Police-Resident Interactions and Satisfaction With Police: An Empirical Test of Community Policing Assertions

There have been several studies that report a positive correlation between police resident interaction and resident satisfaction with the police and that community policing can substantially lower resident fear of crime. However, these studies failed to control for levels of community solidarity. This study uses ordinary least squares regression to predict levels of satisfaction with local police among residents of a small neighborhood in western South Carolina. Once levels of community solidarity were accounted for, positive interactions between residents and the police did not influence resident perceptions of police effectiveness. Conversely, the visible presence of officers in the neighborhood improved the residents’ opinions of the police.