Promoting trust and police legitimacy in African Australian communities: A critical reflection on community engagement strategies and practical recommendations for police

Abstract

Community engagement strategies intended to build trust and legitimacy are used widely by police agencies. Available research on the utility of these strategies shows mixed results and police have been criticised for adopting a ‘one-size fits all’ mentality when employing these strategies across minority groups. Yet, community engagement strategies remain a preferred tool for police seeking to improve their relations with minority groups. This article unpacks police–community engagement as a tool for promoting trust and legitimacy among African Australians. The first half of the article provides an overview of community engagement strategies and presents an engagement typology that is used to assesses critically the strengths and limitations of key strategies used by police vis-à-vis trust and legitimacy. The second half of the article canvasses the relationship between African Australian communities and the police, and draws attention to sociocultural factors that must be considered by police when developing and implementing engagement initiatives. The article concludes with several recommendations for police including the need to prioritise the needs of the community over intelligence gathering by embedding employment and education services into engagement initiatives.

Keywords

Community engagement African Australian police community policing police–community relations

Introduction

Building trust and legitimacy among citizens is crucial for police agencies. When people trust the police and view them as legitimate they are more willing to cooperate with police, report crimes and their own victimisation (Murphy et al., 2014). The task of building trust and legitimacy has become an increasingly salient objective for police agencies in Australia and other western jurisdictions (President's Task Force on Twenty-First Century Policing, 2015). This is partly due to greater migration of groups from non-European backgrounds to Australia over the past 50 years. African Australians are one such migrant group. In the past three decades, African-born individuals and their families from countries like Somalia, Eritrea, South Sudan, Ethiopia and Sierra Leone have migrated to Australia, largely through family reunion and humanitarian programs (Commonwealth of Australia, 2019).

The increased diversity of Australia and other western nations has brought many important social, cultural and economic benefits (e.g. improved labour productivity; Wright et al., 2016). However, this greater diversity has also posed several challenges for the way public institutions such as police engage with members of culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities (Ben-Porat, 2008; Bird, 1992; Egan-Vine et al., 2022; Harvey et al., 2010; Julian et al., 2021; Putt, 2010; Skogan, 2009). Police agencies are required to interact with CALD communities who might hold negative views about police due to pre-arrival experiences that include brutality, loss and separation from family members, and violence often perpetrated by police in migrants’ countries of origin (Correia, 2010; Jung et al., 2019; Menjívar and Bejarano, 2004). In addition, racialised experiences with police post-settlement further influence some CALD communities’ views of Australian police (Australian Human Rights Commission, 2010; Benier et al., 2018; Coventry et al., 2015). Given the consequences of negative police judgements, Australian police agencies have made concerted efforts to build positive relations with CALD groups (particularly those that are racial minorities; Victoria Police, 2013).

Community engagement is commonly used by police to improve their relations with members of the public (Asquith and Bartkowiak-Théron, 2021; Myhill, 2006; Putt, 2010). Like other CALD groups, community engagement initiatives are increasingly being used with African Australians to promote trust and legitimacy in the police. However, the effectiveness of these strategies is mixed. Some studies report a positive effect of community engagement on trust and legitimacy (Kerley and Benson, 2000; Peyton et al., 2019; Skogan et al., 2004; Tuffin et al., 2006), whereas others report no effect (Kahn et al., 2019; Weisburd et al., 2021). Moreover, a ‘one-size fits all’ mentality that overlooks the distinct sociocultural concerns of various marginalised groups often underpins community policing and engagement initiatives (Bull, 2015; Dwyer, 2011; Egan-Vine et al., 2022; Harvey et al., 2010; Julian et al., 2021; Miles-Johnson, 2020; Putt, 2010). Despite these issues, community engagement remains the preferred approach by police looking to improve their relations with CALD communities.

This article critically reflects on community engagement as a tool for promoting trust and legitimacy. In doing so, it aims to enhance police engagement with African Australians by encouraging police to critically assess the strengths and limitations of key engagement strategies while considering relevant sociocultural factors shaping African Australian participation in engagement initiatives. This article is divided into two broad sections. The first outlines the importance of trust and legitimacy in policing, and then provides an overview of community engagement including its background, perceived benefits and evidence base. Using a typology of common engagement strategies, the section concludes with an appraisal of the strengths and limitations of each strategy vis-à-vis trust and police legitimacy. The second section focuses on African Australians by contextualising their relationship with Australian police in recent years. Next, key sociocultural factors that may influence African Australians’ buy-in and participation in engagement initiatives are discussed. We conclude with several recommendations for Australian police agencies seeking to enhance their engagement approach with African Australians.

Section I

Trust and legitimacy

Trust refers to a willingness to be vulnerable in circumstances marked by uncertainty about other individuals’ current or future behaviour (Luhmann, 1980; Mayer et al., 1995; PytlikZillig et al., 2016). In the policing context, members of the public can never be sure that the police will respond in a timely manner when called or that they will act in ways consistent with their professional standards (Jackson and Gau, 2016). This means that trust in the police is a process grounded in people's assessments of the police to carry out actions associated with their role (i.e. responding to crime and calls for assistance in appropriate and well-intentioned ways). Part of this process is the expectation that the police will behave in a consistent manner that fosters people's willingness to be vulnerable to potential future actions of police (Jackson and Gau, 2016; Mayer et al., 1995).

