Evaluation of police and fire reform year 4: international perspectives

2 Policing local communities

International perspectives on reform of the police service

Key findings: Policing local communities

• Reform has impacted on the policing of communities in different ways in the different case study locations.
• Evidence from Manchester and New Zealand suggests that they have achieved one of their stated aims for reform as relationships between the police and local communities have been improved by initiating a greater focus on community-centred policing. Reform has led both police forces to implement approaches to working with communities which co-develop solutions to prevent crime.
• In the Netherlands and Norway an identified challenge of reform was maintaining relationships with the community during centralisation, for example, officers being moved away from the communities they serve.
• Different approaches have been used in the case study areas to build trust with local communities including regular community meetings, recruiting a more diverse workforce to the police, providing training on how to engage with communities and clearer lines of communication.

Police in Manchester, the Netherlands and New Zealand found it challenging to prioritise local policing tasks with finite staffing and resources, and competing national demands. Working in partnership with other agencies and communities is one way some forces are trying to overcome this challenge by providing opportunities to pool resources to tackle particular problems.

This chapter will discuss findings on the experience of organisational change in local policing in the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway and Manchester in England, and will include an account of the positive impact reform has had on relationships with local communities, as well as the challenges that organisational reform has brought to the policing of local communities. 

2.1 What has the impact of reform been on the relationship between the police and local communities?

2.1.1 Was improving community relationships an aim of reform?

For all four case study areas, improving the relationship between the police and the local community was a specific aim of reform to a greater or lesser extent. This is consistent with the reform journey in Scotland, where the third aim of Police and Fire Reform^[11] is strengthening the connection between services and the communities they serve.

Most explicitly, in Norway, one of the six aims of police reform in The Police Analysis White Paper, was to have “a more accessible and present police force, anchored in, and cooperating with, local communities” . In New Zealand, the aim of police reform was to move towards a prevention model and to achieve this there was an aim to build stronger relationships with local communities. 

In Manchester the most recent police reform was part of a wider public service reform taking place across Manchester. While the reform took place at a time of austerity, the aim of reform was to enable all public services, including the police, to work more efficiently together to respond to the needs of their communities. For the police, improving their relationship with local communities was imperative for them to be able to help support their communities. 

In the Netherlands, there was a view that police reform was about strengthening the relationship between the police and local communities. There was also a perception that the main aim of reform was to move towards a more centralised police structure to standardise procedures and work processes for a more consistent approach, with the consequences that power shifted from the local to a national level. There are similarities here with the experience in Norway.

In all four areas, reform was seen to have impacted on the relationship between the police and local communities. For two of the police forces reform was viewed as enabling them to build closer relationships with local communities, while in the other two the challenges in maintaining a good relationship between the police and local communities were highlighted.

2.1.2 Improved community relationships as a consequence of reform

In both Manchester and New Zealand, police reform is perceived to have improved the relationship between the police and local community and changed the way engagement occurs. In moving towards a model of crime prevention and community centred policing the importance of being within communities and working to build positive relationships with residents was central to reform. 

“It’s about going back to the basics of getting boots on the ground and having relationships with communities, hard to reach communities and the deprived communities…For me it’s about changing the way we are with people, getting into that area, getting relationships built, having different types of events…So we have got a different relationship and we can start to get the intelligence from the communities who don’t tend to talk to us.” (Interviewee: Manchester)

In New Zealand, improving relationships with local communities has been described as “a consequence of having a more prevention-orientated operating model”. With a greater focus on crime prevention the police have become more proactive in engaging communities and working with them to collaboratively identify the causes of crime locally and co-develop solutions to these. For example, population specific (e.g. ethnic minority groups) Advisory Boards were set up to enable communities to meet with the police to jointly identify community issues and agree a plan of action together. This has often resulted in the police working alongside communities to implement solutions which has further strengthened relationships. 

