Participatory democracy and Community police: social network as an expression of social capital

Abstract

The objective of this work is to contribute to the debate on participatory democracy and the construction of public policies. It focuses on the institution of Community Police in the municipality of Palmas - TO and uses the theories of social capital as a theoretical analytical basis. This is a qualitative exploratory research that relied on documentary and bibliographic research and interviews with institutional stakeholders. In the data treatment it was used the content analysis supported by the MAXQDA Software. The results indicate: 1) a mismatch between the normative legal framework that establishes community policing as a participatory public policy and a corporate ethos that guides their actions. 2) The importance of the police officer in establishing bridges between the public security institution and the citizens of local communities is highlighted. 3) It is concluded that if there is no diffusion of social capital embedded in broad social relations that enable the formation of collaborative networks, public policy tends not to be effective.