Citizen Willingness to Participate in Police-Community Partnerships: Exploring the Influence of Race and Neighborhood Context

Abstract

Since community policing emerged in the 1970s and 1980s, it has been common for police departments to use police—community partnerships as a strategy for improving public satisfaction with the police. Yet very little is known about what predicts citizen willingness to participate in these types of community policing initiatives. In this study, the authors use the results of an anonymous mailed survey ( n = 16,193) conducted in a large Western city to examine individual and community-level relationships between race/ethnicity and willingness to work with the police in a community anticrime initiative. Contrary to previous research, but consistent with Blumer’s group position thesis, African Americans who responded to the survey report a greater willingness to work with the police than do White respondents. Neighborhood-level variables show mixed results, with concentrated disadvantage having a minor statistical effect on increasing citizen willingness to participate in partnership initiatives. The discussion considers the theoretical, methodological, and policy implications of these observed differences.