Community policing and Islamic radicalization in The Hague
A case study to the role of neighbourhood police officers in the Schilderswijk and Transvaal with regard to the problem of radicalization
Master Thesis Crisis and Security Management Benjamin Beumer / S1534521
First Reader: T.J.M. Dekkers
Second Reader: dr. B.W. Schuurman Universiteit Leiden
August 5, 2018 Word count: 18.233
Abstract
This thesis aims to investigate the role of neighbourhood police officers (NP’s) in the prevention of radicalization. A report of the OSCE (2014) argues that the police could use a community policing philosophy to prevent people from radicalization. This thesis investigates empirically to what extent NP’s in the neighbourhoods of the Schilderswijk and Transvaal use a community policing philosophy to deal with the problem of radicalization. The analysis shows some results that indicate that NP’s in the Schilderswijk and Transvaal are not fully able to meet the requirements of the community policing philosophy.
Table of contents
Page number:
Chapter 1: Introduction 7
1.1 Research question 8
1.2 Relevance 9
Chapter 2: Theoretical framework / literature review 11 2.1 Community policing (COP): a philosophy 11 2.2 The philosophy in practice: some requirements and
principles
12
2.3 Role of the community 13
2.4 Radicalization and counter-radicalization 14 2.5 Community policing and counter-radicalization 16 2.6 Community policing and counter- radicalization:
critiques
18
Chapter 3: Methodology 20
3.1 Research methods: case study design 20 3.2 Single case-study design: pros and cons 21
3.3 Case selection 22
3.4 Interviews 23
3.5 Document analysis 26
Chapter 4: Analysis 30
4.1 Problem solving orientation: address, resolve and prevent problems in a community
30
4.2 Pro-active approach 33
4.3 Engage, respond and partner with communities 35 4.4 Easily accessible and frequently visible: the police
should know and be known by the police
39
4.5 Work with key stakeholders in the community 41 4.6 Police officers should be trained to be community 43
oriented
4.7 Diverse police teams with balanced gender and ethnicity
45
4.8 A police officer should be permanently assigned to one community
46
4.9 Concluding results and scores 47
Chapter 5: Conclusion and Discussion Chapter 5.1 Reflection Chapter 5.2 Limitations 49 50 52 Literature 53
List of tables
Page number Table 1. Characteristics of the respondents 24
Table 2. Factors of COP and operationalization of these
factors 29
List of abbreviations
COP Community-Oriented Policing
Chapter 1: Introduction
The terrorist attacks on the Jewish Museum (Brussels, 2014), Charlie Hebdo (Paris, 2015) and the Bataclan theatre (Paris, 2015) are some examples of attacks that were committed by Islamic radicalized people (The Guardian, 2015). The people who committed these attacks were mostly coming from Molenbeek in Brussels and some places in France, Paris in particular (The Guardian 2015, RTL Nieuws, 2015). The authorities could not prevent these people from committing an act of terror eventually. Therefore, it is in the first place an important task for authorities to eventually prevent these people to commit terrorist attacks. This research focuses on the situation in The Netherlands with regard to Islamic radicalization that could eventually lead to terrorist attacks in the name of the Islam. The Netherlands in general and The Hague in particular have to deal with radicalized people (Trouw 2017, Volkskrant 2017). Eventually they want to prevent these people from committing an act of terror on their soil. So far, the Netherlands has not been hit by a terrorist attack. However, the attacks in Brussels and Paris were very close to the Netherlands. Does the absence of a terrorist attack in The Netherlands justify the assumption that The Netherlands is better at preventing people from radicalization that eventually leads to terrorism? It is argued that The Netherlands has a good reputation when it comes to counter-radicalization measures to prevent people from counter-radicalization (NOS, 2016). The Dutch approach against radicalization, is according to this article, the use of neighbourhood policemen in signalling radicalization. The Dutch police argue that these policemen are an ‘effective’ tool in the signalization process of radicalized behaviour. This research investigates what these neighbourhood policemen within the “Dutch approach” do to prevent people from radicalization.
The Hague is selected as the case for this research. This research focuses particularly on the neighbourhoods of the Schilderswijk and Transvaal. The city of The Hague has the most problems in The Netherlands when it comes to the phenomenon of radicalization (Trouw 2017, Volkskrant 2017). Furthermore, the research focuses on a certain timeframe. The research focuses on the period after 2014. The selection of this timeframe is based on the start of the Arab Spring at the end of 2011 and the construction of a new policy on radicalization of the municipality of The Hague in 2014. After 2014 the municipality of The Hague implemented this policy and the Arab Spring evolved to a next phase in which IS became more and more dominant in the region (Trouw, 2017).
1.1 Research question
This research uses the community policing philosophy (Cordner, 2014) to investigate the problem of radicalization in The Hague. The aim is to see if the police in The Hague use this philosophy and what the connection of this philosophy is with radicalization. In the first place the community policing philosophy gives some tools for the police to cope with crime related problems on a local level (Goldstein, 1987). Secondly, the whole idea behind a community policing philosophy is that it focuses on problems at a local level and that it could be a useful philosophy for the understanding of prevention strategies on a local level, such as radicalization (Dunn et al. 2016, Hill 2017, Innes 2006, Klausen 2009 and Kearns 2018). A report of the OSCCE (2014) also supports this assumption. Therefore this report is important for this research. With previous information in mind, the following research question is constructed: To what extent do the police forces in The Hague apply a community
policing philosophy after 2014 to prevent people from radicalizing and what are the possible implications with the implementation of such a philosophy in practice?
This research question focuses on the role that the police can play on a local level to prevent people from radicalizing. The objective of this research is to see to what extent the police in The Hague use a community policing philosophy to counter radicalization. It is interesting to see what The Hague is doing in the fight against radicalization since the problem of radicalization is present in this city. This research investigates the role of the police with an important focus on the neighbourhood police officers (NP’s). The following sub-questions are an important addition to the main research question:
Do the NP’s in The Hague follow a community policing philosophy to prevent people from radicalization?
What do the NP’s think about community policing and how do they think about the connection with radicalization?
Is there a change within the police recognizable after 2014? Is there a change in the approach to prevent people from radicalization?
