Police and trust: The cases of Australia, Ireland, Kenya and Slovenia

A touchstone issue for many rural residents – regardless of geographic location – is the relationship they have with police. All too often, whether real or perceived, rural people are left with feelings of being overlooked, ignored and not taken seriously when they report victimisation. There are, too, concerns about agricultural awareness of police to whom crime is reported. These perceptions are contributed to be a range of factors, including a tyranny of distance in rural areas meaning police and residents are physically separated, although there also exists issues around police training and a more lackadaisical approach to policing in rural areas. This chapter presents views of rural residents about police and trust in four countries: Australia, Ireland, Kenya and Slovenia. The central aim is to provide a snapshot of perceptions from four distinctly different international contexts and to identify points of agreement and of departure in the views expressed by survey respondents in each of these four countries.