Introduction

Harmonious police-community relations constitute a crucial component in the modernization of public security endeavors, serving as a fundamental prerequisite for public security agencies to establish a novel security paradigm and promote public safety and well-being. Good police-community relations are of great significance to the continued enhancement of the people’s sense of gain, happiness, and security, and to the promotion of a higher level of rule of law and security construction. But at this stage, especially in the environment of significant changes in factors such as public demand (Song & Kong, 2019), service supply (Lu et al., 2015), media change (Fang & Li, 2020a), and law enforcement supervision (Yu, 2021), how to build a good new type of police-community relations is still an important topic that deserves attention. Current research on police-community relations focuses on: firstly, focusing on the definition of the connotation of police-community relations, the typical experience of police-community relations at home and abroad, and the connection and difference between police-community relations and police public relations; secondly, exploring police-community relations from the perspectives of grassroots governance, target methodology, and evaluation system (Wang, 2015), researching the tasks and characteristics of police-community relations in different periods of time, explored feasible measures to eliminate or alleviate police-community crises; thirdly, the internal logic of police-community relations has been thoroughly analyzed from the perspective of disciplinary intersections, elemental interactions, and structural inter-embeddedness.

This analysis has been conducted with a particular emphasis on the deconstruction and reconstruction of the constituent elements of police-community relations. Although there are quite a few studies on police-community relations, there are still the following points worth studying and exploring: Firstly, in terms of research methodology, more discursive analysis is conducted from the macro perspective (Shi, 2017a), and there is a lack of empirical research (** of police image, and have proposed that there are different levels of police image, such as individual image, post (function) image, and organizational system image (Zhu, 2014), which has the effect of enhancing the sense of security of the residents, improving the authority of the police, and facilitating the formation of police-community trust (Zhang & Li, 2023). At present, the research on police image is gradually deepened and refined, such as scholars explored the internal mechanism and influence of police image on the generation of visual authority in the process of police law enforcement (Zhai, 2021). In addition, scholars have explored the generation and sha** of police image under the perspectives of demand hierarchy theory, agenda setting theory, crisis theory, symbolic interaction theory, role theory, etc. The police image in the international discourse system, the police image in group events, and the police image in the screen shots have received extensive attention from the academia, and the index dimension, repair strategy, and sha** and dissemination of police image have become new research growth points.We acknowledge that the police image encompasses both static and dynamic dimensions. Currently, there is a considerable amount of research on the static aspects of police image, encompassing discussions on its definition, connotation, functionality, communication processes, and constituent elements. Nevertheless, there remains a notable dearth of studies exploring the dynamic processes involved in the power mechanisms, evolution mechanisms, and sha** mechanisms of the police image. Existing research analyzes the discourse change of the police image based on the multimodal perspective, showing the professionalism and love for the people of the Chinese police in terms of the narrative mode (Pan & Yanyan, 2019) or exploring the differentiation of the rise of the Internet on the traditional police hero-style group image (Han & Lu, 2022). Less attention has been paid to the transmutation process of the image of the police as perceived by the public in specific contexts.

On the whole, the image of the police presents the unity of subjectivity and objectivity (Liu, 2005), the organic combination of overall synthesis and dispersion of elements, and the internal coupling of stability and change (Chen, 2007). The abstract generalization and detailed portrayal of police image also reflect the social value orientation within a specific time and space range. Therefore, this study defines police image as the comprehensive evaluation of police behavior or organization, formed through the public’s perception of objective police phenomena during police-community interactions. This evaluation encapsulates both the police’s self-perception of their image and the public’s assessment of their social image.

Study on the police law enforcement credibility

Police law enforcement credibility is an important measurement index to test the legitimacy of police public power, which is essentially manifested as a kind of recognition and trust of the social public to police power, and is an invisible resource of the police organization. Police law enforcement credibility as the subject and content of the credibility relationship specific (Jiang, 2021), originated from the exploration of general trust theory in the field of police law enforcement, with the characteristics of inter-subjectivity, process, and radiation, etc. It is generally believed that the police credibility mainly consists of three core indicators of competence, trust, and legitimacy, and that the police’s behavioral norms, ethical quality, and transparency of the law enforcement process are the key factors affecting police law enforcement. Police behavioral norms, moral quality, and transparency of law enforcement process are the key factors affecting police law enforcement credibility, which is generally manifested as the police’s ability to gain the trust of the public through the exercise of police power. Scholars generally recognize the significance of police law enforcement credibility in improving law enforcement effectiveness, lowering police costs, improving public security efficiency, and creating a harmonious relationship between the police and the community.

