Rebuilding Trust between Police & Communities through Procedural Justice & Reconciliation

In many societies around the world, segments of the public strongly distrust legal and political authorities. Regardless of how the distrust arises, it lessens the possibilities for future social cohesion, democratic governance, and successful economic development—factors that define strong communities. How can authorities build trust amid a legacy of distrust? In this review, the authors focus on relations between the police and communities and draw on two psychological literatures that articulate evidence-informed trust-building strategies. One, the procedural justice approach, concentrates on the fair and respectful exercise of authority during everyday interactions between individuals. The other, reconciliation, involves gestures that are carried out at the community level with the expressed intention of addressing past injustice and that promise changes in an authority's future relations with a community. This review concludes with policy recommendations, drawn from both literatures, describing a process of trust building that involves substantive improvements in procedural justice combined with reconciliatory gestures that signal a sincere intent to increase trust through service to communities.