The article is an ethnographical study of a program called ‘Community Governs’ (Buurt Bestuurt) in Rotterdam’s neighborhood Hillesluis. ‘Community Governs’ is a community-based program which goal is to solve crime and disorder problems. The article investigates the role of the local government in this program. Three different roles are discerned: (1) performance, (2) procedural justice, and (3) participation. The results indicate that to the residents of Hillesluis the performance by the local government is the cornerstone of ‘Community Governs’.

Neighborhood watch schemes have become increasingly popular in the Netherlands. Drawing from data from 340 municipalities and fieldwork in four districts, the article shows how neighborhood watch groups have developed in the Netherlands and illustrates how they contribute to lower crime levels and collective efficacy, advancing theoretical notions from the literature. However, this form of coproduction of public safety is not without its moral problems. Stigmatization, ethnic profiling and excessive social control are real issues.

This article examines how Dutch-Moroccan juveniles from the Schilderswijk in The Hague, a neighborhood known as relatively unsafe, experience neighborhood watch and how they cope with it. Does neighborhood watch make juveniles to reduce or to continue their deviant behavior? The authors found that particularly neighborhood watchers from their own ethnic community (‘residential fathers’) have a positive influence on juveniles. Juveniles tend to obey them more because they feel treated with understanding and respect. Also they feel uncomfortable when realizing that supervisors from their own community might know their parents and families and might tell them about their deviant behavior. The role of the family in reducing deviant behavior of migrant juveniles was not yet mentioned in the literature.

Community WhatsApp consists of a group of local residents sharing information among each other on suspicious situations in the neighborhood through a smartphone app. In the southern Dutch city of Tilburg the author examined whether Community WhatsApp stimulates people to report suspicious situations through the emergency number 112. The stimulus is possibly the appreciation of other participants for being attentive and taking the initiative to call the emergency number. The author found that Community WhatsApp contributes to the diminishing of crime due to the mechanisms of disruption of criminal activities and deterrence.

This article summarizes the results of a study into new innovative forms of volunteer work which could possibly help the Dutch National Police to increase the number of volunteers. The empirical data were collected by a desk study, the analysis of five case studies and two focus groups. Three different themes were analyzed: mobilizing target groups, matching expectations, and formalization and institutionalization of volunteering work. Public organizations in general don’t realize enough the value of volunteers. Often there is lack of a clear vision, while more attention should go to managing expectations, customization, furthering the education of police volunteers, acceptance and support, guidance and support, recognition, appreciation and reward, and finally more room for volunteers.

In the concluding article of this special issue on civilian participation in public security it is argued that this term covers many different phenomena, from neighborhood watchers cooperating with the police to extremist militia. Much of the literature on civilian participation implicitly and wrongfully has an instrumental perspective. The participation of civilians in public security however, is much more than just an instrument of public administration or the police. Not all activities of citizens in the field of public security are decent or according to the perspective of the administration and the police. Moreover, there is no consensus on what public security exactly means, while the motives of people to get involved in public security activities differ greatly. Mobilizing citizens on the basis of fighting crime bears the risk of producing differences and conflicts in society instead of creating open, tolerant and inclusive communities.