizen participation
A foundation in community policing consists of citizen participation. Its principles require the police service to engage community members to identify and implement solutions and influence strategic priorities as well as decisions. (Myhill, 2012, p. 1). To explain community members participation in a democratic process, a commonly practised theory is Arnstein’s (1969) ladder of citizen participation. It aims to sort out different forms of participation and describe participation through a gradation at different levels of influence. The ladder is divided into three segments. The bottom segment is labelled ‘nonparticipation’ which consists of manipulation and therapy, referring to affecting citizens’ perceptions or mislead their attention to other matters, instead of involving them in activities. The middle segment is called ‘degrees of tokenism’, a form of sym-bolic participation. By information, consultation and placation, the citizens are invited but are not given the opportunity for actual influence. Not until the top segment of the ladder, defined as ‘degrees of citizen power’, citizens are provided an actual formal influence. This segment consti-tutes of partnership, delegated power and citizen control. The top rungs provide the citizens with control over public services. (Arnstein, 1969, pp. 216-217).
Arnstein’s (1969) theory has been used for quite a long time and is still implemented, sometimes in reconstructed forms, in understanding citizen participation in government-controlled busi-nesses. It’s further connected to citizen control and citizen power, which is described as “a cor-nerstone in democracy” (Arnstein, 1969, p. 216). As for community policing, where citizen par-ticipation function as a foundation, the theory ought to facilitate the understanding of participa-tion in the police business.
4.3 Proximity policing
As previously stated in the introduction, the development of community engagement in policing has gone in different directions, and community and proximity policing have sometimes been used similarly. Both concepts of policing have been used as a strategy, and with similar features e.g. regarding the ambition to improve the police-citizen relationship and expecting equal bene-fits from developing a close relationship to the community. Although proximity policing has ra-ther derived from the proximity policing school of thought and the strategy has somehow
emerged in the European translation of the Anglo-American version of community policing. Due to the confusion that may arise, Schaap (2018) makes the distinguish of community policing as a ‘police practice strategy’ and proximity policing as a ‘police science perspective’ and a theoreti-cal concept (Schaap, 2018, p. 53-54). This section describes the proximity policing theoretitheoreti-cal approach of the study, which is collected from D. Schaap (2018); The police, the public and the
pursuit of trust.
Schaap (2018) scrutinise trust, or more particularly, the pursuit of trust, in the relationship be-tween the police and the public, looking closer into what creates trust. To understand public trust in the police, three different theoretical perspectives are applied with different implications on how trust is achieved (Schaap, 2018, p. 23). Firstly, proximity policing is used as a scientific per-spective, emphasizing police proximity to citizens and a close involvement in the local commu-nity, whereas societies with a strong local presence is assumed to affect the trust positively. Sec-ond is instrumentalism, focusing on effectiveness as a method to gain trust and legitimacy, espe-cially effective work for fighting crimes is ought to increase the level of trust. And third, proce-dural justice focuses on the interaction between the police and the citizens. Equal and proper treatment by the police, together with showing commitment and respecting the citizens point of view, aims at building a greater confidence in the police.
Whereas most of the studies scrutinizing the police-citizen relationship, the focus lies upon the citizen. Schaap (2018) demonstrates the importance of looking into both sides of the relation, and carry through a solid divided inquiry, scrutinizing the publics’ attitudes towards the police as well as how the police assess their relationship with the public. Hence, the theoretical framework which is partly developed by Schaap (2018), is created to also understand the police role in a trust relationship.
Although, using additional analytical approaches may very well strengthen the validity of a study and facilitate a greater understanding of an issue, as Schaap (2018) demonstrates by using three different theoretical lenses. However, in this analysis, I have chosen to only use proximity polic-ing of the three, as a theoretical framework. Mainly since this analysis differs by focuspolic-ing on a certain method, community policing and police pledges, as a trust-building method instead of trust in general. Since community-oriented policing do have clear connections to proximity po-licing. The proximity policing is instead complemented with other theoretical approaches to bet-ter understand the research questions of this study. Furthermore, a description of the proximity policing used as a theoretical framework by Schaap (2018) follows together with accounting for how it’s used in this study.
