Perceptions of police trustworthiness are linked to citizens’ willingness to cooperate with police.
Trust can be fostered by introducing accountability mechanisms, or by increasing a shared
police/citizen identity, both which can be achieved digitally. Digital mechanisms can also be
designed to safeguard, engage, reassure, inform, ...
Perceptions of police trustworthiness are linked to citizens’ willingness to cooperate with police.
Trust can be fostered by introducing accountability mechanisms, or by increasing a shared
police/citizen identity, both which can be achieved digitally. Digital mechanisms can also be
designed to safeguard, engage, reassure, inform, and empower diverse communities. We
systematically scoped 240 existing online citizen-police and relevant third-party communication
apps, to examine whether they sought to meet community needs and policing visions. We found
that 82% required registration or login details, 55% of those with a reporting mechanism allowed
for anonymous reporting, and 10% provided an understandable privacy policy. Police apps were
more likely to seek to reassure, safeguard and inform users, while third-party apps were more
likely to seek to empower users. As poorly designed apps risk amplifying mistrust and
undermining policing efforts, we suggest 12 design considerations to help ensure the
development of high quality/fit for purpose Police/Citizen apps.
