Police and Community Perceptions of the Community Role in Policing: The Philadelphia Experience

Abstract: Police and community relations have long occupied the attention of the police and the public. The recent emergence of community policing philosophy emphasises closer involvement of police and community residents, yet to date has ignored the perceptions of the police and the public toward each other's role in affecting social control. Fifty Philadelphia police officers and 24 community residents, participating in a community/police educational programme called Project COPE, provide information on police and community attitudes toward responsibility for crime control, support for and antagonism toward police actions, and the quality of police citizen interactions. Preliminary findings from a before and after analysis of programme participants suggest that relations between these two groups may be strained by police officer and agency acceptance of public criticism.