Series editor preface

Summary

The Key Themes in Policing Series aims to provide relevant and useful books to support the growing number of policing modules on both undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. The series also aims to support all those interested in policing from criminology, law, and policing students and policing professionals to those who wish to join policing services. It seeks to respond to the call for research in relevant and under-researched areas in policing encouraged by organisations such as the College of Policing in England and Wales. By producing a range of high-quality, research-informed texts on important areas in policing, contributions to the series support and inform both professional and academic policing curriculums.

We are delighted to welcome Neighbourhood Policing: Context, Practices and Challenges by Carina O’Reilly to the Key Themes in Policing Series. This book comes at an important moment for policing in several areas of the globe. The early 21st century has already brought many challenges to the legitimacy and practice of policing, from events such as the movement to defund the police to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Questions are being asked about what we want the police to do and how best this should be achieved. Community policing, and the UK version ‘Neighbourhood Policing’, is often cited as a possible solution to rebuilding trust between the police and the communities they serve. In this book, O’Reilly charts the effects of these events and the wider changing political landscape on the practice of neighbourhood policing. She notes how the original goals of the practice have been reframed, considers how the practice can operate now, especially in a context of reduced funding, and looks to the future of this much-loved but often ill-understood ‘bedrock’ of policing in the Global North. Specific elements of neighbourhood policing are considered in detail, including visibility, community engagement, problem-solving and partnerships. This text will be essential reading for both researchers and practitioners alike.