1.2 Relevance
What makes this research academically and societal relevant? The community policing philosophy is most of the time used to explain a phenomenon in the criminological field (Cordner, 2014). The fact that this research empirically investigates how NP’s think about community policing and how they think about the implementation of such a philosophy for the problem of radicalization, which is not a direct crime-related problem, could give a great insight in the implementation of the community policing philosophy on a broader perspective. The results that come from the interviews can give a valuable answer to the strengths and weaknesses of this philosophy in practice. In theory, the community policing philosophy sounds great and useful for almost every problem on a local level. However, in practice there are often implications that complicate the implementation of such a philosophy. The aim is to analyse some practical implications that come with this philosophy. The academic relevance of this research is that the community policing philosophy is critically investigated in this research on a phenomenon that is not directly an act of crime. It could help other researchers to choose or to not choose this philosophy for problems that are not crime-related. There is a lot of academic literature available on this topic. However, this literature almost always exists of recommendations on how the police could implement a community policing philosophy to possibly deal with radicalization (Dunn et al. 2016, Hill 2017, Innes 2006, Klausen 2009, Kearns 2018). This research empirically investigates how the police in The Hague, where radicalization is present, deals with radicalization from a community policing purpose. Instead of giving recommendations to the police as an organization, this research investigates if these recommendations are applicable and useful in practice for local NP’s. In this sense, this research could fill a research gap.
Again, this research also tries to help people to understand what the authorities, the police in particular, do to prevent people from radicalization. This process of radicalization under a certain group of people is the main problem to address for the police if they want to stop people from committing terrorist attacks (Politie, 2018). For a whole community it is interesting and relevant to see how the police forces in The Hague deal with this problem to prevent or diminish the scope of the problem in the future since the Dutch society is a bit worried about a possible terrorist attack on our soil (Trouw, 2017). Therefore, this research is also societally relevant.
This research consists of five chapters. The introduction is the first chapter. The next chapters are: literature review / theoretical framework, methodology, analysis and conclusion. In the literature review the most important concepts and theories are explained and discussed in detail. The methodology gives an insight in the methods and techniques that are used for this research. In the analysis the chosen methods (interviews and document analysis) are used to connect the theories and concepts with the policies and practical experiences of the police. In the analysis the results of this research are discussed. The conclusion discusses some strengths and weaknesses of the research. Furthermore, the conclusion gives the most important findings of the research and also answers the research question.
Chapter 2: Theory / Literature Review
The theoretical framework consists of an overview on the written literature with regard to the community policing philosophy. The framework starts with a broad overview of this philosophy. The aim is to specify the philosophy throughout the framework into a detailed display of requirements and principles of this philosophy. After it is clear what these requirements and principles are, the community policing philosophy is connected with radicalization and counter-radicalization. The framework aims to give a clear and coherent connection between the community policing philosophy and the concepts of radicalization and counter-radicalization.
2.1 Community policing (COP): a philosophy
The dominant feature of this research is the community policing philosophy. A concept that is often used and comparable with community policing, is community oriented-policing (COP). In this research the two concepts are both used, but they are intended to say the same thing. There is not a big distinction between the two concepts. Therefore, they are not explained individually. The first section shows the reason why community policing is mentioned as a philosophy and the importance of this notion.
In the 1980s and 1990s community policing became a dominant paradigm (Morabito 2010, Cordner 2014). A lot of discussions and a lot of thoughts on community policing followed. One important way of defining and conceptualising community policing is to look at it from a philosophical standpoint (Cordner, 2014). Cordner argues that community policing became a dominant paradigm in the 1980s and 1990s since community policing was more regarded as a philosophy instead of a program (Cordner, 2014). Thayer and Reynolds (1997) argue that it is important that a whole police department is dedicated to this policing approach if this approach within the police wants to be part of the philosophy. This notion of Thayer and Reynolds (1997) stress the importance of a comprehensive understanding of the community policing philosophy in a particular police department. The whole police department should be part of the strategy and not just one unit within a department. This new dominant paradigm to look at the police is regarded as something that could really help to improve the quality of policing. A requisite is that the police and other involved actors see this new paradigm as a new way of thinking instead of just a new way to label police services (Goldstein, 1987). It is important to understand
community policing from the philosophical perspective. The philosophy gives some shape to certain policies and programs that aims to be community oriented.
2.2 The philosophy in practice: some requirements and principles
It is now clear that community-policing programs are part of a philosophy. It is important to note that community policing is a new way of thinking within the police organization. It is a different way to deal with problems. This notion of community policing is important to understand. It is important to know how such programs work in practice. This section explores the factors that are part of the community policing philosophy and these factors are important for the police in order to be community oriented. The factors that are mentioned in this section are crucial for the analysis at the end of this research.
Morabito (2010) argues that there are no clear criteria of COP and that there is no COP gold standard. However, a lot of scholars identified some common elements that are part of the community policing philosophy and can be useful for certain police programs. Goldstein (1987), Morabito (2010) and Ponsaers (2001) agree for a great part on these elements. These elements are broadly saying that the police should: have a problem-solving orientation; work with key stakeholders in the community; have a pro-active approach and address, resolve and prevent problems that concern a large part of a certain community. The underlying desire of these elements is that police can work in a more effective way (Goldstein, 1987). Another desire of these elements and behind the philosophy is that the police now have a presence in the community. Requirements to fulfil this desire are that the police should be easily accessible, frequently visible and caring in their relations with citizens (Goldstein, 1987: 9).
How does the police implement such community policing programs in reality? A report, published by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in 2014, give some guidance to this question. The report mentions some principles and strategies that should, in their eyes, be used to have a community oriented policing style. The police should in the first place be visible and accessible to the public; this is in accordance with the argument that Goldstein (1987) made. In addition to this first point the police should also know the public and be known by the public. The third principle states that the police should engage, respond and partner with communities. Furthermore, they should listen to the concerns within a
community and then also respond to the needs of a community. In order to be a community-oriented police, they should respect and protect the rights of all members within a community. The last key principle is about the accountability of the police. They should always be accountable for their actions and the consequences of those actions (OSCE, 2014: 76).
