ABSTRACT
The nature of compliance and legitimacy during transition is explored in a case study of community policing in Western. Police command draws on traditional charismatic authority and rational legal authority. An organizational reform such as community policing presents officers with self-presentational and teamwork dilemmas, such as the nature of teamwork, loyalty, and primary audience. The officer’s role in a community policing scheme is to act as a relatively visible, available watcher, based nominally in an area, and to represent dedifferentiated social control. While the community should filter and screen problems to focus police actions, the police are expected to respond to citizens’ concerns whether expressed at meetings, rally, in person or by phone. Assessing the role of crime analysis and geo-mapping in the context of community policing was also done. In spring 1997, a survey of officers’ attitudes toward community policing was conducted.