Trust can be formed through prior experiences with others. Goldsmith (2005) argues that both direct and indirect (i.e. vicarious) experiences people have with the police can shape their trust towards the police. For example, when police treat people well during an interaction, it is likely that those individuals will expect similar positive interactions from police in the future. This can make them more inclined to place their trust in the police and drive their willingness to call on police for assistance if needed. The opposite is also true. If treatment by police is poor, then people will anticipate the same quality of interaction from police in the future. This can lead to individuals developing mistrust and becoming reticent to rely on police even when they are victims of crime.

Legitimacy refers to the right of power of authorities and the recognition of that right by members of the public (Coicaud, 2002; Jackson et al., 2012; Tyler, 2006). Criminologists conceptualise legitimacy as comprising normative alignment and felt moral obligation to obey police (Jackson et al., 2012). The former concerns the degree to which police behave in ways normatively expected of them. For example, do police carry out actions expected of them in ways that are appropriate? The latter refers to the internal moral obligation felt by individuals to obey the police. This component suggests that people will perceive the police as legitimate when they believe the police are entitled to be obeyed and they feel morally obliged to follow their directives. Importantly, a sense of moral obligation does not suggest that cooperation or compliance with police stems from a fear of punishment or sanctions. Rather, individuals feel they ‘ought’ to obey the police because it is the right thing to do (Jackson and Gau, 2016).

Community engagement: background, perceived benefits and evidence base

Community-based policing models continue to be increasingly drawn on to promote trust and police legitimacy among CALD communities, nationally and abroad (Asquith and Bartkowiak-Théron, 2021; Bartkowiak-Théron and Asquith, 2019; Cherney and Hartley, 2017; Julian et al., 2021; Murphy, 2020; President's Task Force on Twenty-First Century Policing, 2015). At the heart of these models is the use of community engagement strategies. Despite community engagement being central to community-based policing models, a definition of ‘community engagement’ remains elusive. This is because of the challenges associated with operationalising both ‘community’ and ‘engagement’ as distinct components (Myhill, 2006). For example, ‘community’ can mean different things to different people. A community can refer to the geographical area in which a person is located, demographic characteristics common to a group of people, or a shared interest tying a group of people together (Asquith and Bartkowiak-Théron, 2021; Segrave and Ratcliffe, 2004). People can belong to multiple communities simultaneously and may migrate in and out of communities over time. ‘Engagement’ is a similarly subjective concept meaning that the act of engagement looks different depending on who is being asked (Asquith and Bartkowiak-Théron, 2021; Myhill, 2006).

Complicating the matter further is that the terminology used to refer to community engagement also differs depending on the jurisdiction. In the United States, where much of the policing literature is concentrated, the dominant term used is ‘community policing’ (or community-oriented policing) (Myhill, 2006). Community-oriented policing is typically thought of as a philosophy rather than a program or initiative (Myhill, 2006; Segrave and Ratcliffe, 2004; Putt, 2010). Like community engagement, community-oriented policing is difficult to define but is said to comprise two key elements. First, securing public participation (i.e. engagement) and second, problem-solving alongside communities.

Community engagement initiatives gained traction in the 1980s across countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom following a move away from ‘professional’ policing towards a more community-based strategy (Segrave and Ratcliffe, 2004). This shift was driven by a myriad of factors. For example, there was greater recognition of the importance of public support for police effectiveness, increasing criticism of existing paradigms and practices, and an awareness that the police can provide a wider range of functions. Several other countries, including Australia and Canada, readily implemented community policing in the decades after.

More recently, policymakers have urged police agencies to prioritise community policing to address the lack of trust in the police among CALD groups (Asquith and Bartkowiak-Théron, 2021). For example, police agencies in the United States have sought to improve their relationship with African Americans through engagement initiatives following a series of high-profile fatal shootings of unarmed Black men (President's Task Force on Twenty-First Century Policing, 2015). These shootings led to civil unrest in the United States and were the catalyst for large-scale protests on discriminatory policing worldwide.

Community engagement is recommended by policymakers because of the perceived benefits associated with positive engagement by police. The foundation of engaging community groups is the recognition that community members are best placed to provide an analysis of the problems facing their communities and the underlying systemic causes driving those problems (Asquith and Bartkowiak-Théron, 2021). Thus, they are in a unique position to provide police with a ‘view in’ of the most pressing challenges from the outsider position that police often hold (College of Policing, 2013). By gaining this perspective, police agencies can better understand the landscape community members navigate, and work with those community members to collaboratively navigate challenges by forming partnerships. These partnerships involve ‘joint activities to co-produce services and achieve desired outcomes, giving the community greater say in what the police do, or simply engaging each other to produce a greater sense of police–community compatibility’ (Mastrofski, 2006: 46). These joint activities have a notable impact on preventing crime and enhance trust and perceived legitimacy of police among the public (Mastrofski, 2006).

