TEORÍA GENERAL DE LA AUSENCIA

To expand our knowledge concerning trust and obedience, a growing number of studies have offered explanations resulting from the police effectiveness (Weitzer and Tuch, 2004; Goldsmith, 2005; Murphy and Cherney, 2011;

Bradford, 2014). These scholars have focused on different factors that impact on different approaches for reducing crime and working definitions on the police effectiveness. However, effectiveness is used to describe a situation whereby police perform their functions well (Weitzer and Tuch, 2004). For example, any situations whereby the police respond to crime in an impressive manner either by the protection of lives and properties or suppression of crime are considered as indicators of police effectiveness (Goldsmith, 2005). Researchers believed that neighbourhood that has widespread criminal activities shows police ineffectiveness (Goldsmith, 2005; Kaariainen, 2008). With regards to citizens' evaluations of the police, the perception of police performance is as important as actual police effectiveness. As Goldsmith (2005; 14) noted, "actual incompetence is not necessary to undermine trust," instead, believing that the police are ineffective or performing poorly is a necessary condition for citizens' negative ratings of the police. Similarly, scholars suggest that community cooperation with the police sustain trust as well as the sustenance of social order (Murphy et al., 2008; Jackson and Bradford, 2010).

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Using data from a representative public survey in Accra, Ghana, Tankebe (2009) found support for observed police effectiveness to be stronger than fairness of engagement of police when dealing with people. He maintains that there is a positive influence of perceptions of effectiveness on the

trustworthiness of the police than procedural fairness. Tankebe (2009:187) argue that police effectiveness as an essential influence on police legitimacy is not enough to justice their legitimacy rather perceived effectiveness for such assessment is vital. He concludes that though perceptions of police effectiveness demonstrate immediate impact on perceived police

trustworthiness, the relationship is stronger if the police are also perceived to be procedurally fair (Tankebe, 2009). By implication, it suggests that the consequence of citizen’s perception of effectiveness is that police will gain more support if they apply procedural values.

Correspondingly, in a survey of residents of Australia, Murphy and Cherney (2011) report that people who perceived that the police were doing well in dealing with crime and providing remedies to perceived security were more inclined to trust police exercise of power as legitimate than those who believed that crime is widespread. South Africans experience demonstrate a similar finding where people are more concern about security and effective policing in fighting crime than procedural fairness judgments. For instance, Bradford (2014) survey study found that procedural justice was less significant compared to effectiveness in citizens assessment of the legitimacy of the police. This further suggests that South Africans place greater emphasis on police effectiveness to wider success and trustworthiness of the state in providing security for citizens.

Similarly, Kaariainen (2008) analysed raw longitudinal data collected annually from 1998 to 2005 to examine the influence of fear of crime on trust in

criminal justice institutions. The author found that an increase in the level of crime results in a decrease in trust in the criminal justice system. This finding observes that there is a relationship between insecurity and trust, suggesting that feeling of insecurity in one's neighbourhood is a result of ineffective policing which is likely to result in low trust. The author concludes that the

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more people become aware of insecurity in their neighbourhood, the less they become confident and develop trust in the police (Kaariainen, 2008). Public trust in the police is directly related to the image that citizens have of their police and these images are formed from the impressions people gain about the law enforcement functions of the police. As Goldsmith (2005) noted, the competence of the police to secure and put crime under control in the community is important to build public trust. In contrast, public trust will decline in a circumstance whereby the police are incompetent in controlling criminal activities.

Police scholars have recently extended their argument regarding effective policing beyond the conventional duties that states define as the role of the police (Manning, 2010; Walker and Archbold, 2018; Hills, 2008; Bayley, 2005). The chief emphasis is that rather than being rooted in prevention alone, this approach inspires a more democratic style of reforms where trust and legitimacy are fostered through a non-discriminatory and respectful, community-focused and participatory form of policing.

Manning (2010), for example, argues that democratic policing entails reforms that deals with the well-being of the officers as well as citizens. When police are in a procedurally fair organisation, they are more likely to trust and feel obligated to obey their superior, less likely to be psychologically and

emotionally distressed and less likely to be cynical and mistrustful about the world in general and the communities they police in particular (Goldsmith 2005; Manning, 2010). Democratic policing thus preserves the energy and efforts of government in addressing crime issues. Diminishing of use of force contributes to a wider public acceptance of the legitimacy of police

(Goldsmith 2005; Hills, 2000).

The success of such reforms largely falls on the degree to which government and its agents will adopt such democratic policing norms with emphasis on social justice (Bayley, 2005; Hills, 2008). This form of policing highlights the potential of a good organizational environment within which police work. The legitimacy of police is being influenced by state activities that are seemingly

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far removed from its immediate responsibility. Police are authorised by the state (Manning, 2010:34) and the legitimacy of the police turns not only on public assessment of how they behave, but also on the extent to which they are been sanctioned by the government and other state actors (Ekeh 1975). Scholars have also identified the importance of capacity building as a form of reform in the police (Walker and Archbold 2018; Bayley, 2005). As Bayley (2005:8) notes, reforms in relation to capacity building in the police will strengthen the skills, abilities, accountability and resources that organisations and communities require for surviving, adapting and thriving in the fast

changing world. Hills (2000), writing in Africa context, argues that trust in the police depends on the extent to which officers serve the need of the public in an unthreatening manner, working in recognition with community interest in solving crime, adhering to principles of rule of law by respecting fundamental rights, being accountable and non-partisan. Hills concludes that the use of force cannot legitimize the police rather voluntary compliance are important in the achievement of democratic policing.

To sum up both points above, it is suggested in the democratic policing literature that many factors beyond those exclusively within the procedural justice model as it has been articulated in the US and UK must have an effect on the practical legitimacy of the police. A crucial indicator here may be the degree to which the police are mandated or authorized by government and other state agencies in a democratic setting (Walker and Archbold 2018). A lack of trust in the government, for example, might undermine the claims on the part of the public that the power vested in the police is justified (see Bradford et al. 2013).