While contemporary policing is widely characterized as operating within a community policing era, organizational expectations and workplace environments may shape officers’ attitudes toward community-oriented practices in different ways. Hence, this study explores how officers perceive their roles and police culture associated with community-oriented policing through qualitative interviews. A total of nine interview transcripts were systematically analyzed using thematic analysis. The findings revealed several key themes, including police culture and climate, conceptions of community roles, “pink” and “soft” policing, and the influence of institutional norms on everyday practice. These results suggest that participants often engaged in forms of policing that at times diverged from the core principles of community-oriented policing. These variations appear to be shaped by the combined influence of societal expectations and organizational pressures, underscoring the complex realities involved in translating community policing ideals into practice.