Describing proximity policing as a theoretical paradigm, Schaap (2018) demonstrate the diffi-culty of sorting out the approach into specific, measurable variables. This is mainly due to the vague definition and different international versions of the perspective since the application of proximity policing in societies in different parts of the world have different presumptions, re-sources and experiences. But there is some basic premises in common in its critique against the earlier enforcement-based, professional model for functioning too strict, having a narrow picture of how to solve crime and not being able to adjust as the society’s changes. Hence, proximity po-licing was provided as a solution for damages done by the earlier approaches (Schaap, 2018, p. 54). Proximity policing puts focus on the police-citizen relationship. It aims at decreasing the distance between the police and the public by being visible in the society. The ability to adapt to local contexts are supposed to be facilitated by a decentralized police organization. Citizens’ ex-perienced needs and feeling of safety is a main concern, and their involvement will promote an efficient exchange of information. Furthermore, another positive effect is that it ought to improve the citizens’ view of the police and increase their level of trust (Schaap, 2018, pp. 54-55).
Proximity policing are not unproblematic and two main issues are described. First, difficulties with the practical implementation, which makes some critics arguing that proximity policing of-ten stays at the rhetorical level. That applies to implementation in different communities as well as the organizational implementation at the different levels and units of the police force. Second, another problem is the vague definition, which has led to different interpretations of the perspec-tives. Other than community policing, other branching’s are e.g. problem-oriented policing, in-telligence-led policing and reassurance policing. (Schaap, 2018, pp. 54-55).
Schaap (2018) makes a distinction between national level and individual level indicators. Na-tional level indicators imply to which extent the police stick to principles advocated by the prox-imity policing approach while the individual level indicates the extent the perception of citizens of how the police stick to these principles.
Except for the national level and individual level indicators, there are four categories of indica-tors covering the ideas of proximity policing. Some of the indicaindica-tors corresponds to Terpstra’s (2010) development of core principles of community policing and its practical implementation. The first category consists of a general assessment of community policing and the adherence to its principles. The second category explains how the organizational and legal structure promotes a proximity policing approach, e.g. if the organization is decentralized and to what extent there are police officers or units with an expressed focus to work close to the community. Also consid-ered is the police officer’s autonomy, or if their jobs have strict procedures to act accordingly to, and if local police stations and offices are a common phenomenon in communities or neighbour-hoods. The third category considers different operationalization measures regarding local prob-lems e.g. how other issues than crimes are handled, for instance social disorder and the experi-enced insecurity in the community. Also, the focus on crime prevention strategies and including cooperation with local public and private agencies, as well as the promotion of citizens’ involve-ment in the work to reduce crime. The fourth category consists of an assessinvolve-ment of to which ex-tent the citizen involvement is taken in consideration as an important part of policing i.e. the re-sponsiveness to citizens’ demands (Schaap, 2018, Appendix F).
Schaap (2018) describes these four separated categories, which I further chose to label to facili-tate the application and analysis of the result: Assessment of policing principles, Structural
con-ditions, Operationalization measures, Consideration of citizens opinions.
4.4 “Where you stand depends on where you sit”
One aspect of this study is to scrutinize differences in approach to community policing in the po-lice organization. In a large and complex organization, it can be assumed to be found differences in the approach. The approach of Bureaucratic politics explains decision making and policy out-comes as dependent on the participating actor’s preferences, skills and position of power. Large and complex organizations can therefore unlikely be regarded as acting rationally and unitary. The approach relates to the quote “Where you stand depends on where you sit” referred to as
eventual benefits connected to their current role rather than collective interests. Therefore, it be-comes relevant to observe the actors, how they are influenced and how their positions relate to each other in the policy outcomes. One aspect is at which level the actor is appointed. Thus, to understand actions of a large organization, the understanding of the participants’ motivations and the forms of the decision-making process is essential. (Durbin, 2018, pp. 1-3).
Although some critique of the model has been its complexity and that it misses out the role of hierarchy (Bendor & Hammond, 1992, pp. 314-315). Another critique is the narrow definition of politics, and the main application on national policy making and especially studies of crisis deci-sion making, and also the fact that political relationships are constantly changing (Freedman, 1976, pp. 444-445).
But the approach is not only applicable at the top of an organization. Even if the positions in the bottom part does not have the same influence and power in decision making, they still engage in bureaucratic politics, although their actions do not adhere to the same social conventions and ex-pectations and rather use informal channels. This is brought about to secure the own identity and self-respect in the irrationalities of the bureaucratic organisation (Brower & Abolafia, 1997, pp. 328-329). The model has been applied to understand decision making in different context and might therefor be able to facilitate the explanation of any organizational differences in this study that might arise.