Case study 1

Iwi Community Justice Panel: working in partnership with local communities

In New Zealand the police have developed approaches where they ask communities how they think problems should be addressed and what would help improve their community. One example of this is the Iwi Justice Panel. The Iwi Justice Panel is a rehabilitation approach which aims to tackle the over representation of the Maori population in the justice system. Instead of being sent to court, people can be sent to the Iwi Justice Panel, made up of members of the community, to explain what has led someone to commit a crime. If the panel decides the criminal behaviour is a result of social issues, e.g. alcohol abuse, the panel can decide on action which is an alternative to prison e.g. attend alcohol counselling. The pilot of this approach has been very successful with police reporting a reduction in reoffending. The Iwi Justice Panel approach is being rolled out into additional areas in New Zealand.

While early indications suggest that reform has changed the relationship between the police and local community for the better, both Manchester and New Zealand acknowledge that the full impact of reform takes time and that improving the relationship between the police and the public in some local communities, where there is distrust of the police, will be more challenging but the more collaborative approaches already being implemented should aid this process. 

2.1.3 The impact of centralisation on community relations

For the Netherlands and Norway, police reform has created some challenges for the relationship between the police and local communities. In the Netherlands police reform resulted in the creation of one national police force while in Norway, which already had a long established national police force, reform involved a consolidation of the number of operational districts into fewer but larger units. In both countries however, this raised fears amongst the public that there might be a removal of police from local communities. Steps were taken as the reform process was implemented to engage with communities to maintain and improve the relationship despite centralisation occurring. Similar concerns were found in Scotland during the geographical case studies examined in year 2 of evaluation^[12], where local resources were identified as being increasingly stretched and there were concerns expressed by both the public and police officers about a reduction in the visibility of police officers.

In Norway, at the start of the reform process, the police took part in local meetings in municipalities to explain to local communities why reform was taking place, how their approach would change and what that meant for their community. At these events the police were able to explain that some modern crimes, such as online crime, cannot be tackled with police on the ground but only by taking a national approach. Time was given for communities to raise concerns, one of which was that centralisation would result in the breakdown of the relationship between the police and local communities. 

To prevent a breakdown in the relationship between local communities and the police following reform, under the new structure in Norway police officers are expected to spend more time out of their office and in communities. There was no evidence from the interviews as to views on the success of this approach.

In the Netherlands, the creation of a national police force resulted in a move towards streamlining and updating systems, including the centralisation and greater use of IT communication. As part of this infrastructure change, the police moved to a system of online reporting of crime. With the public no longer required to engage with police officers face-to-face or by phone to report a crime, some perceived this change as an example of how the national police force has moved the police further away from the community. One interviewee was also concerned that removing this direct engagement with the police may have resulted in fewer crimes being reported, although this is difficult to evidence. 

In addition, a view from interviewees in the Netherlands was that there was concern that the move to a centralised police force would leave some officers isolated from their colleagues and senior officers as well as at a distance from the local community. Some police interviewees acknowledged that in some instances this could be the case, for example, local police officers could be pulled away from communities to address national issues.

“…local policing is used as the main source of police officers for lots of other issues that are nationally, so they're drawn from their local policing position, which in turn leads to the fact that there's not enough capacity at local level, especially to do like community policing work, so basically what's happening is that they are more and more concentrating on emergency calls, crime-fighting much more than local policing.” (Interviewee: Netherlands)

Potential action or solutions to countering this did not emerge from this research.

For some interviewees from the Netherlands and Norway, the change in the relationship between the police and local communities was the result of a perceived change to the visibility of the police rather than a real change that has taken place. They argued that while some police stations had closed, at a local level neighbourhood officers had not been removed from communities by reform but were still present in the community. In Norway, there was a belief that in time reform has the potential to strengthen relationships between the police and local communities and that in time communities might see that the aim of reform was to shift police out of their local offices and into the community. For some, reform was seen as having the ability to strengthen communication procedures and thus increase transparency between the police and local communities. 