Yet, empirical research reveals mixed findings on the utility of community engagement programs to enhance perceptions of the police. Several studies have noted a positive effect of community engagement on people’s perceptions of police (Bond and Gow, 1995; Kerley and Benson, 2000; Peyton et al., 2019; Sabath and Carter, 2000; Skogan et al., 2004; Tuffin et al., 2006; Wycoff and Skogan, 1993). For instance, Peyton et al. (2019) tested whether a single, 10-minute unannounced home visit by police increased trust and police legitimacy. Officers in this study knocked on the door of the home, initiated a greeting with whoever answered and immediately explained that they were making a community engagement visit. Officers then requested to speak to the residents and engaged them in a brief 10-minute conversation. During the interaction, officers initiated a formal greeting, emphasised that the interaction was an equal status engagement with the goal of improving their shared community and encouraging residents to provide feedback about policing and neighbourhood issues. The interactions ended with residents receiving business cards with work-issued contact numbers for the police officer. These visits increased trust and legitimacy judgements among residents. Notably, these effects were seen 21 days later and were not restricted to those people who reported greater baseline trust in the police prior to the intervention.

A handful of other studies report the opposite. Kahn et al. (2019) examined whether community engagement patrols (CEPs) improved trust and legitimacy in the police across 60 high-crime areas in Portland, Oregon. Kahn et al. identified 90 crime hotspots from the high-crime areas. The hotspot locations were randomly allocated to one of three experimental conditions based on the number of CEPs that would be dispatched in a day: (a) two CEPs a day; (b) four CEPs a day; and (c) control, no additional police patrols. CEPs involved police officers engaging with residents through meet-and-greets, distributing safety flyers and conducting business safety checks. Officers in the CEP conditions were dispatched to the hotspot locations for 90 consecutive days. The findings showed that residents from the experimental conditions reported a greater number of positive police contacts. However, CEPs did not enhance residents’ trust or police legitimacy judgements.

Weisburd and colleagues (2021) reported similar findings. That study evaluated the Assets Coming Together program, an initiative designed to increase community collaboration and problem-solving. The program was randomised across 21 hotspots and control sites in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota over an 18-month period. The Assets Coming Together program comprised three stages. During stage one, officers identified key stakeholders (‘assets’) through conversations during patrols and stabilised local crime problems by identifying ‘liabilities’ (people or organisations contributing to crime at the hotspots). Stage two involved officers developing community partnerships through engagement strategies such as meet-and-greets, block parties and community meetings. The final stage involved officers and residents collaboratively identifying and addressing community concerns. The findings revealed that the Assets Coming Together program increased residents’ collaboration with police at hotspot locations, but had little effect on their view of police legitimacy.

A common feature in the studies described above is that they align with the tenets of procedural justice, a popular policing model that emphasises the need to treat people in a fair and respectful manner. Police are said to be treating people in a procedurally just manner when they: (a) demonstrate respect, (b) display trustworthiness, (c) provide individuals with a voice when making a decision, and (d) display neutrality when dealing with members of the public (Tyler, 2011). Despite the mixed nature of the aforementioned studies, an extensive body of research across several countries and population groups has shown that procedurally just treatment by police promotes trust and legitimacy among members of the public (Murphy et al., 2014; Sunshine and Tyler, 2003; Tyler, 2011; Tyler and Huo, 2002).

Typology of community engagement strategies used by police

Here we present a typology of engagement strategies used by police. This type of approach has been proposed by others to assist police better locate ‘communities’ during their engagement efforts (Bartkowiak-Théron & Corbo Crehan, 2010). We use this typology to: (a) highlight the breadth of engagement strategies used by police, and (b) more easily critique the strengths and limitations of common engagement strategies vis-à-vis trust and police legitimacy.

Sport and recreational activities

Sport and recreational activities involving the police and the community are a popular police–community engagement strategy. Examples of sporting initiatives that fall into this category include those that involve police officers organising a sporting event for a community or assembling a team of officers to compete against community members (Harvey et al., 2010). These initiatives can occur as one-off events or recurring fixtures similar to sporting leagues. A wide variety of recreational activities, including those designed to build outdoor survival skills, also fall into this category. Although many of the initiatives under this category are targeted towards young people, participation can extend to adults. Example of initiatives rolled out under this category include those delivered through the National Police Athletics/Activities Leagues in the United States (National Police Athletics/Activities League, 2021) and Police Community Youth Clubs in Australia (Cross et al., 2015).

Sporting and recreational activities focus on promoting the cohesion of local communities by encouraging youth participation in sporting, recreational and cultural programs. This is intended to reduce feelings of isolation and marginalisation among young people (particularly those from CALD backgrounds) (Peachey et al., 2015). It is through these positive non-enforcement contacts with police that sporting and recreational activities aim to promote trust and a greater understanding of the role and responsibilities of police and citizens in society (i.e. legitimacy).

A key strength of sport and recreational activities is the broad ripple effects they can have for community groups. For example, participation can increase school attendance, improve physical and mental health, and enhance feelings of social inclusion (Schulenkorf and Edwards, 2011; Ware and Meredith, 2013). However, these activities can be exclusionary on the basis of gender, class and race (Ware and Meredith, 2013). As a result, the ripple effects (and improvements in trust and police legitimacy judgements) might occur only for those interested and able to take part in such activities. More importantly, these initiatives may generate unrealistic expectations among police. For instance, police agencies may expect that these programs will eliminate antisocial behaviours without embedding other services that address the underlying causes of those behaviours in their engagement initiatives.

