Redirect: Countering Radicalization in Calgary Using Community-Based Policing
Date
2023-01-23
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Abstract
During the height of the wars in Iraq and Syria, the city of Calgary experienced a notable increase in the number of citizens who were radicalized and recruited by the Islamic State (IS). In response, the Calgary Police Service (CPS) attempted a new approach to address radicalization within the city – the Redirect Program. Redirect is a community-based program that forms a partnership between police and civilian professionals to implement an intervention-style counter-radicalization program. The program signified a unique shift in traditional security discourses by suggesting that community involvement and individual stressor mitigation were necessary to prevent an individual from progressing down the path of radicalization. As such, my project focuses on how Redirect understands stressors like marginalization as a pathway to radicalization, and how it integrates civilians into program directives to counter the radicalization process. Using a combination of interviews with Redirect staff and survey data collected from University of Calgary students, my project explores how each of those groups understand the foundational structures of community-based policing and radicalization. The results of my study from the perspective of police suggests that Redirect recognized radicalization as a process and that counter-radicalization needed to be a process in turn as well. It also suggests that intervention-style programs need to address individual stressors on a case-by-base basis. From the student perspective, post-9/11 discourses on Islamic-based terrorism and perceptions of current events were influential in their understanding of radicalization and community-based policing. Moreover, one of the most significant findings of my study is that there was still a notable disconnect between traditional policing systems and the way community-based police programs integrate civilian participation. Students categorically did not clearly differentiate between traditional policing methods and community-based police programs. As such, the perceived limitations and criticisms associated with traditional policing remained present in the way students perceived Redirect, despite the program’s focus on creating pathways to build positive relationships between police and communities.
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Radicalization, Community-based, Police, Policing, Law Enforcement, Radicalized Group, Redirect Program, Calgary, Canada, Canadian, Extremism, Channel Strategy, Calgary Police Service, Counter-Radicalization, Marginalization, Intervention, Post-9/11, Security, Terrorism
Citation
Reyes, J. A. (2023). Redirect: countering radicalization in Calgary using community-based policing (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.