Citizen Interest in Collaborative Crime Prevention: Do Beliefs about the Police Matter?

This research explores whether beliefs about the police grounded in instrumental, normative, and expressive models of policing correlate with citizen interest in collaborating with the police to prevent crime. Based on mailed survey data from a stratified random sample of county citizens ( N = 215), the results of this research using linear regression analysis suggest that police initiatives emphasizing normative values (i.e., fair procedures) generate more citizen interest in collaborative crime prevention than instrumental police strategies emphasizing effective crime fighting. The results also imply that police efforts to form partnerships with the public will be more successful when approaching citizens with expressive concerns, in particular, an attachment to their community indicated by length of residence, and with black citizens more than white citizens.