Social capacity building

Initiatives designed to build a community's capacity to identify and manage local issues are another common category of police–community engagement. The types of initiatives that fall into this category include those that enhance community involvement in crime prevention matters. For instance, Neighbourhood Watch is a police–community engagement program, whereby community volunteers liaise with police to pass on relevant information concerning their locality (Fleming, 2005). Similar programs exist outside Australia (e.g. ‘Block Watch’ in the United States). In some cases, social capacity building may not necessarily occur through a discrete program such as Neighbourhood Watch. Rather, police agencies facilitate the accessing of grants that can then be used to develop and implement programs that community groups identify as necessary (Harvey et al., 2010). The purpose of capacity-building engagement programs is to empower individuals within a community to collaboratively work together to respond to social and economic challenges that are directly facing them because they are best placed to do so (Fisher and Ritchie, 2015; Myhill, 2006).

Capacity-building strategies may promote trust – rather than legitimacy per se – through the sharing of power by police. Power sharing involves the ‘transferring of authority and resources to communities’ (Fleras, 1998: 99) to increase community participation in policing matters and address other social and economic challenges. Power sharing by police is underpinned by an understanding that both parties can benefit from each other’s expertise and resources.

Capacity-building strategies may promote trust among CALD communities because they symbolise police work as something that is done together, rather than done to people. However, capacity-building initiatives come with some limitations as an engagement approach. First, if police do not genuinely commit to sharing their power and resources through capacity-building strategies, their engagement efforts may be viewed as tokenistic and an attempt to offload responsibility for burdensome tasks (Fleras and Elliot, 2002). Second, these initiatives assume that CALD groups know how to build capacity to problem solve in the first instance. This limitation is especially salient for refugee and newly arrived migrant groups.

Cross-cultural awareness events

Police attending religious and cultural events in CALD communities has become commonplace in modern-day policing. For instance, police agencies in many western nations including Australia routinely hold annual Iftar (breaking of fast) dinners for Muslims. These events are attended by senior members of the police and government, as well as prominent community members. These initiatives are intended to address longstanding criticisms by CALD groups regarding police agencies’ understanding and appreciation of cultural identity (Harvey et al., 2010).

Cross-cultural awareness initiatives promote trust by communicating to CALD groups that the police respect the diversity of members of the public. These initiatives also symbolise that police agencies serve the interests of everyone in multicultural societies such as Australia. A key strength of these initiatives is that they build the capability of police agencies to understand needs of those from diverse cultural and religious backgrounds. This capability has been identified by some CALD groups (i.e. Muslim Australians) as being critical to reducing police suspicion that problematises their identity and conflates their beliefs with terrorism (Ali et al., 2021). However, cultural awareness initiatives are typically attended by senior police and liaison officers. These individuals likely already know and appreciate cultural differences. Although they may serve as role models for the agency and other officers, it is arguable whether the enhanced awareness trickles down to frontline officers, and influences trust and police legitimacy judgements of those they interact with.

Police–community consultation forums

Police–community consultation forums typically involve members of the police, community and other stakeholders coming together to: (a) identify the needs of a community; (b) discuss the underlying causes of key problems facing them; and (c) generate potential solutions that go beyond responding to symptoms of crime and disorder (Wahl and White, 2017). These consultation forums can also be a means for community members to provide feedback to police about practices that negatively impact their community (e.g. over-policing and racial profiling).

Goldstein (1990) suggests that the legitimacy of community policing is grounded in the ability of the police and community to collaborate on identifying and solving mutually defined problems. Police–community consultation forums are typically the most common way this is achieved. These forums promote trust and police legitimacy by demonstrating the willingness of police to listen to community concerns and strategise actions that can be taken (Kemp, 2018; Wahl and White, 2017). By holding these consultation forums, police signal to community groups that there are committed partners and co-producers of safety. The forums also provide communities with a greater sense of transparency and allow them to hold police agencies accountable on policing practices that affect them (Wahl and White, 2017).

The strength of consultation forums as an engagement strategy is that they provide CALD communities with a voice on policing matters that directly affect them. Criminologists indicate that having a voice on police matters is extremely important for members of CALD communities (Cherney and Murphy, 2016; Glasford, 2016). The provision of a voice for CALD communities offers the possibility to influence policing practice in a way that is workable and appropriate for their community. However, several limitations are associated with these forums that may hinder their success. For example, because attendance at these forums can be based on an individual officer’s discretion, it is unclear how potential changes might occur at an organisational level. Moreover, these forums are typically attended by the same group of individuals from the community who may discuss the same set of problems. Consequently, community members may develop engagement burnout, especially if little organisational change ever occurs.

Police liaison schemes

Police agencies across western jurisdictions have established community liaison schemes and police liaison officers (Cherney and Chui, 2011; Cosgrove and Ramshaw, 2015; Harvey et al., 2010; Julian et al., 2021). The goal of these schemes is to promote trust by leveraging cultural connections to build more cohesive relationships between police and CALD communities. These schemes are often targeted towards specific CALD groups and other marginalised communities (e.g. Indigenous Australians, LGBTIQA+ people) to address the historically and contemporaneously fractured nature of their relationship with police (Harvey et al., 2010; Julian et al., 2021). Two types of liaison schemes exist for racial and ethnic minorities in Australia: one focuses specifically on a particular group (e.g. Aboriginal liaison officers in New South Wales), whereas the other subsumes various cultural groups (e.g. community liaison officer in Tasmania and multicultural liaison officers in New South Wales).

