ABSTRACT
When John Alderson wrote about ‘Community Policing’ he identified the need for the police to work with the communities that they policed (Alderson 1979) and community policing has continued to work towards that goal. The current terms used describe policing as needing to ‘engage’ with communities and so promote ‘cohesion’. Both terms can be found in strategy documents of local and national government and public service agencies, including the police. While the term ‘community policing’ is still used and the relationship between ‘communities’ and the police is still discussed, a newer term, ‘neighbourhood policing’ is now more widely used in the United Kingdom. The two terms define two different, interlinked concepts. Neighbourhood policing is essentially geographically based and its delivery bound by territorial and political boundaries, the term acknowledges that several communities may exist within a geographical area. Community policing is the delivery style that relies on the police understanding and responding to each different community within a geographical neighbourhood.