5 METHODOLOGY/METHOD
The aim of the research is by an explorative study investigate community policing as a trust-building strategy. As the police-citizen relationship is bilateral, the focus of this study lies on the police trusting the citizens, as they conduct and lead the community policing methods aiming to increase the trust. In order to answer the research questions, a qualitative research method in-cluding interviews were preformed, and this section explains the implementation. The choice of conducting interviews mainly relies on the aim to perform an in-dept analysis, and a profound understanding of the different considerations regarding the trust building method investigated in the study and their relation. A more quantitative method would presumably not be able to offer the same options for a profound analysis and an elaborated understanding of the related phenom-enon. A consequence of my choice of method is a smaller sample group. Whereas e.g. a survey could have included a larger number of participants, but would perhaps not have given the same
presumption to gain an extended understanding. This approach induces an abductive approach to understand and explain the research questions. An abductive approach utilizes both previous the-ory and empirical data as starting point, and alternates between these in the research process. Compared to induction and deduction which is based on either of the two, abduction appears as more versatile (Alvesson & Sköldberg, 2018, p. 5). Further, this study is limited to scrutinize po-lice pledges and its effect on trust, there might be other benefits implementing the method which are not examined in this analysis.
5.1 Case selection and choice of method
The Swedish police authority might be considered as an extensive organization with more than 30 000 employees whereof about 20 000 serve as police officers (“Antalet polisanställda fortsät-ter att öka”, 2020). This study includes two out of seven police regions in Sweden. The purpose of choosing two regions is to attain a variation in opinions to better be able to answer the re-search questions and gain a broader understanding. The choice was made to broaden the sample with respondents from different parts of the organization including more perspectives in the re-search. Although the police authority is one organization, there may possibly be differences in the organizational culture between the regions which might be reflected in the employee’s ap-proaches. Including two regions in the study should reduce the risk of uniformly responses. Even though to include more or all police regions, could have further broadened the understanding of the object under study. But the purpose is not to conduct a comparison, between regions, obtain a representativity for the authority as a whole, or acquire general conclusions of the organization’s opinions. The purpose its rather to get a spread of perspectives in the analysis and to cover multi-ple ideas. The inclusion of two regions appeared feasible for the magnitude of this research re-lated to its purpose.
Some of the respondents holds a title that they share with several or many others in their Police region, while for others, their title is rather specific for their police region or police area. To maintain the anonymity of the respondents the police regions included in the study are not speci-fied. Since the information about which police regions are included is not considered to be of im-portance for the reader and might risk the identities of the respondents, I therefore choose to hav-ing their names left out and instead label them as Police Region #1 and Police Region #2.
Semi-structured interviews were carried out, and four main theoretical themes were formulated. The aim was that the respondent would to some extent lead the conversation within certain frames. To make sure that I got the information I intendent to collect, I had some supplementary questions when needed. This method was chosen to make sure the answers would be character-ized by the respondents’ own perceptions and to collect a substantial material to carry out an in-dept analysis.
5.2 Research process
Interview sample
One aspect of the study is to scrutinize variations of trust in the organization, no particular pro-fession group or unit was targeted, rather a spread of participants with different tasks was desira-ble. The total number of persons interviewed was eight. The limit was set after a consideration that the number of respondents should provide enough content to conduct an analysis and due to time constraint to collect and process the empirical material. The sample in this study cannot be considered representative for the police organization, therefore, no consideration of the respond-ents’ sex, age, or other factors that might matter, have been made. Neither the local context where the police are operative have been taken into consideration, which based on e.g. crime rates, might affect the respondents’ opinion of the effectiveness of various measures. The aim of this study is rather to get a depiction of different views from inside the organisation. A more rep-resentative sample which take diversity into account might be possible in a more comprehensive study. Table 1 shows the professions in the police authority of the respondents participating in the study (Swedish titles in brackets), their role in the organisation and a short description of their profession.