Liaison officers promote trust and legitimacy by enhancing the cultural competence of police organisations and community members’ understanding of what the police do. Like cultural awareness events, liaison schemes reflect a commitment to equitable service delivery to everyone in society, regardless of their background. Available evaluation research indicates that these schemes have a positive effect on police–community relations (Harvey et al., 2010). However, they fail to acknowledge the diversity that exists across (and within) CALD communities. One community’s needs may differ from those of another and bundling these distinct needs through the creation of generic ‘ethnic’ or ‘cultural’ liaison officer may be viewed as uninformed by CALD groups (Julian et al., 2021).

Police diversity recruitment programs

Police agencies across western nations are recognising the need for a diverse workforce that represents the communities they serve. This recognition is salient in communities that have higher concentrations of CALD residents (Mcmurray et al., 2010). Australian police agencies have created specific programs to assist CALD individuals through the police recruitment process (e.g. Victoria Police African Australian recruitment program and Queensland Police's Culturally and Linguistically diverse recruitment program).

Given that prior research has shown that members from CALD groups are less trusting of the police (Peck, 2015; Stewart et al., 2020), police diversity recruitment programs aim to promote trust and legitimacy by recruiting officers directly from these communities. The assumption here is that people from CALD communities are more likely to trust and view an officer as legitimate if they are able to identify racially or culturally with that officer. A greater sense of identification with members of the public may potentially make an officer more sensitive to issues of concern by the community (e.g. racism and unfair treatment).

The benefit of diversity within police ranks is the potential for police agencies to improve their problem-solving and service delivery to a broader range of communities. In other words, police will be able to engage with various communities more effectively. However, greater diversity within police agencies has not been shown to improve the quality of interactions with minority communities ( Shjarback et al., 2017; Weitzer, 2018). Moreover, some studies point to greater rates of attrition among minority police recruits and officers (Fekjær and Alecu, 2021; Haarr, 2005; Wright et al., 2011). These findings suggest that although a noble effort by police agencies, a more diverse police force does not necessarily improve relations with CALD groups, especially when minority officers do not feel welcomed within police culture (Holdaway and Barron, 1997).

Police foot and confidence patrols

Police agencies also draw on confidence and foot patrols as a means of engaging with community members. These types of initiatives are not structured in the same way as discrete engagement programs (e.g. sports activities) and are typically used to deter crime in an area. However, they do rely on officers engaging with members of the community using positive non-enforcement contact to build trust and better understand local communities (Wood et al., 2014). Initiatives under this category include police having informal conversations with community members, enquiring about any issues that people may have about the police or problems in their local neighbourhood, distributing informational flyers or conducting safety checks for local business (Kahn et al., 2019; Weisburd et al., 2021).

A key benefit of initiatives under this category is that they can assist police to tailor their service delivery. For example, through these patrols, police may be better able to identify local crime issues and combine that knowledge with any input provided by community members during their interactions to develop individualised responses to issues facing a locality (Wood et al., 2014). However, a crucial limitation to these engagement initiatives is the potential for ‘backfire’ effects, whereby minority communities feel over-policed (Weisburd et al., 2011).

Section II

Relations between police and African Australians

Wu and colleagues (2017) note that immigrants’ pre- and post-migratory experiences can shape their perceptions of police in their destination countries. African Australians pre- and post-migratory challenges are well documented and include: experiences of violence; family fragmentation and the loss of family and friends (often at the hands of police in their countries of origin); difficulties in learning English, attaining educational qualifications, securing employment and suitable housing; and racism (Abdelkerim and Grace, 2012; Baak, 2018; Copping and Shakespeare-Finch, 2013; Forson, 2019; Khawaja et al., 2008; Shepherd and Masuka, 2020; Shepherd et al., 2021). Like other immigrant groups who have experienced these events, African Australians can feel socially excluded by broader society and may view police institutions as playing a role in this othering (see Piatkowska, 2015 for similar argument).

In addition to these pre- and post-migratory experiences, the appearance of marginalised groups and their social practices can also shape how they are viewed by police (see Dwyer, 2011 for the sexual and gender diverse minority context). For instance, Black Africans Australians possess a high level of visibility due to their physical appearance (e.g. stature and skin colour) and kinship-based social practices (Colic-Peisker and Tilbury, 2008; Coventry et al., 2015; Hage, 1998). Moreover, it is not uncommon for many young Africans to congregate in large numbers in public spaces. These cultural practices and their high levels of visibility can make African Australians vulnerable to becoming singled out for police attention (Coventry et al., 2015).

The potential for these factors to affect the relationship between African Australians and the police has been seen in several high-profile incidents. For example, in 2012 a group of 16 young African Australian men initiated a civil case in the Australian Federal court against Victoria Police, alleging that some of its members were engaging in racially discriminative police practice against the group (Haile-Michael v Konstantinidis, 2012). The case was the first of its kind in Australia and was settled (in 2013) prior to the hearing with Victoria Police agreeing to review their operational procedures and providing greater cross-cultural training to their officers (Seidel and Hopkins, 2013). More recently, senior police officials labelled a string of violent offences by a small group of young African Australians as the product of ‘African street gangs’ (Ryan and Stayner, 2018). Similar comments were made by senior government officials who claimed that members of the general public were afraid to attend restaurants because of ‘African gang violence’ (Karp, 2018).