“The relationship is now a much more structured one, with a very clear obligation from the police and from the council to work together on specific issues. Where we have very clear lines of information-sharing, there is more clarity, there's more transparency between the police and the local communities, so I think where it's actually worked, it's worked well. (Interviewee: Norway)

2.1.4 Achieving positive engagement and building trust 

To improve relationships with local communities the police in each of the case studies have had to work on building trust with communities to make engagement with the police more positive. 

In New Zealand police officers have received training in how to more effectively engage with communities in order to build trust. Consultation with groups in communities informed the development of this training.

“We've educated our staff on how to engage. We did forums with our young community about how they perceive the Police and what they wanted from us, so that was the big factor that came out was ‘how you approach us’, ‘how you engage with us’, ‘don’t accuse us of being a criminal, without knowing what's going on’, and that paid real dividends…the engagement with them made a difference.” (Interviewee: New Zealand)

To further strengthen relationships with the police, steps have been taken in New Zealand to try and attract a more diverse population to join the police to ensure that the force becomes more representative of the communities they serve, for example in gender, age and ethnicity. Figures released by New Zealand police in June 2018 suggest that greater diversity in gender and ethnicity of new recruits has been achieved.^[13] 

In the Netherlands, changes in how the police engage with the public are not directly attributed to reform but are rather seen as part of the continual development towards new ways of working which started before reform took place. 

In some areas of the Netherlands weekly or regular meetings have been set up in the community where members of the public can meet and raise issues with local police officers. In others, the police link in with local services such as schools, to conduct visits and build relationships. One national initiative is the introduction of Neighbourhood Director Officers (NDO). For every 5000 inhabitants there is an NDO for that area. It is their role to link the community with other local services including social services, health services and local businesses. 

“We are changing, and we are making things better, but it is very hard to say that that is an effect of the reform or not…because we were developing all the time…” (Interviewee: Netherlands)

Case study 2

Participatory budgeting: investing in communities

Drawing on experiences of similar approaches elsewhere in the UK, in Manchester proceeds of crime are being used for community activities and diversionary activities for young people to prevent them entering organised crime, joining gangs or becoming involved with gun crime. When money or assets are seized from criminals, a third is given to the police. The police in Manchester have chosen to put this back into the community for community activities for young people. One method they use to decide how the funds are used is through participatory budgeting events. At these events local communities come up with ideas and bid to put these ideas into practice, in a Dragon’s Den (British TV show) style event. Local Authorities are also match funding these ideas. The police set out funding criteria to ensure ideas funded will reach a large number of people and meet specific local outcomes.

“We do quite a bit of participatory budgeting…so we run participatory budgeting events in local communities, and we ask them to come up with ideas where they bid for the money…often the Local Authority’ll match-fund it…They might be small projects. Might be a football club or something like that to tackle anti- social behaviour, so that's something we like to do.” (Interviewee: Manchester)

2.1.5 Improving the relationship with local communities as a strategic priority

For all four forces, local policing and improving the relationship between the police and community was a key feature of present and / or future strategic plans. This is consistent with the picture in Scotland with the transformation vision for Police Scotland outlined in Policing 2026^[14] where a key area of focus is supporting communities and improving localism.

In Norway, improving the connection between the police and public was part of the strategic plan at both a local police district and directorate level.

In Manchester, the police are working in partnership with other agencies and communities to deliver the strategy Our People, Our Place to improve services and support for residents. In addition, improving the connection between the police and local communities is also one of five strands in the Greater Manchester Police’s target operating model. This aims to support more partnership working in order to improve the outcomes for the people of Manchester by working together to tackle the social issues that lead to crime.

“For the first time we’ve got a strategy that talks about Greater Manchester as a place in itself drawing together police, health and social care, fire and rescue service, community and voluntary sector, our housing providers, so it’s an overarching strategy for Greater Manchester and it’s called Our People Our Place.” (Interviewee: Manchester)

While improving the connection between the police and the public is featured in strategic plans in New Zealand, how this will be implemented nationally is not prescribed, leaving flexibility in how this could be delivered locally. This may build on existing community policing structures such as Community Patrols and Maori Wardens that support local communities.

