Can Community Policing Improve Trust in the Police?

Lessons from Uganda

Metaketa researchers: Robert Blair, Guy Grossman, Benjamin Kachero, Anna Wilke

Geographical region: Africa

Project country: Uganda

Case study question: Can community policing programs improve police-community relations?

Edited by: Jaclyn Leaver

The Metaketa Initiative is a collaborative research model with a mission to improve knowledge about critical governance issues through rigorous field experiments. In each Metaketa “round,” the initiative coordinates multiple studies on a specific topic or intervention in a variety of countries and contexts.

As part of our efforts to share the results and policy impacts from the Metaketa Initiative, we’ve put together a series of Stories of Change. These stories share case studies that highlight new approaches and interventions used by Metaketa researchers and implementing partners.

Here we share the story of an experiment in Uganda where researchers combine a model of community policing with advanced training in neighborhood watch teams. This study is part of the fourth Metaketa round, which focused on the effects of community policing programs on building citizen trust in police and reducing crime.