Mutual trust  -Community policing as a trust-building method in a Swedish police context

Abstract: Community policing has been developed in the Anglo-American countries and implemented in the Swedish Police Authority during the last years. One of its main goals is to reach a proximity to citizens and thereby increase the level of trust. A qualitative interview study is used to scruti-nize how community policing stands as a trust-building method, by looking closer into the police trust to citizens connected to their approach to community policing and identifying potential dif-ferences in the police organization. The result shows a deviation in the police’s trust in citizens which relates to their approach to community policing. Partially, a difference is reflected in the police perception of the citizens’ perspectives and ability to comprehend the police profession, indicating that the citizen role should rather be of informative than of participating character. To-gether with a review on earlier research of what constitutes trust and demonstrated deficiencies in the implementation of community policing in the Swedish Police Authority, the results imply a weak foundation for police pledges as an effective measure to gain trust.