This paper will discuss the argument made by Zhong (2009) in the article entitled “Community Policing in China: Old Wine in New Bottles.” The argument is implied in the title: the author argues that China’s new policing style, called community policing, is essentially similar to its mass line policing used between 1949 and 1980 (Zhong, 2009). Yet, in this paper, I will focus on the part of the argument that is concerned with the need to adapt community policing to the changing social environment. In my opinion, community policing may not be effective in every context and can be a viable policing style only in societies with appropriate ideological underpinnings and traditions.
Community policing is a policing style that is focused on establishing relationships with the community. According to Zhong (2009), mass line policing, which was essentially community policing, was easy to implement in China before 1980 because of low population mobility resulting from the socialist ideology and a planned economic model. When economic conditions changed and immigration increased drastically, adhering to this policing style became challenging. I think that this is a natural outcome because it is much harder for the police to establish trusting relationships with community members when the community becomes individualized and its membership composition continuously changes. Meanwhile, trust is the core of community policing, and this style is unlikely to be viable in societies with a lack of trust in the police (Arresting Developments, 2022). In my opinion, China has managed to restore its community policing because it has already had ideological underpinnings for it and prior experience of successful implementation of this policing style. In Western countries that lack these prerequisites, community policing is unlikely to be effective.
In conclusion, there seems to be no one-size-fits-all approach to policing. As China’s case from the article shows, the choice of policing styles may depend on social ideologies, cultural traditions, economic conditions, demographic trends, such as immigration, and other factors. Community policing is an effective way to mobilize citizens for crime prevention, but it is a viable option in contexts with high societal trust in police.
References
Arresting Developments. (2022). Comparative criminal justice, section 4.1: Policing [Video]. YouTube. Web.
Zhong, L. Y. (2009). Community policing in China: Old wine in new bottles. Police Practice and Research, 10(2), 157–169.