De-Enchanting Community Policing in New York

Abstract

Introduction: This paper examines the historical distortion of the original normative vision of community policing through the example of New York City. The author demonstrates the gradual drift away from the original community-centered and crime-preventive goals of the concept in the city's policing strategies.

Purpose: To explore the process of disenchantment with community policing, and with it the 'fallibility' of the model, and to draw out the lessons that are considered important for the long-term sustainability of the model.

Method: The study adopts a historical-sociological approach and draws on a comprehensive literature analysis and case studies from New York. The case studies describe the evolution of community policing programs in the New York City Police Department.

Findings. Successive models do not show a linear evolution, but are the result of political choices made in particular eras, which can at any time regress towards more conservative strategies. Since the end of the 20th century, the legitimation of hard-line policing strategies through 'community' language has emerged as a new phenomenon. From the period of Giuliani and Bratton onwards, the COP label has often served as a tool of zero tolerance, blurring the line between genuine community principles and repressive models.

Conclusion: This study offers new perspectives on the domestic understanding of community policing and contributes to a critical rethinking of it. The experience in New York shows that COP is a fragile construct that can easily become eroded and become a repressive tool. Its long-term sustainability can be ensured by its normative basis and its application based on social and organisational consent.