An exploration through counter-narratives of Community Policing and Black Communities in the UK’s West Midlands region.

• In Event: Poster Session 1

Abstract

Despite many of the UK’s 43 police forces utilising Community Policing as a tool to improve their relations with local citizens, its effectiveness remains contested, particularly across Black Communities where longstanding legacies of police mistrust exist.

This ongoing PhD research seeks to contribute to existing Criminological thought by exploring the sufficiency and impact of state interventions in minimising such tenuous relationships or rectifying issues pertaining to Race and Policing.
Specifically, the PhD research utilises Critical Race Theory’s tenet of promoting counter-narratives to address factors influencing this fragmented relationship, the concept of power dynamics, and the value of alternative interventions seeking to alleviate the rift at a community level.

In addition to highlighting the contextual and literary groundings, this poster outlines the current position of this PhD study, including preliminary findings obtained from several semi-structured interviews with members of Black Communities across The West Midlands, UK, and policing personnel that have current or past experiences working across some of these localities.

Author

• Je-nice Harris, Birmingham City University