The Importance of Listening in Police-Community Dialogue: Insights From the Hearts and Minds Initiative in Trinidad and Tobago

Abstract

Community policing relies on communication and dialogue to break down barriers between police and communities. Community policing is implicitly premised on the notion that for relationships between police and communities to improve, both sides need to find ways to accommodate one another. These ideas are consistent with Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT), which focuses on the communicative mechanisms through which people accommodate or fail to accommodate one another. Genuine listening is a key mechanism for accommodating others. Drawing on CAT, we explore a community policing initiative called Hearts and Minds that was developed and implemented in Trinidad and Tobago, a Caribbean nation that has experienced a significant outbreak of violence over the past two decades. Our qualitative analysis relies on interviews with police officers. Based on this analysis, we discuss the importance of listening in police-community dialogue. We also discuss the implications of this research for theory, research, and practice.