Table 1 – Description of respondents’ professions
LEVEL TITLE DESCRIPTION
Police Region Regional crime prevention coordinator (Regional brottsförebyggande samord-nare)
Supports the police areas and local police ar-eas in their crime prevention work
Police Area Chief super intendent
(kanslichef) Coordinates the work and the alignment for the police area Local police
area Head of unit - local police (Gruppchef områdespolisen)
Plans and leads a group of local police offic-ers
Municipal police officer
(Kommunpolis) Strategic work with local crime prevention including police pledges Local police officer
(Områdespolis) Local crime prevention work through citizen contacts and trust-building Head of unit – intervention
(Gruppchef ingripandeverk-samheten)
Plans and leads a group of intervention po-lice officers
Interview design
The interviews were conducted individually with the respondents over telephone. The choice of conducting the interviews by using this method instead of face-to-face interviews was based upon several factors, mainly due to the current pandemic of Covid-19, which limited personal meetings. Furthermore, it would have been a challenge to attain personal meetings with all re-spondents since the two police regions extends over a fairly large geographical area. Only audio was chosen when conducting the interviews, which for the study was considered sufficient, whereas video interviews could make people feel more insecure, especially when the interviews are recorded (Hallin & Helin, 2018, p. 45) perhaps particularly since their professions as police officers can be experienced as exposed. Further, telephone interviews have shown to be able to provide a trusting conversation, where the respondents get the chance to feel private (Hallin & Helin, 2018, p. 63). The interviews were recorded with consent from the respondents, also some notes were taken to recall emphases and at the moment arising observations. After the sessions,
interview verbatim transcripts were created. In table 2, the respondents are numbered to enable for the reader to follow the presentation of the results and analysis.
Table 2 – List of interview respondents
No Title Date Location
1 Municipal police officer 2 April 2020 Police Region #1 2 Regional crime prevention coordinator 8 April 2020 Police Region #1
3 Chief super intendent 8 April 2020 Police Region #1
4 Head of unit - local police 14 April 2020 Police Region #1 5 Head of unit - local police 22 April 2020 Police Region #2 6 Municipal police officer 23 April 2020 Police Region #2 7 Municipal police officer 28 April 2020 Police Region #2 8 Head of unit – intervention 6 May 2020 Police Region #1
Interview guide
The respondents were initially asked to describe their role, and previous experience in the police organization. Further, four theoretical themes were composed. As a part of the first theme, the respondents were asked questions about their experiences and general opinion on community po-licing. In the second theme the respondents were to describe their perception on how community policing was approached in the organization. If they perceive the principles to be established throughout the police authority, or if not, if they could identify differences within different sec-tions in the organization. The third theme was about the police trust to citizens and the respond-ents were asked questions about their approach to citizen participation and how they consider the citizens’ ability to be acquainted with the police profession, what a police officer can and cannot do. Also how they perceive the approach of the rest of the police organisation on citizen partici-pation in police matters. In the fourth theme, the respondents were asked questions about com-munity policing and police pledges as an effective method for the police to gain trust, and whether this method should be prioritized compared to other methods that might gain trust.
Fur-ther the respondents were asked questions if they considered Fur-there to be any risks with commu-nity policing/police pledges, if there could be a possibility for the trust to decrease when imple-menting the method. Also, their assessment of that risk, relative to their perception of how com-munity policing and police pledges is currently implemented. As when semi-structured inter-views are carried out, the respondents answer the same main questions in the same order, alt-hough supplementary questions are asked dependent on the current conversation. Therefore, the interview guide was not strictly followed throughout the interviews, but for a better insight, the interview guide is found in Swedish in Appendix A.
5.3 Analysis procedure
Sorting information based upon content may be combined with sorting information based upon shape. Gubrium & Holstein have developed an approach to analyse the material (cited in
Rennstam & Wästerfors, 2015) through asking questions of both ‘what’ and ‘how’, described as ‘analytic bracketing’. The intention lies in the eligible of the analyse not only trying to under-stand what is happening in the material, but also how it’s preformed. This combines a naturalistic and a constructionistic approach, and the importance consists of balancing in between these ap-proaches. The combination of focusing both on ‘what’ and ‘how’ would eventually lead to an-swering questions about ‘why’ (Rennstam & Wästerfors, 2015, p. 53). This is implemented in the analysis by a thorough review of the interview transcripts with colour marking separating the two aspects. Thereafter, a thematic sorting based upon analytic bracketing is used to sort out reg-ularities and the respondent’s construction of the case.
The representation of the empirical material becomes an assessment where the author reduces the material, the analyse will be proceeded with categorical reduction. (Rennstam & Wästerfors, 2015, p. 103-105). To better be able to answer the research questions, three categories are devel-oped based on the questions, and the material not relevant for any of the categories will be ex-cluded. This is to facilitate the management of the large amount of material, and to keep the pur-pose of the research all through the study.
5.4 The quality of the study
To ensure a high level of quality in the research and to minimize measurement errors when pre-forming a non-bias interview method, four criteria need to be considered, i.e. validity, reliability, objectivity and utility (Hallin & Helin, 2018, p. 88).
