Electronic Commons, Community Policing, and Communication

In recent years, scholars and practitioners have bemoaned the decline in public life. The "commons," as the worry goes, is shrinking. The article investigates the effort by the Washington, DC, Metropolitan Police Department (DC MPD) to facilitate an electronic commons in which residents and police department personnel can work together, via online discussion groups, to address crime and safety issues. Using both quantitative and qualitative methods, the article analyzes the threads originating between July 2005 and December 2007 to answer two research questions. Do the online discussion groups fulfill the spirit of an electronic commons? What is the nature of the online relationship between the police and the community? The findings show that although DC MPD has created an avenue for online discussion, it has had mixed success in creating an electronic commons. Insights are provided for public administrators for fostering social media to create an electronic commons, and suggestions for future scholarship.