The current research on police law enforcement credibility primarily focuses on various aspects such as its conceptual implications, constituent elements, theoretical foundations, influencing factors, and evaluation indicators. Based on these inquiries, the following perspectives have emerged: Firstly, the “evaluation theory”, with the public as the main body and the behavior of the police as the object, highlighting the evaluation of the public on the behavior of police law enforcement and its members. The first is the “evaluation theory”, which takes the public as the subject and police behavior as the object, highlights the evaluation of the public on the police law enforcement behavior and its members, and considers that the credibility of police law enforcement is essentially the subjective evaluation, psychological reaction, and value recognition of the society on all aspects of police law enforcement (Chen, Xu, & Ding, 2011). The second is “ability theory”, which takes the police as the subject and the public as the object, emphasizes the calling power and influence of the police in the sha** and accumulation of law enforcement credibility, and believes that police law enforcement credibility originates from the people’s recognition of the public security organs and the police, and that it is a kind of public credit that the public security organs have built up in the process of exercising their powers and law enforcement (Li, 2011). It is a kind of public credit established by the public security organs in the process of exercising their powers and enforcing the law (Li, 2011). The third is “relationship theory”, which interprets the interaction between the police and the community and proposes that police law enforcement credibility is the interaction between police law enforcement and public trust (Sheng, 2011). In recent years, the research field of police law enforcement credibility has been gradually broadened, and media intervention, quality perception, public expectation, public opinion guidance, social pressure, and so on are the emerging concerns of exploring the impact of police law enforcement credibility. Fang and Li (2020b) take the police credibility of the network environment as the object of research, analyze the current situation of the development of the network credibility of the police and the constraints, and put forward measures to cope with it. Zhan (2021) explores police credibility under police-related emergencies from the police, media, and public level, to explore the police credibility of police emergencies under the “before-the-event-after-the-event” full life cycle maintenance and reconstruction path.

At this juncture, it remains highly pertinent to delve deeper into constructing an evaluation system for police law enforcement credibility. This system should be grounded in four dimensions: history and reality, supply and demand, subjectivity and objectivity, as well as dynamics and statics. Additionally, it should encapsulate the occurrence mechanism, transmission path, derivation process, and supervisory control of police law enforcement credibility, ensuring a comprehensive and nuanced approach. Drawing on the basis of previous studies, this study combines the above views and defines police credibility as a relatively stable state of trust and respect and a relationship of trust formed on the basis of the public’s cognition and judgment of the process and results of police law enforcement behavior (Deng, 2013).

Extrapolation of research hypotheses

Level C: analysis of the impact of police professional prestige on police-community relations

Occupational prestige, as the evaluation of a certain occupation by social public opinion, can reflect and reflect the degree of social public’s “preference” or “liking” for a certain occupation. Specifically, occupational prestige affects practitioners’ occupational loyalty and occupational satisfaction to a great extent (Shi, 2011), which in turn affects individual values and behavioral strategy choices. As far as the police profession is concerned, existing research has proved that the level of prestige of the police profession itself has a significant positive effect on police job satisfaction and can balance the negative factors in policing. At the same time, higher professional prestige can stimulate the sense of honor and responsibility of the police, so that the police organization to win the trust and respect of the public, can affect the attractiveness and stability of the police force, and then improve the relationship between the police and the public have a positive effect. Therefore, good police professional prestige can promote the virtuous circle of police-community interaction. Therefore, this paper proposes the research hypothesis:

  • H1: Police professional prestige plays a positive predictive role in police-community relations.

Level I: analysis of the mediating effect of police image in police professional prestige and police-community relations

The image of the police is shaped by public perception with the force, often serving as a bearer of the personality of the police organization. It is a mirror structure and emotional factor arising from the interactions of police organization members within social relations, and it stands as one of the most crucial indicators of the police’s reputation. According to the theory of social capital, police image as a kind of “capital” of the police and its organization can promote the formation of trust between the police and the public emotion, interaction network and normative relationship, significantly improve the efficiency of police organization, form a strong cohesion internally, form a strong appeal externally, and can play a positive role in the close relationship between the police and the public. It is generally believed that the construction of police image itself contains the intervention of public emotional mechanism, which is of great significance for improving the governance effectiveness of police organization, obtaining a good development environment and external support, and realizing the value goal of police organization. Therefore, this paper puts forward the research hypothesis:

  • H2: There is a mediating effect of police image between police professional prestige and police-public relations.

