Police Social Capital and the Effectiveness of Emergency Policing in China During COVID-19

Emergency policing has played a significant role in controlling the spread of COVID-19 in various countries. China is one of the few countries that has successfully controlled the pandemic. What are the factors that determine the effectiveness of emergency policing in China? This study argues that the social capital played a supportive role in emergency policing during COVID-19. Based on the data analysis, we construct a theoretical framework to explain why pandemic control in China has been effective. The effectiveness of the police response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Zhejiang, China, displays the importance of all three types of social capital for emergency policing, including interaction-assisted social capital represented by ‘grid-governance’, technology-driven social capital represented by ‘data sharing’, and service-assisted social capital represented by ‘safety construction’.