Strengthening local policing and the relationship with the community in the Netherlands is also captured in future plans for the police force. However, unlike the other areas, some interviewees are sceptical about whether it will happen in practice.

2.2 What are the challenges and opportunities of reform for developing local policing?

All four case study areas recognised that there were challenges involved in developing effective local policing during the reform journey. 

Three main challenges were identified:

i. the challenge of building and maintaining good community relations (explored previously)

ii. the way in which local policing tasks are prioritised, and by whom, to cope with limited resources 

iii. the changing role of police officers. 

2.3 Prioritising local policing tasks

For Manchester, the Netherlands and New Zealand, the biggest challenge was prioritising local policing tasks when demand for the police was high and staffing and resources are finite. 

“You’ve got demand pressures, so you’ve got to really make sure that you're really clear on your priorities, and that everyone understands what the priorities are, and what their role is within the big plan...otherwise, you know, you can drift and... You’ve still got to be accountable for reducing crime…” (Interviewee: New Zealand)

Police forces found it a challenge to make community policing a priority due to staff capacity and the competing demands on resources. They found that national policing tasks or response duties took priority over community policing due to a shortage of personnel and community policing roles not being protected.

“It’s really hard because the frontline staff don’t necessarily see that as a priority because they’re so overwhelmed with the cases that they’re carrying and the jobs coming in, …I mean that’s where my Neighbourhood Teams come into play, but then they’re often helping to do the response work because they’re so short of staff. So they don’t have much capacity left beyond that.” (Interviewee: Manchester)

This challenge is amplified when community policing initiatives are driven forward by individual police officers. If that person changes location or their role changes, then any community initiatives they are involved with can disappear. 

Working in closer partnership with other agencies is one of the ways that New Zealand police are trying to respond to meeting competing demands.

“So we can't do it by ourselves – the Police – so we need our partner agencies, Non-Government agencies to buy in to what we're trying to achieve…you need the support of (a) the communities, but also partner agencies to come in with services, you know?...You need businesses involved, particularly around, you know, when we were painting some of the shops and cleaning them up. We had businesses donate paint and bits and pieces, so you need the whole community to buy in to it…” (Interviewee: New Zealand)

Case study 3

Citizen Contract: building community assets

One way the police in Manchester are trying to improve their relationship with the community is with the Citizen Contract. Developed in other public services, the Citizen Contract is an approach which outlines the role and responsibilities of the police for communities, but also the role and responsibilities for communities. The Citizen Contract sits within the context of localised approaches of other public services. To raise awareness of the Citizen Contract the police run local community events. Some interviewees think that it will take time to see the full impact of the Citizen Contract, but early signs are promising.

“We have seen some shift in the demand around…not a massive reduction in calls but we are noticing that demand seems to be going to the right agency the first time, as to getting stuff around noise nuisance and fly tipping and stuff like that. But again it is early days, Greater Manchester has got a population of just under 3 million and so you know as a larger area it’s going to take a wee bit of time to see the kind of consequence of that work. Despite there will be, you know, local kind of anecdotal case study stuff, where it’s having an impact.” (Interviewee: Manchester) 

2.3.1 The changing role of police officers

There is also a perceived challenge, highlighted by an interviewee in the Netherlands, in relation to the changing role of police officers, which impacts on the culture of the police service and on the recruitment and training for new and experienced officers. As the tasks the police are expected to do are changing, so the skills needed to do the role also change.

“Well, one of our concerns at this moment is thinking about what kind of police officers do we need to stay relevant as a police force…I need police officers that understand the virtual world for example...” (Interviewee: Netherlands)

There was also a view from an interviewee in Norway that implementing the reformed structure caused challenges due to the need to change staff culture. As the new focus of the police is on prevention this has changed the tasks and approach of the police force as a whole which is challenging to implement as officers work out how this sits alongside their response role.