A “Breach of Contract”? Public Views of Police-Community Relations in the COVID-19 Era

• In Event: Police-Community Relations and COVID-19

Abstract

The relationship between the police and the public is considered highly important in democratic societies, for both pragmatic and normative reasons. At the core of this relationship is a delicate balance between the restrictions imposed on citizens (and the way they are enforced), and the safety and security they gain in return. The COVID-19 pandemic appears to have violated this delicate balance, due to the enforcement of regulations that were unconventional in most Western democracies, and the often intrusive means by which they were enforced. The proposed study seeks to gain the public’s perspective of this potential “breach of contract” and its implications. Using two sets of survey data from Israel, the present study seeks to understand how citizens perceive the restrictions imposed upon them during the pandemic and their enforcement, the safety they gained in return, and – taken together - the extent to which they believe a fundamental change in their basic “agreement” with LEA has occurred. From a broader perspective, the COVID-19 pandemic provides a unique opportunity to examine the more general question of what happens to the relationship between the police and the public when the traditional balance between citizens’ freedom and authorities’ power is violated.

Authors

• Tal Jonathan-Zamir, The Hebrew University, Israel

• Gali Perry, The Hebrew University, Israel