Background
In early 2022, the apublic participation unit was launched by the Strategy Department at the Planning and Organization Division of the Israel Police. This action can be seen as part of a broader process, led by the Israeli government over the past decade, that is in accord with global trends of promoting and implementing public participation. For many years, other countries have been dealing with the following questions: How can and should public participation be made part of police work? To what extent is it appropriate to enable a variety of communities to take part in shaping the police’s goals and methods? And what is the most appropriate and effective way of creating such partnerships? Similar questions have arisen in the Israel Police as well. Following discussions between Myers-JDC-Brookdale Institute researchers and the Planning and Organization Division, the Institute suggested that it undertake a study on this issue. This research report lays the conceptual groundwork for understanding and implementing public participation in police organizations.
Objective
Identify best practices of public participation in use by police organizations to inform the design and implementation of such practices by the Israel Police.
Method
The study includes three stages: (1) An international review to identify studies on this subject, carried out the summer of 2022. Two methods were used to identify relevant research. Firstly, a systematic search of articles in online databases. Secondly, reaching out to ten researchers from academia and from government and third-sector research institutes worldwide; (2) Next, based on the review, practices arising from robust studies were mapped and divided into categories, noting the potential and challenges of each category; (3) Finally, participatory learning together with the Planning and Organization Division of the Israel Police is planned in order to examine the applicability of the findings in the local context. This report presents the findings of the first two stages.
Findings
The review of the international literature presents the conceptual foundations of public participation in police organizations (democratic policing and community policing) and the goals and challenges of such processes in police organizations worldwide. Based on the review, the study lists a range of practices and interventions for public participation in global police organizations. For the first time in the professional literature, the study identifies ten categories of such practices and interventions, based on the scale of public participation model: (1) Traditional and social media; (2) Surveys; (3) Consultation with members of the public in community committees and other relevant settings; (4) Work in ad-hoc forums on consensual issues; (5) Public representation in commissions of inquiry; (6) Public participation in civilian police supervision mechanisms; (7) Ongoing participation – public participation as part of community policing; (8) Reconciliatory approaches to public participation; (9) Authorizing municipalities to include the public in police work issues; and (10) Joint policymaking.
The categories are defined and described in a table which includes references to studies relevant to each category, a brief description of research findings, and emphases for successful implementation. In order to adapt the practices to the Israel Police, the report also provides a preliminary mapping of current public participation activities in the Israel Police.
Conclusions and Recommendations
The review presents three main conclusions. First, public participation processes have considerable normative value in the context of establishing democratic policing and the legitimization of the police. Second, the review indicates that it is possible to implement these processes even in the context of low trust in the police and profound social crises. Some of the studies indicate that these processes may be effective in increasing public trust and cooperation with the police and in reducing crime. Third, from a bird’s-eye view, it is clear that without appropriate investment of time and resources, public participation processes do not ensure certain success, and, in fact, may even be damaging in terms of reduced public trust and willingness to participate in such processes in the future.
The report develops the argument that the organizational and social context of the public participation process is of decisive importance for all aspects of its implementation – from choosing the right approach to participation at the outset to the expected potential for success. Three contextual variables are of particular importance: civil tradition, the policing tradition of the police force, and the police force’s organizational structure.
The report provides several recommendations to the Israel Police for continued optimal development of public participation including:
- Develop public participation tools suitable for the needs and capabilities of the Israel Police, as well as a “toolkit” adjusted for the various police ranks
- Develop channels that will enable police stations to promote public participation that goes beyond the preliminary stages of information sharing and consulting and reaches the higher levels of the participation scale, as well as enabling local public participation, allowing civilians to have impact on matters of particular concern to them
- Develop processes that are suitable for a national police force and facilitate broad representation of Israeli society, such as collaboration with civil society organizations and the establishment of permanent committees