Towards the unification of policing innovations under community policing

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine how various policing innovations, including problem‐oriented policing, broken windows, intelligence‐led policing, Compstat, third‐party policing, and hot spots, could be integrated into the community policing philosophy.Design/methodology/approachThe paper provides a definition of community policing and individually examines each policing innovation to determine how they fit within the community policing philosophy.FindingsThe findings suggest that various policing innovations are wholly compatible with the community policing philosophy and that incorporating these innovations into community policing may improve their overall utility and the likelihood of their adoption.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper highlights the need for new ideas in policing to be built into existing policing innovations rather than developed in isolation.Practical implicationsThe findings have implications for how law enforcement agencies fundamentally approach their work and come to understand and use policing innovations and how they are developed by scholars.Originality/valueThe paper is valuable to scholars and police practitioners because it clarifies the community policing philosophy and unifies various ideas regarding policing under one framework.