ABSTRACT
Police-community interactions have been an important consideration in policing since the development of community policing programs in the 1970s. Nevertheless, the importance of this relationship continues, as demonstrated in the book. The notion of establishing “trust” and “accountability” between the police and citizens of developing countries, with a history of extra-democratic policing, has implications beyond the chapters by Shaw and Boateng. There are, unfortunately, many locations in the United States where the police and the public simply do not trust each other, and there are accusations that the police are not transparent or accountable. Thus, some of the concepts identified in the work of Shaw and Boateng might be applied to the examination of local police agencies in the United States. Their work, however, must be considered in light of the work of Lavery and his colleagues. Their research found that there are times when the public expects their police agency to demonstrate an aggressive stance toward crime and criminals.
