IF YOU SEE SOMETHING, DO YOU SAY SOMETHING? THE ROLE OF LEGITIMACY AND TRUST IN POLICING MINORITY COMMUNITIES IN COUNTERTERRORISM

In 2006, Omar Hammami travelled to Somalia and joined Al Shabaab. In the years since, dozens of Americans including Douglas McCain and Zakia Nasrin have traveled to Syria and joined ISIS. During the same time, Dylan Roof, Robert Lewis Dear Jr., the Tsarnaev brothers, and others have carried out attacks—or attempted to do so—here at home. Sometimes friends or family members have alerted police to suspicions of terrorism like these, while other times they have not. The need to counter terrorism has raised questions about the appropriate methods that police should employ to this end. Yet, current concerns about policing terrorism coincide with national responses to police interactions more generally with members of minority groups.I address two puzzles about interactions between communities and police. First, why do some people alert police to crime—specifically potential extremist violence—while others do not? Contrary to conventional explanations about racial and sociodemographic differences, I find that views of law enforcement's legitimacy, trust in individual police officers, and community norms about handling conflict are the strongest predictors of citizen cooperation. So, second, why do some police departments do a better job than others developing positive relationships with minority communities to increase cooperation? I find that support for relationship building and social distance predict views about community policing both with minorities and in counterterrorism.I combine an experimental design and quantitative survey research. Data come from two sources: community members and police officers. For the community sample, I conducted an online survey where participants were asked about their views of and experience with police. Propensity to report crimes was measured using choice-based conjoint experiments, which allow comparison of multiple covariates simultaneously. Participants evaluated a series of crime pairs with randomly assigned characteristics and indicated their likelihood of reporting each to police.I then conducted roll call surveys in three Washington, DC area police departments. Participants were asked about experience with, and support for, community policing and views on community policing to address various crimes and with different minority groups. Combining data from both groups, I compare police expectations to reports from the community.