The report also proposes some strategies for the police to put these principles into practice. The police should compose of diverse police teams with a balanced gender and ethnical background. The second strategy argues that police officers should be permanently assigned to one specific community. The approach should also involve all government agencies and services and all branches of the police. (OSCE, 2014: 76). The training of police officers should also be improved. Other techniques and skills are required for police officers within a community policing strategy. Therefore, the police should change their training programs and specialise their people in communicating with a community (OSCE, 2014: 77).
2.3 Role of the community
The role of the community is very important within the community policing philosophy. The community can make the philosophy a success if they cooperate with the police. If they are not willing to cooperate, the implementation of the philosophy can be failure. They decide to a certain extent if the factors of COP are fulfilled in practice. This section deals with the role of the community.
The role of the community is vital within the community policing philosophy (Lee et al. 2017, Goldstein 1987, Cordner 2014). If a community is not willing to cooperate with the police, community-policing programs are not going to work. Cordner (2014) discusses the philosophical dimension of community policing. In his work Cordner (2014) addresses the importance of citizens within the community. To have successful community policing programs, the philosophy argues that the police should have a good cooperation with the community. It is important for the police to have some citizen input and to focus on the individual needs of people. These two ideas of Cordner (2014) closely relate to each other. On the one hand individual neighbourhoods and communities should have some influence on the way they are policed in their environment. There should be legitimate interest groups in these communities to discuss their thoughts on the policing strategy with police officials (Cordner, 2014: 433-434). On the other hand the police should serve the community
on a personal level and should fulfil the needs of a community. Cordner (2014) really emphasizes the importance of the community within this philosophy with these two points. However, a difficulty with certain community policing programs is that it is sometimes difficult to reach a balance between a neighbourhood-policing approach and the uniform jurisdiction-wide policing function (Cordner, 2014). But still within this approach the police rely heavily on the information that a community provides to solve crime problems and address social order in an effective way (Lee et al., 2017). That is why the police have to find a way to balance these two aspects, because without the support of the community all the efforts of such policing styles will not pay out.
Goldstein (1987) has some important things to say about how far the influence of a community can and should reach. Community policing is unique in the way that communities really have a voice in a process and participate in making some of the important decisions (Goldstein, 1987). But how far does the influence of citizens on making policy reach? Should the community be part in the assignment of police officers to a certain area? Who is going to decide which problems are important and which problems should be prioritized by the police? Goldstein (1987) tries to answer these questions. Experiences in the past showed that the police must exclude themselves from community influences in some of their functions. Some of the decision-making processes of the police cannot be shared with the community. Another very important point is that the police are part of national government and that they are bound to some constitutional rights. As a consequence, the police cannot be responsive to the desires of a community if it will violate these constitutional rights (Goldstein, 1987). Therefore, he argues that this philosophy only works if the whole police are devoting time and effort to this new style. NP’s should always be aware of their social and law enforcement role. There is a small balance between these two lines within community policing programs (Goldstein, 1987). This discrepancy is sometimes difficult for both the police and the community because not everything can be shared.
2.4 Radicalization and counter-radicalization
The first section of the theoretical framework is meant to explain the main assumptions and factors that are part of community policing programs and the community policing philosophy in general. The aim of the first section is to clarify the
assumptions and factors of the philosophy and then to make a connection with radicalization in the second one. In this second section the concepts of radicalization and counter-radicalization are shortly explained. After this conceptualization, the connection between community policing programs and counter-radicalization is explained. It is necessary to know what the concepts of radicalization and counter-radicalization mean to understand the connection with COP.
The report of the OSCE (2014), which is a very important source to make the connection between COP and radicalization, argues that the concept of radicalization is very elusive. It is difficult to come up with a generally accepted definition or conceptualisation. According to Schmid (2013) radicalization is a concept that includes a lot of different elements. One element is that it is important to bear in mind that every person, organization or actor can radicalize in some way and that the process of radicalization can take place at both sides of a conflict. The discussion of radicalization is now often only linked with non-state actors (such as Muslims); governments are most of the time excluded (Schmid, 2013). Furthermore, another very important remark is that radicalization is too often linked with terrorism and violence as an outcome (Schmid 2013, Rink & Sharma 2016, OSCE 2014). Radicalized behaviour could eventually lead to an expression of violence or even a terrorist attack, but they do not necessarily do so. A lot of people that are radicalized never express their behaviour into violent outrages.
It is important to understand that the concept of radicalization is conceptualized in a lot of different manners by a lot of different authors. This research focuses on radicalization that takes place on the Islamic side and could eventually evolve in violent behaviour (e.g. a terrorist attack). Religious radicalization can be explained for individuals and is about the level of support for an individual at a given point of time to use violence as a tool to achieve religious-political objectives (Rink and Sharma, 2016). This definition explicitly mentions the use of violence to achieve their goals. In addition, the report of the OSCE also mentions something about radicalization that focuses on the use of violence. “Terrorist radicalization is a
process whereby an individual comes to accept terrorist violence as a possible, perhaps even legitimate, course of action” (OSCE, 2014: 35). This citation is
important for this research. It stresses the use of violence to achieve a certain goal. Therefore, this citation is used to explain the definition and notion of radicalization for this research.
Schmid (2013) does not give a very elusive definition by himself to define the concept of counter-radicalization. He uses a definition of the UN to formulate counter-radicalization. This conceptualization of the UN is used in this research when the concept of counter-radicalization is mentioned. The UN formulated counter radicalization as follow:
Policies and programmes aimed at addressing some of the conditions that may propel some individuals down the path to terrorism. It is used broadly to refer to a package of social, political, legal, educational and economic programmes specifically designed to deter disaffected (and possibly already radicalised) individuals from crossing the line and becoming terrorists (Schmid, 2013: 50).
2.5 Community policing and counter-radicalization
There is literature that argues that community-policing programs could be used to deal with the problem of radicalization. This next section tries to make a clear connection between community policing as a philosophy to counter radicalization in certain programs and policies. This section is very important for understanding the intentions of this research.
In the literature there is a lot of comprehension about the assumption that community policing could be a tool to prevent people from radicalization in the first place and to counter terrorism eventually (Dunn et al. 2016, Hill 2017, Innes 2006, Klausen 2009, Kearns 2018).
