Partnership approaches in policing: An analysis of different types of partnerships and how they work to reduce crime and disorder

Abstract

Abstract Partnerships in policing are commonplace approaches to reduce crime and disorder problems across most parts of the world. Police forge partnerships with businesses, government agencies, and communities to co-produce public safety, usually cooperatively but sometimes using coercion. The co-production approach to crime control permeates all levels of law enforcement from tackling complex corporate crimes to reducing the flow of drugs to street-level markets. In this paper, I draw from the Global Policing Database (GPD) and the final stage of the search and screening from a systematic review of third-party policing (TPP) interventions to analyse 29 unique TPP interventions in 36 studies described across 45 documents. Each of the 29 unique TPP interventions depicts different types of partnerships and how they work to reduce crime and disorder. Partnerships are grouped along two continuums: the number and complexity of partners involved and the level and type of engagement. Some partnerships in policing are extremely complex involving multiple agencies, whereas others are dyadic. The type of engagement between partners also varies: some partnerships are collaborative, guided by memorandums of understanding, and motivated by mutual need for crime control solutions. Other partnerships are more coercive and dictated through legislated mandates and forceful measures. In this paper, I examine the range of partnerships evident within the review and offer insights into how those partnerships work to tackle different types of problems.