The Unraveling of Public Security in the United States: The Dark Side of Police-Community Co-Production

In this article we review the emergence of police-community ‘co-production’, as a prominent crime control paradigm in the United States. We argue that although allowing citizens to co-produce through programs like Neighborhood Watch may be beneficial in many respects, such co-production is not an unmitigated virtue. While its proponents contend that co-production promises to enrich the provision of public security in the United States, recent events have reinforced warnings voiced by policing scholars and practitioners of a dark side that also continues to threaten, not enhance, public security. As such, we advocate that the future co-production should be embraced cautiously, and its downside risks managed with care.