Consent, consensus or the management of dissent?: Challenges to community consultation in a new policing environment

Expecting community consultation structures of doubtful effectiveness devised for one purpose in 1984 to be able simultaneously to meet very different demands in 1994 is unrealistic. The role for community consultation groups is considered within the context of the Enforcement, Service and Community Models of policing and within the philosophy of New Public Management. Community consultation is examined alongside other democratic values pertinent to policing. More honest expectations of what consultation can realistically achieve are advocated because community consultation structures cannot reliably be used as a basis for setting policing objectives, and indeed are largely impotent in the objective‐setting process.