The intentions of 'community policing' are extensively contested. Is it about state surveillance, responding to the needs of community, or mystifying and providing a cloak of legitimacy for more coercive police practices?

Through ethnographic research this book aims to shine a spotlight on these contested interpretations. The research in Burscough, Ormskirk and Skelmersdale is an attempt to clarify the issues and determine the success, or failure, of this approach to policing in terms of image, effectiveness, and responsiveness to the needs of diverse communities. The study includes the perceptions of contemporary policing practices from three hundred members of the public, one hundred from each of the areas specified above.

The investigation incorporates extensive interviews with six officers, whose responses are utilised in the body of the text so that an in-depth perspective of the police interpretation of community policing can be analysed. Both aspects are combined so that a capacious impression of current opinions can be attained and thus develop an understanding of the way the police in Southwest Lancashire can be considered as community responsive.

Community Policing in Southwest Lancashire reflects on how community policing can be reimagined to avert greater recourse to coercive policing.