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Community policing and the politics of local development in Tanzania*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 November 2014

Charlotte Cross
Charlotte Cross*
Affiliation:
School of Social Sciences, University of Northampton, Park Campus, Boughton Green Road, Northampton, NN2 7AL, United Kingdom
*
Email: charlotte.cross@northampton.ac.uk
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Abstract

This paper explores how the concept of ‘community policing’ has been understood and implemented in Tanzania. Whilst community policing is locally considered to be a very effective means of preventing crime and improving neighbourhood safety, the extent to which it constitutes a more accountable, responsive or ‘democratic’ form of policing, as assumed by proponents, is questionable. Based on research conducted in the city of Mwanza, this paper explains these outcomes in terms of continuities between forms of popular mobilisation that developed during Tanzania's socialist one-party era, and particularly the co-optation by the ruling party of sungusungu vigilantism, and understandings of the role of citizen participation in local development today. However, this paper suggests that as multiparty political competition becomes increasingly competitive, the sustainability of this model of community policing may be undermined, as citizens challenge the notion that they are obliged to provide resources for development directed from above.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 52 , Issue 4 , December 2014 , pp. 517 - 540
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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Footnotes

*

This paper is based on PhD research funded by the Africa Power and Politics research consortium (www.institutions-africa.org). I would like to thank Stephen John Shipula for his assistance during fieldwork, and John Giblin, Katie McKeown and two anonymous reviewers for constructive comments on earlier drafts of this paper. All errors and omissions are my own.

References

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