Community Policing, Trust, and Muslim Communities in Relation to "New Terrorism" - Spalek (2010)

The following article examines the role of trust between police and communities in the context of “new terrorism,” drawing upon data that examined engagement and partnership work between communities and police within this context.

A key finding is that in a low-trust context, as characterised by “new terrorism,” it is important for police officers to focus initially upon building contingent trust by trust-building activities that demonstrate trustworthiness. Partnerships between police and members of Muslim communities carrying out sensitive intervention work with those deemed at risk from committing acts of terrorism appear to feature implicit trust. These partnerships are less focused upon short-term outcomes, but rather, individuals are committed to these relationships so that within the partnerships themselves trust is implicit between officers and Muslim community members. This suggests that police within specialist counter-terrorism units underpinned specifically by principles of community policing are best placed to provide the kind of long-term interaction and trust-building that is required for sensitive partnership work to take place, for contingent trust to be built into implicit trust.