Social Media and Community Policing Implementation in South Eastern Europe: A Question of Trust
By Czapska, J. and
Social media are increasingly used within community policing as a tool of fostering communication, and improving trust between the police and communities. Community policing programmes implemented in post-communist countries in South Eastern Europe, as well as processes of building police legitimacy in general, have been facing challenges related to insufficient public confidence in the law enforcement, and a necessity to re-define police roles.
This paper uses the results of empirical research to argue that the still ongoing processes of bridging gaps in police-community communication can be supported by the use of social media. Presented argumentation is based on the analysis of selected quantitative studies on police legitimacy, and chosen findings of qualitative field research which was conducted in 2016 in Bosnia and Herzegovina as a part of the project Community-Based Policing and Post-Conflict Police Reform (ICT4COP).
An implication of presented study should be a more in-depth analysis of key factors influencing both the formation of police legitimacy, and ways in which the use of social media in police–community relations, especially, in post-communist societies, should be designed to serve the purpose of building trust in the police.
Find the article here:
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-89297-9_6
Social Media: A Tool for COP in Post-Conflict Settings?
By Hofmann, R. (2017)
ICT have changed the way we communicate over the past decade. Social media plays an important role for the provision of security – for police agencies as much as for citizens. The same is true for post-conflict societies, writes Dr Robin Hofmann in this ICT4COP policy brief.
Community-oriented policing in post-conflict settings can benefit from these developments. But new technologies are no magic bullet. Traditional forms of interaction remain important for the effective policing of communities.
This brief gives a number examples of how social media is used by police agencies around the world. It examines the question of how these tools can best be implemented in the policing of post-conflict settings.
Find the policy brief here:
