Police engagement with the public in the community and online: technology, culture, identity and interpersonal relationships

Pike, Graham and Walkington, Zoe (2024). Police engagement with the public in the community and online: technology, culture, identity and interpersonal relationships. In: 2024 Conference of the European Association of Psychology and Law, 10-12 Jul 2024, Caparica, Portugal.

Abstract

Recent advances in technology have impacted not just the way that law enforcement agencies obtain and analyse evidence but also the way they interact with the public. In this symposium we explore some of these technologies, including the use of social media, body-worn cameras and community policing apps, and also look at the challenges and possibilities involved in building bi-directional, digital communication channels. Through five presentations from research teams across multiple disciplines, five universities and one police agency, we look at the police’s engagement with the public both within communities and online. This includes fairly diverse topics such as terrorism catastrophising, the effect of police behaviour on citizen compliance, the willingness of officers to report the misconduct of their fellows, police use of social media and citizen forensics, with each presentation sharing the common goal of using psychological knowledge to explore, and suggest possible means of improving, the methods and approaches used by law enforcement to engage and interact with the public.