From Belfast to Bishkek: An International Perspective on Neighbourhood and Community Policing
| Author | Trevor Service |
| Date | 01 December 2012 |
| Published date | 01 December 2012 |
| DOI | 10.1350/ijps.2012.14.4.292 |
| Subject Matter | Paper |
From Belfast to Bishkek: an international
perspective on neighbourhood and
community policing
Trevor Service
Neighbourhood Management Consultant at OSCE Kyrgyzstan; Larne, Northern Ireland, UK.
Email: tr.service9@gmail.com
Submitted 5 June 2012, accepted 10 August 2012
Keywords: international neighbourhood policing, neighbourhood
management, post-conflict community engagement, Northern Ireland,
Kyrgyzstan, Kosovo
Trevor Service
is a police training and commun-
ity engagement consultant. He retired from
policing in Northern Ireland in 2010 after 28
years’ service with the Royal Ulster Constabulary
(RUC) and the Police Service of Northern Ireland
(PSNI). He has policed with the United Nations
(UN) in Kosovo and later carried out research
into community police training in Croatia,
Macedonia and Kosovo. He has trained officers
in Azerbaijan and is currently (2012) carrying out
work as a consultant on neighbourhood policing
and management in Kyrgyzstan. He completed
his BSc (Hons) in Crime & Criminology with
Portsmouth University in 2008 and a PgCert in
International Policing through Stirling University
in 2010.
A
BSTRACT
The difficulties and pitfalls involved in transfer-
ring different policing methods from one country
to another by way of police assistance programmes
(PAPs) have been widely accepted for many
years. Adopting a ‘one-shoe-fits-all’ approach can
result in bewildered audiences, missed opportun-
ities, wasted funding and criticism from the
‘recipients’ of the organisations and the ‘experts’
involved. Without proper context setting, well-
established methods and procedures from one
country can fail spectacularly in another. Despite
differences in culture, customs, language, tradi-
tions, religion and so forth, the author argues that
similarities remain in the area of neighbourhood
and community policing wherever it is practised.
He further suggests that this area of policing lends
itself particularly well to comparable methods
being adopted in different settings. Specifically in
post-conflict regions, which are the main ‘target’
for PAPs. These programmes are delivered by a
plethora of organisations such as European Police
Missions, the United Nations (UN), the Organ-
isation for Security and Cooperation in Europe
(OSCE), the International Criminal Investiga-
tive Training Assistance Programme and so on.
This article aims to examine this style of polic-
ing, the roles, skills and training of the officers
within it, and common themes and barriers to its
implementation. Specific reference is made to
three post-conflict regions: Northern Ireland,
Kosovo and Kyrgyzstan. An assertion will be
made that many of the problems which neigh-
bourhood officers face come not from the commun-
ity, but from within the police family itself. In
doing so, the author draws on the international
literature and on his own experiences of policing
with the Royal Ulster Constabulary and the
Police Service of Northern Ireland, the UN in
Kosovo, and ongoing work as a consultant to the
International Journal of Police Science & Management Volume 14 Number 4
Page 362
International Journal of Police
Science and Management,
Vol. 14 No. 4, 2012, pp. 362–372.
DOI: 10.1350/ijps.2012.14.4.292
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