The Interaction between a Neighbourhood's Racial Composition and Officer Race in Community Policing: A Case Study from the Residential Area Policing Programme (RAPP), Cleveland, Ohio
| Author | Peter Kratcoski,Nawal Ammar,David Kessler |
| Published date | 01 September 2008 |
| Date | 01 September 2008 |
| DOI | 10.1350/ijps.2008.10.3.87 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
The interaction between a
neighbourhood’s racial composition and
officer race in community policing: a case
study from the residential area policing
programme (RAPP), Cleveland, Ohio
Nawal Ammar‡, David Kessler†and Peter Kratcoski§
‡(Corresponding author) University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Oshawa, Ontario,
Canada. Email: Nawal.Ammar@UOIT.Ca
†Faculty of Criminology, Policy and Justice Studies, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio,
USA. Email: Dkessler@kent.edu
§Department of Justice Studies, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio, USA. Email:
PeterKrat@aol.com
Received 18 May 2007; accepted 24 July 2007
Keywords: community policing, race relations, attitudes, perceptions,
gender issues
Nawal Ammar
is at the Faculty of Criminology,
Policy and Justice Studies in the University of
Ontario Institute of Technology.
David Kessler
is an Associate Professor in the
Department of Justice Studies, Kent State
University, Ohio.
Peter Kratcoski
is the Chair and Professor
Emeritus at the Department of Justice Studies,
Kent State University.
A
BSTRACT
This study explores whether there is a relation-
ship between police officers’ race and a neighbour-
hood’s racial composition on the latter’s
community policing experience. The paper ana-
lyses responses from in-depth interviews with
police officers from the Residential Area Policing
Programme (RAPP), a community policing pro-
gramme carried out in four neighbourhoods in
Cleveland, Ohio. The measurement of the
officers’ experiences with RAPP is based on four
questions focusing on the officers’ attitudes, per-
ceptions and observations vis-à-vis the neighbour-
hood, the residents’ reactions to the programme
and to the officers, and the impact of the pro-
gramme on the neighbourhood’s cr ime rates. The
results show that for RAPP there was no rela-
tionship between the officers’ race and the neigh-
bourhood’s racial composition on the individual
officer’s positive or negative experience with
RAPP. However, the results illustrated how
officers as racial groups experienced RAPP differ-
ently. The results also conveyed in a preliminary
way that male officers experienced RAPP differ-
ently from female officers. Further research on the
interaction between a neighbourhood’s racial com-
position and officer race within a community
policing context is needed to establish general-
isability as well as the effect of gender on the
community policing experience.
INTRODUCTION
At its simplest level, ‘. . . community poli-
cing has emerged as an approach to establish
International Journal of Police Science & Management Volume 10 Number 3
International Journal of Police
Science and Management,
Vol. 10 No. 3, 2008, pp. 313-325.
DOI: 10.1350/ijps.2008.10.3.87
Page 313
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