Reflections on Reassurance Policing in the Low Countries

Martin Innes, the founding father of reassurance policing, argues that the presence of crime and disorder in a neighborhood functions as a 'signal' to both residents and outsiders that is 'read' and used to inform beliefs concerning the safety of an area. Certain disorderly behaviors or objects are considered to have a disproportionate influence in shaping both individual and collective perceptions of risk or decay. The contributors in this volume examine the conceptual and practical consequences of this theory for Belgium and the Netherlands. In the first section, the concepts and methods of reassurance policing are elucidated and the effectiveness of the reassurance strategy is addressed. The second section contains reflections on reassurance policing in different contexts. What might Dutch and Flemish police forces learn from 'reassurance' methods and strategies that are applied in England? The third section is devoted to the image-work and public relations aspects that many associate with the aim to reassure the public. This book is the result of an extremely intensive collaboration between the Dutch Society, Security, and Police Foundation and the Flemish Centre for Police Studies.