“Angels in Marble”: Problems in Stimulating Community Involvement in Community Policing

In 1990 the Bureau of Justice Assistance awarded grants to eight urban and suburban police departments for the purpose of establishing innovative neighborhood-oriented drug demand reduction projects. The projects varied in design and implementation, but all encountered the same implementation problems. The most perplexing of these problems was the inability of the police departments to organize and maintain active community involvement in their projects. The research examines the reasons for the inability of police departments to establish effective partnerships with community residents. The results of this analysis suggest that despite the apparent popularity of the community policing approach, community residents may not want closer interaction with the police nor the responsibility for maintaining social control.