Level O: police law enforcement credibility analysis of the mediating effect between police professional reputation and police-community relations

Credibility as a kind of “trust and brand”, high credibility of police law enforcement can provide general support and understanding for the establishment of police-public relations (Dessauer, n.d.), and scholars have shown that the lowering of credibility of police law enforcement as an important manifestation of the deterioration of the relationship between the police and the public and the primary cause (Song, 2008), will directly deplete police-community relations and make both sides fall into the “Tacitus trap” of relationship deterioration. The credibility of police law enforcement is significantly affected by the public’s expectations and awareness of the law enforcement activities of public security organs (Zhu, 2013), which is closely related to the people’s recognition of the whole process of police law enforcement, and the professional reputation of the police, as a kind of public subjective evaluation factor, can potentially influence the credibility of police law enforcement, and this influence often has a “stereotype”, which is reflected in the public’s “stereotype”, and the public’s “stereotype”, which is reflected in the public’s “stereotype”. Impression”, reflected in the public’s generation, selection, and processing of police behavior, phenomena, information, and in the construction of police-community relations to produce a “halo effect”. Therefore, this paper proposes the research hypothesis:

  • H3: There is a mediating effect of police law enforcement credibility between police professional prestige and police-community relations.

Levels I-O: chain mediation between police image and police law enforcement credibility in the relationship between police professional prestige and police-community relations effect analysis

Reviewing the existing research on the relationship between police image and police law enforcement credibility, scholars have pointed out that the three-dimensional police image, which integrates police demeanor and discipline, comprehensive quality, law enforcement authority and social service, constitutes a convenient means to enhance police law enforcement credibility in the era of micro-policing (Wang & Jiang, 2022); a good police image, as a legitimacy basis for police power and authority, can derive from public recognition and trust in police law enforcement and other specific behaviors. It is generally believed that police image and police law enforcement credibility both belong to the “superstructure” field of police public relations, which can map out the subjective feelings and comprehensive evaluation of the public on police organizations or police behavior, and are important factors affecting police-community relations, which hides a huge amount of value and energy that can be mined and explored. Wang (2021a, b) pointed out in his study that the construction and dissemination of the image of the people’s police can enhance the authority of the public security organs in law enforcement and the people’s recognition of the police. A good police image can establish the prestige and authority of the police profession, so that the law enforcement behavior of the police is generally understood and supported by the public, and it has a positive effect on improving the professional status and professional prestige of the police profession. Therefore, this paper puts forward the research hypothesis:

  • H4: Police image and police law enforcement credibility have a chain-mediated effect between police professional prestige and police-community relations.

Combined with the above research inferences, the model for this study is shown in Fig. 2 below.

Fig. 2
figure 2

Research model

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Data analysis and hypothesis testing

Measurement of variables and data sources

In this study, we employed deductive and screening methods to develop questionnaire scales based on the conceptualization of police professional prestige, police image, police law enforcement credibility, and police-community relations. This approach allowed us to identify measurement items for each variable and make necessary adjustments to the questions within the semantic and contextual context of the police profession. All variables were measured using a 5-point Likert scale.

The measurements of police professional prestige, police image, police law enforcement credibility, and police-community relations in this study were mainly borrowed from Brucks et al. (2000); Tolbert, C., & Mossberger, K. (2006); Bouckaert, G., & Vande Walle, S. (2003); Li, Q., & Liu, Q. W. (2009), and other research scales with situational corrections. A total of 535 questionnaires were distributed in this study through a combination of online and offline methods, and 510 valid questionnaires were collected after invalid questionnaires were excluded.

Validation factor analysis

In this study, AMOS software was used to conduct validation factor analysis on each variable, and the results showed that the reliability of each variable combination was greater than 0.7, and the AVE value was greater than 0.5, indicating that the formal research data had high reliability and good convergent validity. Moreover, the RMSEA values are all less than 0.08, the index values of GFI, AGFI and CFI are all above 0.9, and the Cronbach’s Alpha is above 0.8, indicating that the fit index of each model meets the fitness evaluation standard, which suggests that the collected data meets the requirements of statistics, and it has the conditions for correlation test and regression analysis, and the results are shown in Table 1.

Table 1 Reliability and validity tests
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Correlation analysis

This study utilizes SPSS 26.0 software to test the correlation as well as the regression coefficient of each variable. Police professional prestige, police image, and police law enforcement credibility all have significant positive correlations with police-community relations, and the specific results are shown in Table 2.

Table 2 Correlation analysis
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Regression analysis

The Regression models were established according to the research hypotheses, as shown in Table 3. Models M1, M2, M3 and M4 respectively take police-community relations as the dependent variable, and control variables and police professional prestige, police image, police law enforcement credibility in turn, using stratified regression method into the research model, the results show that in models M1, M2 and M3, each variable has a significant effect on the dependent variable, and in model M4, police professional prestige, police image, police law enforcement credibility the regression coefficients are 0.193 (P < 0.05), 0.326 (P < 0.001), 0.248 (P < 0.001), respectively, indicating that police professional prestige, police image, police law enforcement credibility can have a significant positive impact on police-community relations. Hypothesis H1 was verified and the specific results are shown in Table 3.

