| Community policing was founded on the principle that collaboration with citizens is an important feature in dealing with crime and disorder. Many different strategies have been employed by police to foster these collaborative partnerships, though there was still an ever-present need for a more consistent, successful model. Recent research posited that e-government technology was potentially effective in supporting collaboration between citizens and police agencies. This study utilized a secondary data analysis drawing information from the 2007 LEMAS, the 2000 Census, and the 2006 UCR on 801 randomly selected municipal police departments. Point-biserial correlation and multiple logistic regression were utilized to examine the main predictor variables of e-technology usage, community policing orientation, crime rates, and social disorder within the context of the social disorganization and collective efficacy theories. The point-biserial correlations indicated community policing orientation, e-technology usage, and crime rates had low to moderately significant, positive relationships with the outcome variable of collaborative partnerships formed. The multiple logistic regression revealed a significantly predictive model including all predictor variables, with only community policing orientation and e-technology usage having significantly predictive odds on forming collaborative partnerships. Crime rates and social disorder did not significantly contribute to predicting collaborative partnerships. The e-technology usage and community policing orientation variables combined to offer the most significantly predictive odds of forming collaborative partnerships, with slightly better predictive odds within high crime areas compared to low crime areas as analyzed in the logistic regression models. |
