How the interplay between organisational ‘culture’ and ‘climate’ shapes police officers’ perceptions of community policing
| Author | Liam Fenn,Karen Bullock |
| Published date | 01 September 2022 |
| Date | 01 September 2022 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/14613557211064056 |
| Subject Matter | Original Research Articles |
How the interplay between organisational
‘culture’and ‘climate’shapes police officers’
perceptions of community policing
Liam Fenn
University of Surrey, UK
Karen Bullock
University of Surrey, UK
Abstract
This article draws on interview data and the concepts of organisatio nal ‘culture’and ‘climate’to critically assess police
officers’perceptions of community policing in one English constabulary. In so doing, it considers the cultural, organisa-
tional and wider contextual determinants of officers’alignment to this style of police work. With an emphasis on devel-
oping community partnerships and engaging in problem-solving, rather than enforcement of the criminal law, community
policing has been seen a primary way of rendering officers more ‘responsive’to the needs of citizens, improving police–
community relations and driving down crime rates. An important reform movement in police organisations around the
world, the success of community policing nonetheless depends on officers’willingness and ability to deliver it.
Accordingly, the generation of evidence about the ‘drivers’of officers’attitudes to inform strategies to promote the deliv-
ery of the approach is essential. Findings suggest that officers value community policing as an organisational strategy but
that the approach maintains a low status and is undervalued compared with other specialisms within the organisation.
This is born of an organisational culture that foregrounds law enforcement as the primary function of police work
and an organisational climate that reinforces it. This has implications for community officers in terms of their perceptions
of and attitudes towards the approach, self-esteem and sense of value and worth, perceptions of organisational justice,
discretionary effort and role commitment. Recommendations for police managers are set out.
Keywords
community policing, police culture, police organisations
Submitted 7 Jul 2021, Revise received 7 Jul 2021, accepted 29 Oct 2021
Introduction
Drawing on the concepts of organisational ‘culture’and
‘climate’, this article examines police officers’perceptions
of, attitudes towards, and experiences of community poli-
cing, a hugely influential reform movement in the United
Kingdom (UK) and around the globe. Community policing
models represent a departure from dominant modes of
police work. Notably they represent a change from ‘tradi-
tional’modes of police work framed narrowly around reac-
tive enforcement of the criminal law –and so policing of
communities –to modes of police work that foreground
community engagement, problem-solving and proactive
prevention of crime –and so policing with and for the com-
munity (Fielding, 1995). Community policing gained trac-
tion as an organisational strategy against the backdrop of
Corresponding author:
Liam Fenn, Sociology, University of Surrey, Room 10 AD, University of
Surrey, Guildford GU2 7XH, UK.
Email: liamfenn2@gmail.com
Original Research Article
International Journal of
Police Science & Management
2022, Vol. 24(3) 227–238
© The Author(s) 2021
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DOI: 10.1177/14613557211064056
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