Community policing is not new. As mentioned earlier, community policing as a philosophy evolved in the 1980s and 1990s. However, the application to counter-terrorism and radicalization is new. Policing was always about theft and crime and solving some low-level community trouble. A high-ranked official of the Metropolitan police argues that terrorism is not so different from crime in neighbourhoods. He argues that improved relations between the police and the Muslim community could evolve in a better cooperation with this community on a topic such as radicalism (Klausen, 2009, Innes 2006). If there is a good cooperation they are more likely to share important information with the police (Innes 2006). Furthermore, Innes (2006) proposes to introduce neighbourhood policing (NP, e.g. community policing) to counter terrorism and prevent people from radicalization. A
requisite of this approach is that the police should give some influence to the community about the way they are policed (Innes, 2006: 224). The role of the NP’s is in this regard an addition to their everyday tasks, such as the fight against crime. Kearns (2018) argues that the process of radicalization occurs more often behind closed doors. As a consequence, the police need to have good informants within communities. Briggs (2010) argues that the terrorist threat from radicalized people comes from people that are integrated in certain communities. Therefore, communities should play a central role in strategies to fight this problem. She gives two reasons that describe the importance of the community. First, if these radicalized people are well integrated within a community, the community can act as an early warning for the police and the intelligence services. They can inform and warn these actors for particular individuals or groups. The second reason is that communities can play a preventive role when it comes to the acceptation of violence with their radical ideas. Together with local authorities, police and youth workers, communities can play a crucial role in diverting young people from harm (Briggs, 2010: 973). In addition to this point, Kearns (2018) also argues that for an anti-radicalization policing style with a direct involvement of the community, the police need to involve a direct relation between the police and the communities. This partnership also needs to be genuinely consultative. If this is done properly the police can be a primary intervention to the people that are prone to radicalize (Kearns, 2018: 200). These authors really stress the importance of a good cooperation with the local community in order to have a successful community-policing program.
Furthermore, a report (2014) of the OSCE also describes the role of the police to prevent people from radicalization in a more elaborate and concrete way. The report gives some guidelines for the police. The community policing philosophy, as a counter-radicalisation tool, should be part of a comprehensive strategy in which the police is cooperating with other actors. The philosophy is one of multiple policy measures that are helpful to fight the problem. However, the philosophy is used as a foundation around other measures and is regarded as the most important one (OSCE, 2014: 80). In this aspect the definition of the UN with regard to counter-radicalization comes back in a more practical way. The report argues that intelligence-led policing is closely related to community policing. The report argues that the term ‘intelligence’ has some negative connotations in society. People are afraid that their information is used in a wrong way and as a consequence these people are careful in sharing
information with the police. However, if a certain policy on intelligence is used in the right manner, the public can be an important open-source of information. The police could gain some advantages of this cooperation and this could help the police on a local and a national level. Again, it is really important that the police are transparent in explaining their policies in this regard. Furthermore, they need to assure that these people can inform the police anonymous to make sure that their information remains confidential (OSCE, 2014: 83). The importance of these articles is that they all argue that community policing as a philosophy within the police can have an influence on communities and the process of radicalization. However, they all argue that the police should have a very good relationship with a community and they have to be open and honest to communities when it comes to the sharing of information. As a philosophy, it could work in the fight against radicalization, but only if it is implemented properly. The last part of this section discusses the concrete role of the police in preventing people from radicalization and what is working in this regard. The report argues that community-policing officers need some guidance and a certain framework to work upon. The police should have clear instructions on how to deal with a phenomenon like radicalization. Therefore, training of these policemen should be the thing that brings these ideas into practice. Training is the most important thing for the police to better deal with difficult problems, such as radicalization (OSCE, 2014).
2.6 Community policing and counter-radicalization: critiques
Section 2.5 describes that the community policing philosophy could be used in programs that deal with the prevention side of radicalization. However, there are also critiques on this assumption. This section deals with the critiques and explains why the philosophy is not always that applicable.
What is eventually the aim of the police to be more community-oriented? It is argued that when police officers identify with an area and become familiar with its residents and lifestyles that the potential of community-oriented policing programs increases. According to this assumption the work of police officers reinforces the informal social controls within an area (Goldstein, 1987: 10). A community is now able to deal with problems in their area. However, there is some critique on this assumption. It assumes that societies and communities are homogenous and easy to identify and that the police are fully able to harmonize their policy with the demands of the community. However, such an ideal set of circumstances is most of the time not
recognizable in a community. Therefore, it is difficult to measure the success of community policing measures (Goldstein, 1987: 10). Morabito (2010) also has an important addition to what Goldstein said. In her eyes another difficulty for community policing strategies is that there is no one-size-fits-all solution to fight crime and disorder in certain communities. Programs that work in one community can be inappropriate for another community in another area (Morabito, 2010: 565). Other authors also mention some difficulties. Kearns (2017) argues that the ambitions of community policing programs are complicated by over-policing and stereotyping. Over-policing is a problem since minority groups can have perceptions that they are over-policed. Therefore, their trust in the police diminishes. Cooperation between the police and communities is after such perceptions really difficult (Kearns, 2017: 198). Stereotyping is also a problem. Minorities often feel discriminated by the police. As a consequence, they are also less likely to have an intensive relationship with the police (Kearns, 2017: 198). Hill (2017) mentions DeGuzman as an important criticaster of community policing in relation with the counter of terrorism and radicalization. He argues that the police could not be transparent with the community about such sensitive problems (radicalization and terrorism). As a consequence, the police are not really able to partner up with a community. Eventually this would cause friction and undermine the trust of a community that is necessary for community policing to succeed (Hill, 2017: 251).
This section of the theoretical framework is important for the analysis of this research. This research aims to investigate to what extent NP’s in The Hague use a community policing philosophy to deal with the problem of radicalization. The second part of the research question aims to investigate the possible implications that come with the implementation of such a philosophy in practice. These critiques on the philosophy describe possible implications for the implementation of a community policing philosophy. This research investigates if the critiques towards the community policing philosophy are visible in reality. The results of the interviews describe if these critiques are applicable to the situation of the NP’s in The Hague.