The incidents described above have had a considerable impact on African Australians’ views of the police. For example, Coventry et al., (2015) conducted focus group interviews with 88 Sudanese Australians about their experiences with authorities in the state of Queensland. The participants expressed feeling vulnerable due to their experiences of over-policing. They indicated that they were more likely to be seen as perpetrators of crime rather than victims, even though they reported feeling continually harassed by police when in public spaces. Similarly, Benier et al. (2018) conducted focus group interviews with 28 young Sudanese Australians about their views of police and negative media coverage of their community. The findings highlighted a deep sense of mistrust that participants held towards police which stemmed from experiences of racial profiling. Many of the participants recounted feeling intimidated and harassed by police (including mounted and air units) when in public spaces with other African Australians. The participants drew attention to the unequitable level of suspicion directed at their community relative to those who are White.

Obstacles in engagement efforts with African Australians

Police need to be cognisant about the way in which pre- and post-migratory experiences of African Australians can influence their buy-in and participation in engagement initiatives. Beyond community buy-in, these experiences may limit the ‘success’ of police engagement efforts by restricting who takes part, how they take part, and how they – and their community – benefit from by participating. In this section, we outline key obstacles relevant for police engagement with African Australians.

Cultural insensitivity of engagement programs

Engagement initiatives that are culturally uninformed are unlikely to encourage high levels of community participation. The importance of developing culturally relevant engagement initiatives has been highlighted by a small but growing body of research examining the needs of young African Australians (particularly those who are justice involved) and service providers (e.g. Shepherd et al., 2021; Shepherd and Masuka, 2020). That research reveals how culturally uninformed initiatives can damage trust by overlooking the unique needs of African Australians.

Failing to consider or design engagement initiatives in culturally sensitive ways can signal insincerity by police agencies wishing to build bridges with community members. Thus, it is important for police to build their capability to engage with African Australians in culturally sensitive ways. However, to do so police must first identify gaps in their knowledge with respect to cultural sensitivity. The challenge, however, is that police need to engage with African Australian communities to identify where such gaps exist. This can lead to police agencies initially adopting culturally insensitive engagement strategies.

In developing more culturally sensitive engagement initiatives police must recognise the diversity that exists within African Australian communities because this has implications for how engagement initiatives might be received by sub-communities. For example, some African Australians may have expectations about gendered interactions. Some of these individuals may prefer to participate in activities that are geared exclusively towards their identified gender. Overlooking these nuances when designed and implementing engagement initiatives with this population risks police appearing uninformed.

A greater understanding of the various groups that comprise African Australians will require police to identify sub-communities within the broader community (Bartkowiak-Théron and Corbo Crehan, 2010). This will allow police to better understand the differing challenges facing specific African Australians and the role of intersecting identities. For example, although some African Australians report experiencing police discrimination because of their race, others may also report being on the receiving end of ‘hard’ anti-terror police powers because of their religion (e.g. Somali Australians; see Ellis et al., 2020 for Somali American's experiences). Recognising these diverse experiences and intersecting identities will assist police better identify the needs of communities and tailori their engagement strategies.

Language and trauma barriers to participation

Pre-migratory trauma and English language barriers may shape African Australians’ willingness to participate (fully) in engagement initiatives (Australian Human Rights Commission, 2010). For example, not being proficient in English may preclude some African Australians from participating in community engagement initiatives, particularly those designed to elicit feedback from community members about issues facing them and how police might improve their service delivery (e.g. consultation forums). Given the importance of tailoring service delivery based on input from the community, it is imperative that police find ways to facilitate the participation of community members who have insights to share, but are unable to do so because of English language difficulties. This might particularly be relevant for older African Australians who have not shifted as quickly as younger people to English as their first language (Hatoss and Sheely, 2009).

Police agencies must also be cognisant of how pre-migratory trauma can affect some African Australians’ level of participation in community engagement initiatives. Research shows that African Australians’ pre-migration experiences can be marked by considerable trauma, which includes the loss or separation of close family and friends (often at the at the hands of police in their countries of origin) (Copping and Shakespeare-Finch, 2013; Khawaja et al., 2008; Schweitzer et al., 2006).

Psychological research indicates that one of the many consequences of trauma is that it negatively impacts an individual's self-concept (e.g. self-esteem and confidence; Engelbrecht and Jobson, 2020). In the context of police–community engagement initiatives, African Australians who are navigating trauma may lack the self-confidence to engage in certain activities and may be fearful or weary of police presence during engagement initiatives. Police should be mindful of these broader trauma-related issues that can influence why and how individuals participate.

Overcoming perceptions of racial profiling and institutional racism

Police agencies must recognise the way in which discriminatory policing and institutional racism may shape the willingness of African Australians to engage with police. Available research suggests that African Australians are mistrustful of police owing to personal and vicarious experiences of racialised policing (Australian Human Rights Commission, 2010; Benier et al., 2018; Coventry et al., 2015; Dolic, 2011; Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission, 2009). Criminologists have noted the enduring effect that biased treatment towards minority groups by criminal justice authorities can have on people's perceptions of police (Nagin and Telep, 2020). African Australians’ experiences of racial profiling by police are a considerable obstacle to overcome for police agencies seeking to promote trust and legitimacy. Indeed, Nagin and Telep (2020) indicate that police mistreatment can have enduring effects on a community’s willingness to engage with police.

