Institutional Incentives and Community Policing

What institutional features encourage community policing? Many police departments across the US have attempted to implement a community-oriented policing philosophy. The stated goals are to build greater trust between the police and the community, maintain order and quality of life, and solve problems that contribute to crime and fear of crime. However, researchers have noted how most, if not all, departments attempting to implement community-oriented policing have fallen short in successfully adopting the recommended reforms. This paper argues that the institutional setting in which public policing operates leads to this result. By contrast, the institutional features of private policing make its operation more conducive to achieving the goals of community-oriented policing. These institutional differences include whether economic calculation is possible, the domain that is policed, and the authority upon which rules are enforced