Internal validity refers to making sure that the research question coincides with the intention of the study and the researchers control of the study context. Whereas external validity refers to generalizability and the extent one might assume that the result can be applied to reality (Moses & Knutsen, 2019, p. 56). The interview questions were generated to reach the research purpose. The questions were formulated to be clear and unbiassed, and the respondents are kept anony-mous to increase the possibility that they will answer the questions honestly. The limitation of this study set the number of respondents. A greater sample-group could have increased the exter-nal validity, although perhaps multiple studies on the same subject is preferable. Further, re-spondents from more than two police regions would perhaps increase the validity. The inter-views were conducted in Swedish and the analysis is carried out in English, which may result in a gap of interpretation when the material is translated into another language. Although the alter-native to carry out the interviews in English would not be preferred, since that could further limit the respondents to express their opinions by linguistic difficulties.
Furthermore, reliability refers to the extent that a repeated research would reach the same result if the same course of action would be applied (Moses & Knutsen, 2019, p. 131). In this study, reliability have been taken into account by thoroughly and transparently present the conducted research throughout the process. A standardized procedure when conducting the interviews should decrease the potential risk of affecting the respondents and their answers in different di-rections. It might be assumed that the interview-answers could be interpreted differently by dif-ferent readers, to demonstrate the interpretations of the author more clearly, quotes are included in the result-section.
As for objectivity, the awareness of its importance has been considered throughout the research process. Regarding the utility concerning a study at this level, I leave that for the reader to as-sess.
Study of subjective opinions
Concerning objectivity when human beings constitutes the research object, according to a con-structivist approach, the research result can never be independent of the observer. The truth is a product of the mind, whereas there could be multiple versions of the truth, due to a social context influencing the researcher, who is created by the same, as well as a social context influencing the source. This makes the observations of patterns and phenomenon’s as rather an observation of
the observers’ perception of the same. This induce limitations in the production of knowledge and indicate a further responsibility put on the observer (Moses & Knutsen, 2019, pp. 173-175). As for this study, it’s the perceptions of the research objects that is aimed to be scrutinized, but it’s important to be aware of the role of the researcher and the many ongoing interpretations in the research process.
In reflective research, interpretation of the collected empirical material is carried through, and Alvesson & Sköldberg (2018) distinguish between four different interpretations. In this case where interviews are preformed, primary interpretations consist of what precedes the collection of empirical material e.g. the selection of who will be interviewed, as well as interpretations dur-ing the interview, whereas the author might perceive an answer as insufficient or as a misunder-standing of the question. Secondary interpretations imply considerations of the context of the in-terview subject, and the impact of social conventions. Interpretations of authority and representa-tion is identifying the multiple identities reflected in the interview answers whereas a multifac-eted individual cannot be considered as a uniform subject. And finally, critical interpretation is the acknowledgement of different social institutions and ideologies that might appear natural, and to avoid reproducing it in the research (Alvesson & Sköldberg, 2018, pp. 348-355). 5.5 Ethical considerations
Before conducting a scientific study, ethical aspects are to be taken into considerations as a part of the preparations. There are general recommendations and guidelines regarding what a re-searcher should be aware of and act upon in the search for new knowledge e.g. speak the truth and conduct research without harm of others. It’s important to be aware of the balance between the researchers’ interest and the risk of harm for the individual (Swedish Research Council, 2017, p. 7).
In this study, the ethical considerations foremost regard the participants. Four demands regarding interviews are summarized by Hallin & Helin (2018) constituting demands of information, con-sent, confidentiality, and use. (Hallin & Helin, 2018, p. 48). Therefore, when asked to participate the respondents retrieved short information of the study and agreed to participate according to its purpose. Information of personal details of the participants is kept confidential. No questions are asked that could identify an individual through the analysed empirical material. If such infor-mation still would arise during the interviews it shall be made anonymous. The collected
mate-Before the interview, the respondents retrieved short information about the study and the purpose of the interview. The information also included how the material was to be used, information about anonymous participation and how the interviews were to be conducted. They were further informed that they initially will get the question if they consent on having the conversation rec-orded.
6 RESULT AND ANALYSIS
The respondents have had different experiences in working with community policing and police pledges and have participated in different parts of the process either strategically or operatively. The overall pictures demonstrate an in general a positive approach to community policing among the respondents. The importance of proximity to the citizen is somehow emphasized throughout the interviews, although different parts of the method are accentuated and with different ad-vantages. Several respondents imply that the process with police pledges does not meet its full potential, due to e.g. economic or human recourses or different interpretations and presupposi-tions generating varying outcomes. Some experienced a difficulty to get a sufficiently amount, or variety, of people to participate for an adequate outcome, especially regarding certain groups of the society, even if digital devices increase these opportunities. Many of the respondents ad-dressed a need for the police authority to be more transparent, to follow up implemented activi-ties and present the results in a more efficient way. The further presentation of the result will be presented together with an analysis based on three different themes recognized in the interview material which also derives from the research questions.