Taking the position that African Australians’ willingness to engage with police agencies is something that is ‘assumed’ rather than ‘won’ will likely result in engagement initiatives being unsuccessful. Undoubtedly, this will prove a difficult task for police and may lead to some officers feeling like the reluctance of African Australians to participate in engagement initiatives is due to apathy. Consequently, officers and police leaders involved in engagement efforts may become quickly disillusioned with the level of uptake and potentially abandon their efforts to build trust with community members (Myhill, 2006; Segrave and Ratcliffe, 2004).

Moving beyond the ‘usual’ groups when developing community partnerships

Although the community engagement sector is often occupied by various actors, there is an issue of engagement partnerships being with a select few ‘usual’ groups (Cherney and Hartley, 2017). Regular engagement efforts with the same group of individuals can come to be seen as problematic. This is because community members might view police as choosing to work with individuals and groups who are more ‘palatable’ because they do not seek to raise controversial and systemic issues facing the community (e.g. police discrimination). Other researchers have noted that police can often fall into a habit of working with a narrow number of groups as part of their engagement's efforts at the expense of the broader community in question (Cherney and Hartley, 2017; Myhill, 2006; Skogan and Hartnett, 1997; Thacher, 2005).

Relying on the same group of community members can also lead to a skewed understanding of African Australian communities’ perceptions. This is because individuals with differing views, lived experiences or marginalised identities (e.g. women and girls and LGBTQIA+ people) may not feel comfortable sharing their perspective. And so, although it is important to continue to facilitate a relationship with the ‘usual’ groups, it may serve police to broaden who they partner with in their engagement efforts.

Recommendations for engagement efforts with African Australians

We conclude with several recommendations for police agencies seeking to improve their engagement efforts with African Australians. These recommendations are not presented in order of their importance and are not intended to ‘solve’ the fraught relationship that exists between police and some African Australian communities. Rather, the recommendations should be viewed as potential additions to an existing toolbox of strategies from which police agencies can bolster their community engagement practices.

Prior to implementing specific community engagement initiatives, it is worthwhile for police to recognise and locate sub-communities within the broader African Australian community. African Australian communities have voiced the need for this more nuanced understanding of the diverse groups and cultures that make up the community. For example, consultations with African Australians continue to highlight the frustration experienced by community members when police agencies miscategorise individuals and rely on general understanding of African Australians as a whole (Australian Human Rights Commission, 2010). These experiences could erode the trust of African Australians in police agencies.

To meet this need for greater ethnocultural awareness, police agencies should recognise that some geographical locations in a jurisdiction may be heavily populated by African Australian residents. This is done to facilitate social networks with others from their respective communities when they migrate to Australia (Harvey et al., 2010). Police agencies should draw on their network of established engagement partners to familiarise themselves with various sub-communities in those locations through meet-and-greets alongside well-known and respected community figures.

However, simply becoming more cognisant of sub-communities of African Australians and their needs is not enough to promote trust and police legitimacy. It is also important for police agencies to refine their engagement strategies ontinually over time to ensure they are responsive to the needs of various African Australian communities. How might police agencies ensure that their engagement strategies remain responsive to the community’s needs?

It may be worthwhile for police agencies to reconceptualise what engagement with a community means. As described in Section I, contemporary calls for police to engage better with CALD communities have been in response to instances of police discrimination and brutality against racialised groups. To repair relations in the aftermath of these incidents, police agencies may select one or more of the engagement strategies outlined in our typology. These decisions can be reactionary (Giwa, 2018) and the police are the ones that decide the type of engagement strategy that is to be used (more often than not these decisions include consultation forums).

Perhaps better engagement with African Australian communities involves empowering them to determine what type of engagement is suitable for their needs (rather than those of police organisations) and how often that engagement should occur. This shift would require police agencies to be more transparent about the strengths and limitations of distinct engagement strategies in meeting African Australians’ needs. This could mean that some engagement strategies no longer appeal to African Australians, or that they are modified to better align with their needs. For instance, consultation forums may increasingly come to be seen as tokenistic and may no longer be a preferred engagement approach among African Australian communities unless these forums are attended by senior decision-makers. Alternatively, these communities may decide that the volume of engagement initiatives (without any corresponding institutional change in police policy) does little more than over-engage them and lead to burnout. This would be a considerable shift from the reactionary approach adopted by police agencies, but empowering African Australians in this way could signal a desire to enhance their agency and influence on aspects of policing practice.

Police agencies must recognise the effect of discriminatory policing on African Australians’ trust in police. Research shows the significant damage that personal and vicarious experiences of discriminatory policing has had on African Australians’ trust in police (Australian Human Rights Commission, 2010; Benier et al., 2018; Coventry et al., 2015). These experiences should be considered in light of criminological research showing that people carry their prior experiences (‘priors’) with them when interacting with police and that these previous experiences can shape whether (and how) they engage with police in the future (Brunson and Weitzer, 2009; Skogan, 2012). Moreover, young South Sudanese Australians indicate that aggressive and discriminatory policing can further contribute to antisocial behaviours among some young people (Benier et al., 2018). The behaviours of young African Australians – rather than heavy-handed responses by police – are magnified by media outlets. This in turn exacerbates negative attitudes towards African Australians by broader Australian society including questioning their sense of belonging. Therefore, police agencies should recognise that because of these ripple effects, African Australians may be weary of any police engagement initiatives.