Chapter 3: Methodology
This chapter aims to discuss and explain the methods that are used in this research. The importance of this chapter is that it shows how the gathered information is used in this research for this particular case. Furthermore, it is important to know how these methods help to investigate to what extent the NP’s in the Schilderswijk and Transvaal use the community policing philosophy in their daily work. This chapter deals with these elements.
3.1 Research methods: case study design
The first section of this chapter explains what a case study design entails and why this design is applicable for this research. The pros and cons of case study designs are discussed after the explanation of such designs.
This research has a qualitative nature. As a consequence, this research collects qualitative data and uses these data to analyse the two neighbourhoods that are central in this research. This research has a case study design in which The Hague is the case of interest. The aim of this research is to get a contextualised insight of this city and to see how the police are dealing with people that might radicalize. The preventive role that the police could play in this process is investigated through a single case study design. The research focuses on the neighbourhoods of the Schilderswijk and Transvaal. Therefore, it is an embedded single case study design (Xiao, 2010). The selection of these two neighbourhoods is explained later on in this chapter.
Case studies include both within-case analysis of single cases and the comparison of a small number of cases. (George et al., 2005). With within-case analysis a researcher focuses on the in-depth exploration of a single case as a stand-alone entity (Paterson, 2010: 971). That is exactly what this research does for the city of The Hague. Furthermore, Paterson (2010) argues that a within-case analysis can have its focus on particular elements of a story that are revealed in the data. These elements consist of the context or the outcomes of the data that is gathered. Paterson (2010) also argues, which is more applicable for this research, that within-case analysis also focuses on the processes that are revealed in the data. The analysis then particularly focuses on decision-making processes and sense making with regard to a particular phenomenon. This research focuses on decision-making processes of the municipality of The Hague for the police that might prevent people from
radicalization. Within-case analysis of a single case is therefore the most applicable research strategy for this research.
This research analyses an embedded single case. What is a single case? And what is the notion of an embedded single case study design? A single-case design differs from a research design with multiple cases, because the focus is just on the global nature of one particular organization, program or site within a case. However, an embedded single-case design has multiple units of analysis within a single-case design (Xiao, 2010: 867). This research has multiple units of analysis. This research tries to say something about the way in which the police in The Hague apply a community policing philosophy to prevent people from radicalization. Within this city, NP’s in the Schilderswijk and Transvaal are the units of analysis. A discussion and conclusion arise at the end of this research with the results that come from the investigation in these two neighbourhoods. Therefore, it is an embedded single-case design.
3.2 Single case-study design: pros and cons
George et al. (2005) mention four strengths of case study methods: conceptual validity, deriving new hypotheses, exploring causal mechanisms and modelling and assessing complex causal relations. The second one is in particular applicable for this research. This strength is about deriving new hypotheses by gaining new insights in a certain case (George et al., 2005: 19-20). This research could also provide some new insights in strategies to prevent people to radicalize and as a consequence, new hypotheses could be derived. The aim of this research is to say something about the community policing philosophy and what the practical implications are for this philosophy when it is used to prevent a problem other than crime. Therefore, this strength is applicable for this research. The other two strengths are not applicable for this research.
There are also some difficulties for case studies. It is important to understand some of the most important critiques on case studies to know the difficulties and disadvantages of this particular research. The first point of critique is coming from the work of Tellis (1997). The critique is about the concept of generalizability. It is a frequent criticism in case study designs that the results are not applicable in real life and cannot be generalized to other populations or places than the particular study. In the same work of Tellis (1997) another point of critique is mentioned. It is sometimes
argued that the case study as a research methodology is unscientific in nature and because of that replication is not possible. It is important that the results are valid and comparable with earlier results (Tellis, 1997). A research should be replicable in the sense that if someone wants to conduct the same research, it should be possible.
3.3 Case selection
This research aims to say something about the situation in The Hague, and in particular the police in The Hague, with regard to the prevention of radicalization. To say something about The Hague and the problem of radicalization, this research focuses on the Schilderswijk and Transvaal. There are a lot of reasons why The Hague and these two neighbourhoods are chosen for a research on this particular subject. This section deals with these reasons and explains how the case is selected.
In the first place it is important to see how big the problem of radicalization is in the Netherlands. The Dutch Intelligence Services (AIVD) reported in 2018 that 300 people from the Netherlands travelled to Syria or Iraq (AIVD, 2018). Furthermore, they report that 50 of these 300 people already returned to the Netherlands and 75 out of these 300 died in combat in Syria or Iraq. These are just general numbers and are useful to get a comprehensive understanding about the scope of the problem. There is some discussion and ambiguity about the total amount of people that resided in The Hague and travelled from there to Syria or Iraq. One article, that is based on a publication of the municipality of The Hague, argues that after September 2016 no one from The Hague travelled to Syria or Iraq. In the years before a total of 57 people travelled from The Hague to Syria or Iraq. Because of this great amount of people that travelled to Syria, The Hague was called the ‘jihad city’ in these years (Trouw, 2017). Another article mentions some other numbers with regard to the people that travelled to Syria. They only talk about 163 people who travelled to Syria from whom their residence is known. Most of these people came from The Hague. To be exact, 32 of these 163 people came from The Hague. That is almost 20% per cent of the total people that travelled to Syria or Iraq (Volkskrant, 2017). Other evidence is coming from an article of vrij Nederland (2015). They made a list of the Dutch jihadis. In a visual they show that there is an over-representation of jihadi and radicalized people in the city of The Hague. Other cities have significantly less people that radicalized or are a potential threat to become radicalized (vrij Nederland, 2015). Most of the people that travelled to Syria or Iraq were men and were between 20 and 30 years old. It is
also relevant to see what the ethnical background of these people is. The biggest part of the people that travelled to Syria or Iraq originates from Morocco (46%). Other countries of origin with a representation of more than 3 per cent are the Netherlands, Turkey, Iraq, Egypt and Somalia. After this division to the different countries there is more than 12 per cent left. These people are categorized under the label: rest of the world (Volkskrant, 2017). However, for this research the most important conclusion is that most of the people that travelled from the Netherlands to Syria or Iraq were residents of The Hague. The numbers that are mentioned make it clear that radicalization is a problem in The Hague. Within The Hague the Schilderswijk is mentioned as the most important area in which pro-IS fighters are demonstrating and are trying to seduce people to travel to Syria (Eenvandaag, 2014). Other evidence of the importance of the Schilderswijk can be found in a publication of the municipality of The Hague (2016). An important element of this publication is that it notes that people from the Schilderswijk are directly communicating with people in Raqqa (important IS-territory). Another element is that the publication says that three important people (jihadis) that live in the Schilderswijk were arrested in 2014 (Gemeente Den Haag). All these elements contribute to the assumption that the Schilderswijk is the most important area within The Hague when it comes to the problem of radicalization. However, Transvaal is also a unit of analysis in this research. Transvaal is also chosen, because they are closely related to the Schilderswijk and this extra neighbourhood gives more data for the city of The Hague.
