How should the police keep communities safe: by reacting to crime or by preventing it together with the community? That question ran through several sessions at Parul University’s ICGCV 2026 and produced some of its most practical insights.
From Reaction to Prevention: Solution-Oriented Policing
Prof. Ruwan Uduwerage-Perera of De Montfort University, Chair of the conference’s Scientific Programme Committee, made the case that the future of criminal justice depends on ground-level collaboration between researchers, practitioners, police, and, above all, local communities. Drawing on fieldwork with tribal communities in Madhya Pradesh, he described community-engagement initiatives whose lessons could apply even to large policing systems abroad and pointed to India’s gradual shift from reactive policing toward prevention-oriented policing rooted in community participation. This is the essence of “solution-oriented policing”: not simply responding to crime after it happens, but working with communities to address its causes.
What is Community Policing?
Community policing is a philosophy that embraces the police’s involvement in the community as a genuine partner, with the aim of establishing trust between the police and the community, sharing responsibility for safety, and emphasising prevention rather than enforcement. The police are no longer a far-off entity that comes into being only when something goes wrong; they are part of the community’s own effort to ensure its safety. It seems simple enough, but as the conference’s keynote on the topic pointed out, it’s not all that simple to do well.
The Myth of Copy-and-Paste Policing
Professor of Criminology Prof. Dr. Gorazd Meško from the University of Maribor, Slovenia, warned in a plenary about local safety that it is not possible to copy and paste community policing from one country to another. He spent time observing British policing in his early research trips, and he discovered that officers on the beat were far more likely to encounter challenges when trying to enact ideas in communities than policy writers were aware of, and that they needed to be committed to the institution, have resources, and have the trust of the public. He said that the success of community policing is largely dependent on the local legal system, institutional histories, political cultures, and public expectations. The words themselves sometimes deceive: terms that are intelligible in English can have no meaning or have other implications when translated, as they are a part of different stories. There is no reason to assume that a model that is very successful in one setting will be equally successful in another.
From Research to Real-World Practice
One of Prof. Meško’s key points was “translational criminology,” the translation of research products into understanding and application by policymakers, practitioners, and communities. Even when using the same words, he said, the practice of researchers, officials, police, and administrators can differ in language, with academics talking about theories and methods, policymakers about solutions that can be implemented, and practitioners talking about what they need to do in the here and now. Translating evidence into simple language that people can use and trust requires honesty, consistency, and criticism based on evidence. He said researchers must not give up the critical stance but must also not tailor their results to meet political demands: academic honesty is the basis for any true cooperation.
A Lesson in Public Criminology
Prof. Meško shared a formative moment. After a presentation to local leaders, a mayor told him plainly that his research would be far more useful if it spoke directly to what decision-makers actually needed, rather than offering only bullet points. It taught him a lasting lesson: effective communication is not about showing how much a researcher knows but about presenting evidence in a form that busy decision-makers can understand, remember, and apply. It is a principle any student who hopes to influence policy should absorb early.
Beyond Crime Rates.
The Real Measure of Safety is a press release issued by the U.S. Department of Justice. His most significant point was that safety should not be equated just with numbers of crimes or police interventions. Based on the national local-safety framework in Slovenia, which he has contributed to establishing from the very beginning of working with the Council of Europe, Prof. Meško stated that true security requires public trust, quality of life, institutional legitimacy, local governance, and human relations. His team did not simply look for solutions that were ready to be imported but instead researched what was effective in making communities in Slovenia feel secure and resilient. It is a reframing with a global context: A safe community is not one that has a low crime rate, but one where people feel safe, trust in the institutions, and live well. Ready to make law your power move? Explore law programs at Parul University, including Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.), Bachelor of Arts & Bachelor of Laws (Hons.), and Master of Laws (LL.M.) in Business and Corporate Law. Build your legal expertise, sharpen your argument game, and get ready to turn your ambition into a career in law.
FAQs
What’s community policing?
Community policing is a concept that emphasises the police's role in building trust and rapport with the community, collaborating with them in a proactive, problem-solving manner, and accepting responsibility not just for protecting the community, but for its prevention. Instead, it views the police as an integral part of the community's own security and not as an external body of agents that only comes in when there's been crime.
Does community policing have a potential for replication across countries?
Not simply. Community policing relies heavily on local legal systems, institutional histories, political cultures, and expectations and can even lose meaning in translation, as Prof. Dr. Gorazd Meško pointed out at ICGCV 2026. The model that has proved successful in one country need not be the same elsewhere without the proper adaptation to the local situation.
What is translational criminology?
The act of converting the results of research into knowledge that has the potential to be understood and applied by policymakers, practitioners, and communities is what is called translational criminology. It acknowledges that academics, officials, and frontline workers often speak a variety of professional languages and emphasises plain, usable translation of evidence—based on trust and academic integrity—to enhance the safety of the real world.
