Understanding Community Policing and Legitimacy-Seeking Behavior in Virtual Reality: A National Study of Municipal Police Websites

Abstract

Using a national probability sample of municipal police departments, this study provides the first systematic look at the prevalence, predictors, and content of municipal police websites in the United States. A content analysis revealed that police agencies with websites (42% of all police agencies nationwide in 2008) were more inclined to use websites to “push out” information rather than “pull in” information from the community. The results support the hypothesis that departments with a greater emphasis on community policing (defined by Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics [LEMAS] data) would be more likely to have a website, exhibit greater transparency in the display of data and provide more opportunities for citizen input. Crime rate and population size were also important determinants of website creation and content, respectively. This study concludes that websites are underutilized by both the police and research communities.