3.4 Interviews
The last section of this chapter consists of the operationalization and the triangulation of methods. The previous sections explained the research design and the case selection. This section has a more practical nature. It explains the methods that are used in this research to gather the data for the analysis. The methods of this research are interviews and document analysis. This section explains what interviews and document analysis entail and how these two methods are used to say something about the research question.
An interview is a widely used method of data collection for the conduct of a systematic inquiry. An interview is a process of seeking knowledge and understanding of a particular phenomenon through conversation. There are different types of
interviews that can be used to gather information. One of these types is a semi-structured interview. This way to conduct an interview is used in this research. A semi-structured interview is the combination of a structured interview and an unstructured interview. The aim is to ask the respondent a number of predetermined questions of topic areas. The difference with structured interviews is that with semi-structured interviews not all questions are prepared. Instead, the aim is that other questions evolve during the conversation. The goal of this type of interview is to compare the results of the participants, but also to fully understand the unique experiences of each respondent (Barlow, 2010: 497). That is exactly what the interviews look like in this research. The main goal is, with prior knowledge of the community policing philosophy and counter-radicalization measures in The Hague, to ask the respondents about their experiences and opinion when it comes to radicalization and their preventive role in the process. Furthermore, the aim is to analyse and compare the results that arise of these interviews to say something about their role in the phase before people radicalize.
The police are the most important actor to gain information through the interviews. The respondents in this research are NP’s in the Schilderswijk and Transvaal, senior NP’s (someone who is in charge of the NP’s) and policymakers within this local police region. Table 1 gives an overview of the respondents.
Table 1. Characteristics of the respondents
Gender/Age Work district Job description
I. Man, 45 Police station: Heemstraat.
Schilderswijk
Neigbourhood police officer
II. Man, - Police station:
Hoefkade. Schilderswijk
Police officer on a lot of different target audiences with a wide variety of tasks
III. Woman, 31 Police station: Heemstraat.
Transvaal
Neighbourhood police officer
IV. Man, 31 Police station: Hoefkade.
Schilderswijk
Operational specialist A, more policy-oriented
V. Man, - Police station: Heemstraat.
Schilderswijk.
Operational expert. Coach and trainer of neighbourhood police officers
VI. Man, 59 Police station: Hoefkade.
Schilderswijk
Neighbourhood police officer
VII. Man, 28 Police station: Heemstraat.
Schilderswijk
Neighbourhood police officer
VIII. Woman, 33 Police station: Heemstraat.
Transvaal
Neighbourhood police officer
IX. Woman, - Police station: Laak. Senior neighbourhood police
The objective of these interviews is to get a clear understanding of their daily job. For answering the research question, the results of these interviews are crucial. In the interviews the respondents are asked to factors that are part of the community policing philosophy. These factors derive from the theoretical framework and the respondents are asked on these factors. The factors are: have a problem-solving orientation; work with key stakeholders in the community; address, resolve and prevent problems that concern a large part of a certain community; be visible and accessible for the public; engage, respond and partner with communities; the police should know and be known by a community and have a problem-solving approach. The respondents are asked on these factors to get a clear overview on what their work entails and what kind of policing style they use. In table 2 the factors are connected with the interview questions that are used to ask the respondents. Furthermore, it is crucial for this research to investigate the connection between community policing and the prevention of radicalization. The report of the OSCE (2014) argues that the police should consist of more diverse teams with a balanced gender and ethnicity and that a police officer should be permanently assigned to one community. Another requisite is that the police and the Muslim community should have a good relationship. The report of the OSCE (2014) also gives some more clearance about the concrete role of the police. Training is the most important thing in this regard. Policemen should be trained to deal with a phenomenon like radicalization. In the interviews the respondents are asked on these recommendations and thoughts and how they think about it. All these factors are more schematically displayed in table 2. To conclude, the respondents are asked on their opinion about the connection between community policing and the prevention of radicalization. Can they make a difference in the prevention of radicalization? Are there things to improve to better prevent the problem of radicalization?
All the results of these interviews should contribute to a comprehensive understanding and description of the work that the police do in The Hague to prevent people from radicalization. In the analysis it is important to analyse these results and to connect it with the community policing philosophy that is described in the theoretical framework.
3.5 Document analysis
Document analysis is used as the second method to analyse the role of the police in The Hague. The analysis of documents can provide valuable insights into historical, political, social, economic and personal dimensions of a certain case. Document analysis is often related with interviews and observations. It is a less direct way of gaining information than these two methods (Olson, 2010). It is for documents important to validate the source and authenticity. With the validation of the source, a researcher is able to understand why a certain document is written and what the author intended to do with this document. Therefore, it is also very important to make a distinction between primary sources and secondary sources. Primary sources are documents that were created by the people closest to a certain situation or phenomenon. On the other hand, secondary sources consist of documents that are created by people that were not directly involved in a situation or they were involved at a later date. As a consequence, the intentions and authenticity of the documents can differ (Olson, 2010).
