Promoting trust and police legitimacy in African Australian communities: A critical reflection on community engagement strategies and practical recommendations for police

Abstract

Community engagement strategies intended to build trust and legitimacy are used widely by police agencies. Available research on the utility of these strategies shows mixed results and police have been criticised for adopting a ‘one-size fits all’ mentality when employing these strategies across minority groups. Yet, community engagement strategies remain a preferred tool for police seeking to improve their relations with minority groups. This article unpacks police–community engagement as a tool for promoting trust and legitimacy among African Australians. The first half of the article provides an overview of community engagement strategies and presents an engagement typology that is used to assesses critically the strengths and limitations of key strategies used by police vis-à-vis trust and legitimacy. The second half of the article canvasses the relationship between African Australian communities and the police, and draws attention to sociocultural factors that must be considered by police when developing and implementing engagement initiatives. The article concludes with several recommendations for police including the need to prioritise the needs of the community over intelligence gathering by embedding employment and education services into engagement initiatives.