The Impact of Moral Alignment with Police on the Willingness to Participate in Community Policing Activities: Focusing on the Mediating Role of Trust in the Police

Modern society increasingly recognizes the era of cooperative security, where citizens and the police jointly maintain public safety. Within this paradigm, the active and voluntary participation of citizens in policing activities play a pivotal role. Achieving effective cooperative security necessitates aligning the values of citizens and police, planning policies in congruence with shared objectives, and conducting police activities based on these shared values. As a representative philosophy related to this, the police academia emphasizes the importance of community policing, and empirical and policy studies to establish a practical basis for cooperative security are still being actively conducted. This study aims to propose strategies for revitalizing cooperative security from the perspective of citizens, building upon previous research on the philosophy of community-oriented policing. Specifically, it explores the relationship between citizens' moral alignment with police officers and their willingness to participate in community policing activites, using survey data collected from 500 participants. To achieve this, a research model and hypothesis were developed, positing that moral alignment influences citizens' willingness to participate in community policing activities through the mediating role of police trust. By examining this pathway, the study seeks to uncover the detailed mechanisms through which moral alignment enhances citizen participation in community policing activities. The findings of this study reveal that police trust fully mediates the relationship between moral alignment with police and citizens' willingness to participate in community policing activities. This indicates that when citizens perceive shared values with the police, their trust in law enforcement increases, subsequently enhancing their willingness to engage in community policing activities. These results underscore the critical role of moral alignment as a positive driver in fostering community policing and revitalizing police engagement within local communities. Furthermore, the study provides empirical evidence to guide the development of policies aimed at strengthening police-citizen collaboration and promoting cooperative security practices.