Community Policing is a long-known concept in Europe. Many countries have
implemented it, depending on the problem areas that manifest and the needs that
emerge from society. The various police systems and strategies in these countries
also influence the way in which Community Policing is organized.
During a CEPOL course in Ireland in May 2016 one of the central themes was
Community Policing. The various countries presented their implementation of
Community Policing and those insights aroused curiosity and led to a nice
exchange of knowledge. An important conclusion was that police organizations
throughout Europe use many different forms of Community Policing. Following
this course, I was asked to write a foreword for this book on Community Policing in
Europe. I feel honoured and want to emphasize from personal experience the
importance of this kind of research and comparisons.
As a young officer, I first came into contact with Community Policing when a
community police officer explained to me how he approached certain visible and
potential problem areas in his district. His main starting point was to initiate
cooperation between citizens, organizations and local government, including
sharing responsibilities and to motivate involvement. His vision was to cope with
security issues from a problem-oriented approach and not only to focus on
incident-oriented policing.