The documents for this research are gathered through a systematic search command. There is a distinction between the documents. Some of the documents say more general things and are indirectly applicable for the situation in The Hague. The reason why these documents are still used is that these documents can be useful to compare with the documents that are directly applicable with the situation in The Hague. Examples are documents that come from that National Police, the VNG and the NCTV. These documents intend to say something about the problem of radicalization on a regional level or even a national level. The aim is to specify the content of the documents throughout the analysis to documents that only say something about The Hague. The documents of the National Police, the VNG and the NCTV are obtained by this search command in Google: “approach to prevent radicalization”. One document of the NCTV describes what the Dutch government should do to deal with this problem. Another document of the NCTV describes how municipalities on a local or regional level should deal with the problem of radicalization. This document is an addition to the document of the VNG that also describes the role of municipalities towards the problem of radicalization. All the documents mention the problem of radicalization and argue what the national government or local governments should do to deal with radicalization. It is interesting to see how the municipality of The Hague match or fringe with these
documents. The documents that come from the National Police are obtained through another search command. This search command is: “role of the NP within the police”. Documents of the police academy and the education council of the police are also obtained through this search command. All these documents say something about the NP’s and how he or she should deal with problems. These documents do not always directly say something about The Hague or the problem of radicalization. However, they still mention important things when it comes to the tasks of NP’s. That is useful information for this research. Furthermore, three-year reports of the police are used for the analysis. The website of the National Police shows some links to these reports and that is how these documents are obtained. The reports are used to analyse how the role of the NP is mentioned in these reports and if they mention the problem of radicalization in this regard. It could show some interesting insights on the thoughts of the police on a national level.
The other documents are more specific and focus on the situation in The Hague with regard to the problem of radicalization. The search command for these documents is: “approach municipality of The Hague to prevent radicalization”. Almost all of these documents come from the council within the municipality of The Hague. The documents show how policies are constructed and what the policies are and intend to do. The documents differ in timeframes. One document comes from 2006 and the most recent one comes from 2018. An important element of this research is to see if there is a change recognizable within The Hague after 2014. Therefore, these different timeframes are necessary. Furthermore, the documents all say something about the problem of radicalization and how to prevent it on a local level. The role of the police and the community are important actors in their policies. These documents are crucial for the analysis as they describe how the municipality of The Hague intend to prevent the problem of radicalization. Besides, the results of the interviews show if these intended results are fulfilled or if there arise implications with the implementation of the intended policies. The documents of the municipality of The Hague did also mention the safety house Haaglanden is an important actor in their policies. Therefore, a year report of this safety house that explicitly mentioned the problem of radicalization is also selected for the analysis. All the documents are selected by reading the title and the introduction.
This research wants to analyse these documents and see how, and if, the documents refer to the problem of radicalization and what the documents describe for
the role of the police in the prevention side of this problem. All the factors and requisites that are mentioned in the section ‘interviews’ are also used for the analysis of the documents. The intention with this analysis is to see how the reality, the results of the interviews, match or fringe with the documents and the ideas behind certain policies. Together with the interviews, the document analysis should contribute to the analysis of the research question. The factors and the way in which the documents are used, are also more schematically displayed in table 2 on the next page.
Table 2. Factors of COP and operationalization of these factors
Factors COP Interview-questions Document information
- Problem solving orientation; address, resolve and prevent problems in the community
Are you as a neighbourhood police officer (NP) busy to prevent and deal with problems? Is there a mutual understanding in which citizens are able to address problems to you?
What do the documents say about this factor? What is in their eyes the role of an NP and what is the connection with radicalization?
- Pro-active approach Are you, as an NP, busy partnering
with the community? And do you use pro-active techniques to achieve this partnership? Is there a change recognizable in the prevention of radicalization after 2014 and is your role different?
What is in their eyes the role of an NP? What does a document say about a pro-active approach within the police and how it could work to deal with a problem as
radicalization? - Engage, respond and partner with
communities
Are you, as an NP, busy partnering with the community? In concrete terms, what are you doing to work with the community? Is there a mutual understanding in which citizens are able to address problems to you? Does the community give some feedback on your work as an NP? Are citizens willing to cooperate with NP’s in your neighbourhood? How is the co-operation with the community?
How do the documents describe the role of the police when it comes to the extent at which the police should cooperate with a
community? For this factor, how do the documents describe the role of an NP?
- Easily accessible and frequently visible: the police should know and be known by a community
Are you, as an NP, easily accessible and frequently visible for the community?
What do the documents say about time-management of an NP? Are their instructions for an NP what should do in this regard? - Work with key stakeholders in the
community
Do you, as an NP, work together with relevant actors in the community? How is the co-operation with these actors?
What do the documents say about cooperation with key stakeholders and what are in their eyes these key stakeholders?
- Police officers should be trained to be community oriented
Did you have classes to understand the problem of radicalization? Is a there a change recognizable in the prevention of radicalization after 2014?
Is there a document that focuses on the training of police officers and what does this document say?
- For radicalization; the police should have diverse teams with balanced gender and ethnicity
What do you think about ethnic diverse police teams?
Are there in the documents
recommendations that argue that the police should have a more diverse composition?
- Police officers should be permanently assigned to one community
For how long have you been working as an NP now? Where did you work as an NP?
What do the documents say about their policies on this factor? Is it possible to assign an NP to one specific community? How do they think about this idea?
Chapter 4: Analysis
The results of this research are discussed in the analysis. The results come from the interviews with the police and the analysis of documents. The aim of this analysis is to give a comprehensible and well-structured explanation of the phenomenon that is researched. The analysis discusses and analyses every factor of COP individually. Each factor is analysed by the results of the interviews and the analysis of the documents. The aim of this modus operandi is to get a clear overview of each factor and to see if the police did or did not success to fulfil this factor. The results of the interviews are used to compare the experiences of the NP’s with the policies that are described in the documents. With this comparison, this research aims to say something about the possible implications that come with the implementation of a community policing philosophy to deal with the problem of radicalization. For each factor the documents are analysed at first. This research uses two types of documents. On the one hand there are documents that say something about radicalization and/or the police on a more regional or national level. On the other hand this research uses documents that explicitly say something about the situation in The Hague with regard to radicalization and/or the police. The more general documents are explained at first. After the analysis of documents, the results of the interviews show to what extent the policies are really implemented and working in practice. The explanation for this order is that the analysis of documents clarifies and explains the policy behind a certain factor.
