The Interaction between a Neighbourhood's Racial Composition and Officer Race in Community Policing: A Case Study from the Residential Area Policing Programme (RAPP), Cleveland, Ohio

This study explores whether there is a relationship between police officers' race and a neighbourhood's racial composition on the latter's community policing experience. The paper analyses responses from in-depth interviews with police officers from the Residential Area Policing Programme (RAPP), a community policing programme carried out in four neighbourhoods in Cleveland, Ohio. The measurement of the officers' experiences with RAPP is based on four questions focusing on the officers' attitudes, perceptions and observations vis-à-vis the neighbourhood, the residents' reactions to the programme and to the officers, and the impact of the programme on the neighbourhood's crime rates. The results show that for RAPP there was no relationship between the officers' race and the neighbourhood's racial composition on the individual officer's positive or negative experience with RAPP. However, the results illustrated how officers as racial groups experienced RAPP differently. The results also conveyed in a preliminary way that male officers experienced RAPP differently from female officers. Further research on the interaction between a neighbourhood's racial composition and officer race within a community policing context is needed to establish generalisability as well as the effect of gender on the community policing experience.