Understanding community policing from the aspect of pandemics: A perspective of the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020

Abstract

This study examined police and community actions, perceptions and narratives surrounding community policing during the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020 while considering better alternatives that could have been applicable to prevent the pandemic. Normative sponsorship theory was employed by the study to explain the convergence of interest in order to satisfy people’s needs and critical theory to explicate social and political activity by people to improve their current social conditions. A qualitative research design approach was used and data collected from a representative population through snowball sampling method. 101 questionnaire respondents and 20 semistructured interviews provided primary data while secondary data was obtained from records held at the government administrative offices in Lari Sub-County. Narrative and descriptive analysis methods ware used to analyze data. Lari Sub–County represents a sense of an organizational political arena with competing narratives by the police and the community. The representations of each group’s narratives, perceptions, expectations and ‘voices of the people’ are labelled as vehicles for conventional motives of actions while attributing responsibility and blame to either party. From the study findings, the determining factor of police performance is the wide-ranging public opinions from clients evaluating police actions. The police should respect the will of the community and their policing needs during pandemics. The study provides empirical evidence of the reality of people’s perceptions that drive actions which in turn define relationships and how positively it can apply during uncertainties.