Police self-legitimacy and democratic orientations: Assessing shared values

Using a sample of frontline police officers from several mid-sized municipal police departments in the United States, this study explores the relationships between frontline police officers’ self-legitimacy, organizational fit, moral alignment with policed communities, and attitudes toward democratic policing principles. Using partial least squares structural equation modeling, the analysis frames democratic policing using a formative latent construct to test several hypotheses. The results support a direct positive relationship between self-legitimacy and attitudes toward democratic policing, and suggest the relationship is partially mediated by officers' perceptions of moral alignment with their policed communities. The results further demonstrate that self-legitimacy is significantly related to organizational fit, but organizational fit does not appear to mediate the relationship between self-legitimacy and attitudes toward democratic policing.

Policing in the Covid-19 Situation in Indonesia

Since March 2020, Indonesia has entered Covid-19 emergency status. Covid-19 pandemic situation forged various aspects, through social, economic, political, and cultural. This situation places Indonesia in a critical situation which has a great chance of social unrest. Indonesian National Police as the forefront of law enforcement in Indonesia, faces two real consequences: carrying out the main tasks of the police itself and additional tasks to deal with the Covid-19 emergency handling agenda. To support these tasks, Indonesian National Police issued at least 38 (thirty-eight) notice and internal regulation since March to May 2020. Thirteen of those 38 regulations ruled relation between police and community. By analyzing these thirteen regulations, I identified policing implementation in Indonesia. As a result, these thirteen regulations are dominated by points that indicate democratic policing where persuade, coordinate, anticipated, campaigns, encourage, and transparent being methods that mostly used in the enforcement framework. Indonesian National Police’s consistency in orienting towards community-based policing shows their commitment in promoting Indonesia values as democratic nation.

Democratic policing: a conceptual framework

ABSTRACT Democratic policing, as opposed to regime policing, must meet at least three requirements: there is democratic accountability of and for the police; the police adhere to the rule of law; and the police behave in a manner that is procedurally fair in service of the public. The article presents a conceptual framework of nine dimensions applicable to different contexts with a view to facilitate policies and practices towards democratic policing. It is argued that the ultimate result being sought is a legitimate police service. If legitimacy is the result, then trust is the outcome preceding it. Legitimacy is dependent on the public's trust that State power will be used in the public interest. Public trust therefore fulfils an important legitimising function. Levels of trust in the police are driven by the police's ability and performance record with reference to three outputs : objectivity, empathy and responsivity. The latter three outputs flow from five input variables, namely: knowledge of what works in creating a safer society from a policing perspective; rights-based policing; accountability of the policing (inclusive of transparency); efficiency and effectiveness of resource utilisation; and the police as citizens also entitled to rights and protections. The utility of the conceptual framework lies in providing a coherent and linked-up view to analyse police organisations and support the development of reform proposals. Keywords: Democratic policing; regime policing; public trust; legitimacy; human rights; police reform; professional policing.