Watching Police, Watching Communities

Examines the the Neighbourhood Watch scheme and other community policing initiatives, revealing that most schemes are now dormant or dead and arguing that this is largely due to a lack of commitment to community policing by police forces.
After the major street riots in Britain in the early 1980s, the demands for more accountable and sensitive styles of policing were answered with a promise to embrace community policing ideals. The centrepiece of this commitment was Neighbourhood Watch. Official claims now portray it as an outstanding success in preventing crime, with over 90,000 schemes established across the country. However, "Watching Police, Watching Communities" sets out to test the validity of such claims and ultimately reveals them to be myths. Basing their research on extensive interviews with police and the public, Mike McConville and Dan Shepherd show that the public have little commitment to Neighbourhood Watch. Whilst crime and the fear of crime have special significance for old people and women, in general social issues such as employment, education and housing count for more. This lack of public commitment is matched by that of the police. There are only a small minority of officers who are dedicated to community beat work.