6.1 The police’s trust in citizens
All respondents describe people in general as benign with good intentions in their contacts with the police. Some of the respondents have a lot of contact with citizens in general, other mostly with criminals, while for some respondents, there is little contacts with persons outside the or-ganization, but the overall assessment seems to be characterized by a trust relationship to the community. A part of this is reflected in the police overall estimation that people in general broadly comprehends the police profession and what’s included in the job, but does not fully un-derstand the complexity of the police authority, the legislation surrounding the profession and the challenges in the police assignment. This statement is not explained caused by incompetence or stupidity, the respondents rather compare the police occupation with other professions, like a
doctor or firefighter, as a craftmanship, where the practitioner is the expert. Education and expe-rience might commonly be a necessity to fully comprehend many professions.
But there is a detectable division in the assessment of the citizens’ ability to understand the po-lice business which is reflected in the approach to the popo-lice role in the community. While some of the respondents expresses citizens’ unawareness as deriving from the police-citizen relation-ship, where the police approach, responsiveness and legitimacy is a contributing factor. One re-spondent connects citizens’ ability to understand the police profession and the police’s different approaches to people, related to the level of equality in society:
“This is somewhat linked to the issue of equality in some way in society at large. […] So yes, it becomes like a very fragmented picture and then with regard to trust, it’s also understood as contact-creating or relationship-creating work with citizens, it will be on slightly different levels. I also think that this is an important issue that the police have on the agenda as well as in the long term strengthen the local ability, be-cause I think it is very much about the need to be present in the local areas in order to get an understanding and above all get a legitimacy for what you do.” (Respond-ent #2)
The respondent describes different parts of society having different levels of trust in the police, which is reflected in the police’s trust to citizens and their expectations in their contacts with community members. Members of deprived areas, people coming from other countries and cul-tures, with other perceptions of the police assignments and methods which complicates the po-lice’s approach. Although in more troubled areas, the police might be more welcomed and appre-ciated, while the response from citizens in prosperous areas is describes as sometimes difficult, that these neighbourhoods would preferably handle their issues on their own.
The perception of different responses in different kinds of communities are expressed also by other respondents. One respondent describes the capability for citizens to comprehend both the police and their own problems from a different point of view than the police could:
“But I think most of them have a fairly good picture of what the police are and do, it’s not that, ‘uh, the public is so incompetent so why should we listen to them’. The public see some things that they experience as problems, that they are much more
all the problems that the public perceive, but we should try to work against the prob-lems that the public perceive in society.” (Respondent #5)
On the other hand, some of the respondents to a higher degree puts the citizens and their perfor-mance as a source for the incomprehension. The citizens encompass a rather narrow, individual-istic perspective, which limits the understanding of the police profession. Still noting an im-portance with proximity to the community, there is an indication that the citizen tends to mainly focus on their own surrounding, what is happening in their absolute vicinity, on the street outside their house or residential area. There are other expectations in citizens possibilities to achieve a general understanding in the police job and their priorities.
“If citizens experience problems outside their house with cars driving too fast and think the police should do speed checks there, then that is a huge problem for those who live there. At the same time, you have open drug dealing in the city centre, con-nected to serious organized crime, then you need to put it against each other. […] But the speeding is what the citizens want us to work with because it feels unsafe.” (Respondent #4)
Another respondent describes it as the police getting the blame for matters that they cannot af-fect, e.g. legislature, and indicates a task for perhaps the police authority or the school, to inform about.
“Well, I do not know whose responsibility it should be, whether it is the police them-selves or if it is the schools or… But no, I do not always think that people have such a good insight of what is actually our task and what we can actually do. Ehm, I think the police are sometimes blamed for things we can't even influence, I think for exam-ple about crime, peoexam-ple who receive short prison sentences or no punishment at all, and the district court does the conviction, then the police have done what they could based upon the legislation that exists. So, you still hear that the police should work with stronger measures, but it is not we who judge people, we intervene and investi-gate and then the judiciary is the judge. (Respondent #7)
Trust cannot be considered as present or not, rather a variety of trust is reflected in the material. The answers reflect differences in the police’s expectation in the police-citizen relationship. Put
