Community policing in racialized communities: A potential role for police social work

ABSTRACT

Despite lack of strong empirical evidence about its effectiveness, community policing remains the approach of choice for police organizations in managing the complexity of crime and neighborhood disorder. It is also the preferred strategy for improving relations between police and racialized communities. Anchored in ongoing public conversations and protests about the tense relationships between police and racialized communities, this article offers a theoretical analysis of community policing. An overview of its objectives, principles, and use in Canada is first provided. Next, a critical reading of community policing is presented, which suggests that its end may be near, given that it has not fulfilled its promise of improved police-minority relations. Finally, the case of Abdirahman Abdi in Ottawa is discussed, to illustrate this failed promise. The author contends that, in the absence of a change model for transformation in police-minority relations, police social workers are an important but overlooked component of community policing. The article concludes with several recommendations, one of which is to employ police social workers in police organizations, since the challenge of community policing requires a multidisciplinary perspective that the police alone cannot provide.

KEYWORDS:

• Community policing
• racialized communities
• police-minority relations
• racism
• police social work
• Abdirahman Abdi
• Ottawa

Additional information

Funding

The author gratefully acknowledges the financial assistance of the Department of Canadian Heritage to the Community Policing: A Shared Responsibility project, of which the referenced Police-Youth-of-Color Dialogue was a part.