Contemporary examples

Question 1

In the U.K.

Answer 1

(2014) Overall confidence in the police is 80% in the least deprived areas, but just 69% in the most deprived.

Neighbourhood policing key to improving the performance of the police in an era of dramatic budget cuts.

25% of households in the least deprived areas are members of Neighbourhood Watch, only 6% of households in the most deprived areas are.

3% of adults attended a beat meeting in 2012. This was heavily weighted towards older people, with 5% of those over 65 having attended, compared to 1% of those younger than 24. People with degrees are twice as likely to make contact with the police as those with no formal education.

Question 2

In the U.S.

Answer 2

• Relations between New York City’s police department and communities of color, long at a simmer, boiled over last summer when an unarmed Eric Garner was captured on video screaming “I can’t breathe” as he was placed in a fatal chokehold by an NYPD officer.
• The NYPD outlined a series of pilot programs intended to demonstrate more police involvement in minority communities – not simply as enforcers of the law but as partners.

Precinct commanders have been attending services at local houses of worship to ally themselves with influential local ministers. Officers in several high-crime Brooklyn precincts have begun meeting with at-risk offenders and gang members to offer access to social services to prevent violence.