Community policing, trust, and Muslim communities in relation to 'new terrorism'

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 characterized 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. Keywords: Public Policy, Political Institutions, Counter-Terrorism, Trust, Community Policing, Muslim Communities. Basandonos en datos que examinan el compromiso y el trabajo conjunto dentro del contexto del 'nuevo terrorismo' este articulo examina el rol de la confianza entre los oficiales de policia y las comunidades musulmanas. Un hallazgo clave es que en un contexto de baja confianza, caracteristico del 'nuevo terrorismo,' es importante para los oficiales de policia enfocarse inicialmente en la construccion de una confianza contingente por medio de actividades que construyan y demuestren dicha confianza. La colaboracion entre la policia y los miembros de las comunidades Musulmanas que realizan un delicado trabajo de intervencion con aquellos que estan en riesgo de cometer actos de terrorismo pareceria mostrar una confianza implicita. Estas colaboraciones estan menos enfocadas en resultados de corto plazo, en lugar de ello los individuos estan comprometidos en estas relaciones para que la confianza entre los oficiales y los miembros de la comunidad Musulmana llegue a estar implicada. Esto sugiere que los oficiales de policia asignados a unidades anti-terroristas ancladas especificamente en principios de colaboracion ciudadana estan mejor ubicados para proveer el tipo de interaccion de largo plazo y de construccion de confianza que es requerido para llevar a cabo un trabajo de colaborativo delicado, para que la confianza contingente sea incorporada en la confianza implicita.
Efforts to counter Al-Qaeda-linked (AQ-linked) or -influenced terrorism are increasingly drawing upon community-based initiatives based upon engagement and partnership work between police officers and members of Muslim communities, in the [...]