Community beyond Policing

This chapter critically engages the ideal of “community” and the possibilities for transcending conservative appropriations of community used to legitimize policing. The chapter interrogates the development of “community policing” and highlights how residents of Montgomery County's Black communities define community beyond policing. From their establishment, these communities have fostered a level of human connectivity and communal trust and care that often precludes their need to rely on police. Central to this chapter is a discussion of Black epistemologies and practices of community rooted in marronage and characterized by radical visions of and for spaces that fulfill human needs. These Black geographic visions show that community safety and security should be defined beyond policing.