Is Community-led Policing in our Future?

FPI Fellow Tim Hegarty has written a compelling piece on the future of community policing. One in which the community takes an equal share of responsibility for decisions regarding crime control and police accountability.

In his view of this future-leaning concept of community-led policing, there is no need for civilian oversight of the police, as the community and the police share responsibility for the regular decision-making process regarding crime control on the strategic level, as well as the joint examination of those things for which civilian oversight is regularly sought - citizen complaints and questionable uses of force.

Perhaps this is a far reach for some. But that’s exactly what we hope to achieve with our thought pieces. Aspirational. Anticipatory. Future-oriented. If we get you to think “why not?” then we’ve done our job. Hegarty provides us with a glimpse of what could be in the relationship between the police and the communities they are sworn to protect via a community-led policing philosophy. To read his article click here.