Table 3 Regressivity analysis
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Mediation effects test

This study utilized the Process plug-in in SPSS 26.0 to test the mediation effect and chain mediation effect of police image and police law enforcement credibility, and the results are shown in Table 4. Table 4 shows that there is a significant partial mediation effect of police image and police law enforcement credibility between police professional prestige and police-community relations with a total mediation effect value of 0.3487.

As can be seen from Table 4, this test contains three paths, (1)Indirect effect: police professional prestige → police image → police-community relations. (2) Indirect effect: police professional prestige → police law enforcement credibility → police-community relations; (3) Indirect effect: police professional prestige → police image → police law enforcement credibility → police-community relations. The Bootstrap 95% confidence intervals for the first two paths of indirect effect 1 and indirect effect 2 do not contain a value of 0, indicating that there is a partial mediating effect between police image and police law enforcement credibility of police professional prestige and police-community relations, the hypothesis H2 and H3 is established. Special attention is paid to the third path indirect effect 3 Bootstrap 95% confidence interval also does not contain 0, which indicates that there is a significant chain mediation effect between the image of the police and police law enforcement credibility of the police professional prestige and the police-community relations, the research hypothesis H4 is established.

Table 4 Mediated effects test
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Research findings and responses

Based on the analytical framework of the OIC three-dimensional model, this study constructed a research model among police professional prestige, police-community relations, police image, and police law enforcement credibility, and found through the testing of research hypotheses that: police professional prestige has a significant positive predictive effect on police-community relations; police image plays a partially mediating role between police professional prestige and police-community relations; police law enforcement credibility plays a partially mediating role between police professional prestige and police-community relations; police image and police law enforcement credibility can play a chain mediating role between police professional prestige and police-community relations. The police image partially serves as a mediator between police professional prestige and police-community relations, while police law enforcement credibility can exert a chain mediating effect in the relationship between police professional prestige and police-community interactions.

“C”-Comprehensive cognitive level: enhancing emotional identity, building social consensus, and effectively enhancing of the police profession prestige

Higher police professional prestige gives individual police officers and public security organizations good group evaluation and subjective feelings, and provides the impression background and trust foundation for the subsequent police image perception. Higher prestige is associated with positive public perceptions (Folding ** the police image

Police image is the core component of police soft power and police authority, and is an important factor in determining whether and to what extent the police and their actions can be accepted by the public, and directly affects the public’s psychological attitude and behavioral tendencies towards the police organization. A good police image is an externalized indication of the effectiveness and legitimacy of the police organization’s behavior, which relates to the public’s trust in and satisfaction with the police organization, and can have a positive impact on police-community relations. Public security organs, regardless of level or location, ought to adhere to the laws of image formation and dissemination, guided by the fundamental principle of “subject-medium-object.” This approach ensures that a positive police image is cultivated comprehensively and continuously throughout the entire process. Additionally, it is essential to strengthen public relations capabilities, cultivate image awareness, and place particular emphasis on all-media communication. Interaction and communication with the media in the context of the times, play a role in guiding public opinion and publicity and education, in the daily work should pay special attention to the police image of the “reproduction”, do a good job of “sha**” the role of the good use of the news media, the Internet, television, News media, Internet, television, newspapers and other mass media to take the initiative to publicize and guide; in the event of a crisis to do a good job in the police image of “re-construction”, to pay attention to the “orthopedic” role in a timely manner to maintain, rectify and repair the image of the police, and strive to minimize the negative impact to prevent the emergence of adverse radiation and derivative effects, in order to establish a good police image to create a good environment. We should pay attention to the role of “orthopedics”, maintain, correct and repair the image of the police in a timely manner, try to minimize the negative effects, prevent the emergence of adverse radiation and derivative effects, and create a good social atmosphere for establishing the police image.

In summary, this study offers an analytical framework and coherent logical structure that delves into the factors influencing police-community relations, drawing upon the OIC three-dimensional model. It delves into the intricate mechanisms at play between the typical variables extracted from three distinct levels and their impact on police-community relations, representing a novel and valuable contribution to the field. However, one might inquire about the existence of additional typical variables within this framework. Could it be feasible to further validate the mechanisms underlying the intricate relationship between the police and the community? Furthermore, are there alternate research paradigms and deconstructive logics that might enhance our understanding of police-community relations? Such inquiries represent promising avenues for future exploration and research.