In light of African Australians’ mistrust, police should focus on building contingent trust in the short term given the potential weariness by African Australian communities. Building contingent trust involves the police displaying behaviours that convey trustworthiness and can serve as a precursor for establishing implicit trust in the long term. Police agencies can demonstrate trustworthiness by putting the needs of African Australians before their own during engagement initiatives (e.g. seeking intelligence). One way this could be achieved is by linking services identified by African Australians as necessary for their community (i.e. education and employment) into applicable engagement strategies outlined earlier in our typology.

Community engagement initiatives must not be left entirely to liaison units. Despite young African Australians often reporting negative experiences with frontline police officers, some research suggests that the bulk of community engagement work is typically shouldered by those attached to liaison units (Cherney and Chui, 2010). This creates a problem whereby community members develop trust and understanding with specific individuals within the police, but that trust does not extend to other frontline officers or the police institution more generally. For the benefits of engagement efforts to carry over to African Australians’ views of police more broadly, there is a need for police leaders to stress the importance of positive non-enforcement engagement, especially to frontline officers. One of the reasons cited by some frontline officers for not carrying out engagement efforts is the added workload (Harvey et al., 2010). Although community engagement efforts can be more resource intensive in the short term, they may hold benefits for police–community relations in the long run. These benefits may potentially impact crime control efforts in the long run due to greater levels of community cooperation stemming from enhanced trust in the police.

One way in which police agencies can work towards these long-term goals is by reinforcing the importance of procedural justice to frontline officers. Recent work by Murphy and colleagues (Murphy, 2020; Murphy et al., 2022) provides practical ways in which police can demonstrate procedurally just treatment with minority groups during non-enforcement interactions. For example, police can demonstrate respect by being polite and courteous during interactions, trustworthiness by communicating they have a person's interests in mind during an interaction, voice by providing people with an opportunity to speak before a decision is made by police, and neutrality by providing equitable service to people (i.e. not over- or under-policing).

Finally, we encourage police agencies to be open to criticism from African Australian communities to improve their engagement efforts and service delivery. Murphy (2020) suggest that providing opportunities for minority groups like African Australians with a voice about policing practice that impacts their community is important because it signals to them that their views and feelings are worthy of consideration by police. Research with young African Australians underscores the need for such opportunities. For example, Benier et al.'s (2018) study highlighted how experiences of discriminatory policing evoked feelings of deep hurt and humiliation among young South Sudanese Australians.

Providing a voice to young people from these communities may not only validate these individuals’ feelings, but also allows them to actively participate in developing solutions to address these pressing police–community issues. One challenge that police might face in seeking out feedback from young African Australians is that those who have had negative experiences or are highly mistrustful of the police may be less inclined to take part in initiatives designed for them to express their frustrations. This will require police agencies to go beyond the ‘usual’ community leaders and rely on individuals in the community who may not be viewed as ‘acceptable’ by police, but have credibility with young people who are unmotivated to engage with police and are distrustful of their own community leaders.

Conclusion

The multicultural composition of Australia continues to grow owing to the migration of non-Europeans. Police agencies are increasingly required to deliver services to CALD communities like African Australians, who may hold negative views of police due to experiences with police in their countries of origin and racialised encounters with Australian police post-migration. For Australian police agencies, community engagement remains a preferred tool to improve trust and police legitimacy among African Australians (and other CALD groups). However, uncritical application of community engagement strategies with little consideration for the strengths and limitations of specific strategies may do little to promote trust and police legitimacy in the eyes of CALD groups. Moreover, the immense diversity that exists within African Australian communities (and between other CALD groups) necessitates close consideration of key sociocultural obstacles that hinder community buy-in and participation during engagement initiatives. In light of these considerations, we recommend that police agencies recognise the diversity that exists within the African Australian community, provide African Australians with the agency to determine how they are engaged, work on building contingent trust that sets the foundation for implicit long-term trust, ensure that engagement is not left solely to liaison units and move beyond partnerships with ‘usual’ groups to reach individuals who may be more critical of the police and distrust their own community leaders.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: this work was supported by the Victorian Government Local Anti-Racism Initiatives Grants Program.

ORCID iDs

Mohammed M. Ali

Author biographies

Mohammed M. Ali is a PhD candidate at Griffith Criminology Institute, Griffith University. He has previously conducted research in the areas of investigative interviewing, procedural justice, and the policing of minority communities in Australia.

Stephane Shepherd is an Associate Professor and an ARC DECRA Fellow at the Centre for Forensic Behavioural Science, Swinburne University. He has conducted extensive research in the areas of youth violence, violence risk assessment, risk and protective factors for offending across gender and ethnicity, and cross-cultural mental health.

Berhan M. Ahmed (Shiday) is an adjunct Professor at the University of Melbourne and the CEO of Africause (previously known as African Australian Multicultural Employment and Youth Services). He has been involved in numerous projects in his capacity as CEO of Africause (and broader role as a community leader) examining sociocultural issues facing African migrant and refugee communities in Victoria, Australia.

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