An investigation of public confidence in policing services in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi

• Main Author: Alsheryani, Musaab Omair Saeed Mohamm
• Published: Durham University 2017
• Subjects: 363.2095357
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.705114

The aim of this thesis is to explore the factors that affect levels of public confidence in policing and use them to develop a framework that will help improve public confidence in the police services of the Emirates of Abu Dhabi. A holistic theoretical approach was adopted based upon a combination of theories from procedural justice theory with empirical research conducted jointly with the Abu Dhabi Police Headquarters. A conceptual research model was then developed which identified potential causal relationships and co-relationships between latent variables. This led to developing the research hypothesis and suggesting underlying structure of the variables and outlining the underlying theoretical structure of the thesis. By using a combination of Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) this research then explored the complex hypothesis that Abu Dhabi residents' public confidence in the police is affected by the interaction of multiple confidence variables. Confidence variables, which, relate to perceptions of police procedural fairness, the level of police engagement with their community and the quality of interactions between police and the public. The research found that public confidence in police in Abu Dhabi results from a subtle combination of police influenced factors and local area perspectives. To improve confidence, the police therefore need to carry out more than just their basic functional roles and further consider the way that those roles, procedures and underlying behaviour to the community are perceived by the public. The stakes are high because a lack of confidence in police and government in general can, through various means, encourage individual loyalties elsewhere, some of which can be harmful, especially where the loyalty is with an extremist group; which highlights the need to improve confidence. Improving confidence is much more than simply increasing police visibility and making the public fearful of crime. What is also important is that a high fear of crime has a negligible influence upon levels of police confidence in the police, which highlight the importance of social cohesion and informal social control at a neighbourhood level. On the one hand, when such cohesion and informal control is perceived not to exist, then the public confidence drops and police are blamed for failing to provide order. On the other hand, when public confidence in the police is increased, a stronger sense of security is created, encouraging more confident and positive relationships between local communities, thus reducing perceptions of disorder and improving informal social control. Ultimately, this confidence reduces the fear of crime, improves social identity and willingness to cooperate with police, and a further improvement in public confidence in the police over time.