4.1 Problem solving orientation: address, resolve and prevent problems in a community
On a national level, the Dutch police academy describes this role of the police. They argue that the National Police has high expectations of their NP’s. The aim is that these NP’s cooperate with local governments, social organizations and civilians to offer an important contribution for interference on a local level. They have to achieve this with a problem-solving approach. This approach also enhances citizen participation (Politieacademie, 2013). Another document, of the police itself, also contributes to the perception that the police have a problem-solving approach. It says that the police maintain contact with external partners. Together with these partners, problems are discussed and there is consultation about how to deal properly with these problems (Politie, 2018). Furthermore, the 2016-year report of the police also
describes the role of the NP. The NP knows their area and their neighbourhood and they know what problems play in a neighbourhood. Together with involved actors and local partners, these NP’s investigate how to address these problems and how to prevent it (Politie, 2017). There is also an advisory report of the police in which the main functions of an NP are discussed. One element is that the participation of a community is very important for the police on a local level. With the help of the community the police are better able to address, resolve and prevent problems in this community (Politie onderwijsraad, 2017). In these documents the police do refer to this factor of COP. It is important to note that these documents do not say directly something about this factor for the police in The Hague. However, it is a main task for a Dutch NP to use a problem-solving approach and to address, resolve and prevent problems.
Documents of the municipality of The Hague point more directly on the essence of this problem in their policies for the municipality of The Hague. For example, in 2014, the municipality of The Hague constructed a program against polarisation, radicalization and jihadism for 2015-2019. Two core tasks were central in this local policy: to re-socialize the returned jihad fighters and the prevention focused on persons and groups with a high-risk factor on radicalization. In this program the role of the police and the NP is mentioned specifically. There should be more attention for the police and there should be an expansion in the number of NP’s to better deal with this problem. The NP is the connection with the community and is therefore able to notice some signals of radicalization in an early stage (Gemeente Den Haag, 2015). The role of the police is mentioned specifically when it comes to solve the problem of radicalization.
The respondents stress the importance of a problem-solving approach within their work as an NP. Most of the respondents say that it is a just a task of the NP to deal with problems and to have a preventive role in certain problems. Radicalization is one of these problems and they have to deal with this problem on a regular basis. For example, respondent V organizes information meetings on primary schools to inform children about the Islam and radicalization. This example shows that an NP tries to educate children on a sensitive subject. The idea behind this information meeting is to convince these children that these radical beliefs are not acceptable in our Dutch society. In other words, the respondent tries to prevent people at an early stage to sympathize with radical beliefs. Another example that shows that an NP deals
with problems comes from respondent VIII. Respondent VIII argues that there are sometimes problems with young children who cause nuisance in a neighbourhood. She, as an NP, then tries to solve these problems together with the community. It is not directly related with radicalization, but it stresses the presence of this factor of COP in the daily work of NP’s. The majority of the respondents also argue that there is a mutual understanding between them and citizens in which citizens can address problems and try to solve problems together with the police. Multiple respondents point on the same example. In the last couple of years there were a lot of problems with New Year’s Eve in the Schilderswijk. The police searched actively with local inhabitants to come up with an idea to prevent these problems in the future. Eventually, both parties found a solution to this problem and the consequences were positive. This is the best example given by the respondents to point on the mutual understanding between citizens and NP’s. On the other hand, there are also some problems with the cooperation between NP’s and the community. However, these problems are more explicitly discussed for the factor: engage, respond and partner with communities.
The results of the interviews show also some difficulties with regard to this factor of COP. The respondents share the opinion that the police have a capacity problem. Police officers should be better trained on this subject to deal with the problem of radicalization. For this factor of COP, the shortage of people within the police organization has consequences. Respondent V has a strong opinion on this point. In his eyes the shortage of people within the police causes a high pressure to deal with this topic. Nowadays, radicalization is something that the neighbourhood police officers have to do besides their other duties. That is simply too much. As a consequence, NP’s have less time to deal with one or another problem. Therefore, the problem-solving approach and the points to address, resolve and prevent problems within a community could be in danger.
To conclude, the documents and the interviews both give positive signals for the presence of this factor of COP to deal with the problem of radicalization. However, the capacity problem within the police could be a danger for a perfect implementation of this factor.
4.2 Pro-active approach
Firstly, there are documents that describe the increasing importance on how to deal with this problem in a more general way. The NCTV constructed two programs on how to deal with radicalization. The first one is ‘Actieprogamma Integrale Aanpak
Jihadisme’ (2014) and the second one is ‘Handreiking aanpak van radicalisering en terrorismebestrijding op lokaal niveau’ (2014). These documents point on the
increasing role of local institutions on how to deal with and how to prevent radicalization. An example within this Actieprogamma Integrale Aanpak Jihadisme’ (2014) describes this more pro-active approach. One of the points is to strengthen the existing networks of local and key national figures. An element of this point is that:
“Local networks of key figures that are open to discuss sensitive issues within their own community (like alienation, radicalisation and jihadist travel) are expanded further and trained”. There is a role for the local government to expand the local
networks and key figures. Therefore, a pro-active approach is needed. More concrete, the advisory report for the police, which is already mentioned for the previous factor, describes a pro-active approach as one of the five main functions of an NP. Instead of being reactive in their approach, the advisory report stresses the necessity of a preventive approach. This approach also includes a pro-active way of working (Politie onderwijsraad, 2017). These documents point on the importance of the problem of radicalization. It is important for institutions and actors on a national and regional level to better deal with the problem of radicalization. As a consequence, NP’s and other professionals should work together with the Islamic community to show this pro-active approach in practice (NCTV, 2014).
For the municipality of The Hague there are also documents that describe the urgency and necessity to deal with the problem of radicalization. In ‘het integraal
veiligheidsplan 2015-2018’ of the municipality of The Hague, this urgency is
discussed. This document argues that the problems with regard to the jihad and the problems with radicalization caused an increasing sense of urgency for schools, welfare institutions and the Islamic community itself. This increased sense of urgency caused a shift from a more preventive approach to a more direct approach. This direct approach enhances a combination of assistance from particular actors, the enlargement of resilience and the transfer of knowledge towards professional organizations and the Muslim community (Gemeente Den Haag, 2014). The cooperation with the Islamic community is also an action point on a local level for the
