Policing pandemic in China: investigating the roles of organizational adjustment, procedural justice, and police trustworthiness on public compliance

Abstract

In December 2019, the SARS-CoV-2 virus was first detected in Wuhan, China. Soon after, China became the first country in the world to enforce strict lockdown protocols in an effort to mitigate the spread of the disease. This study examines the perceptions of pandemic rules enforcement during the first COVID-19 lockdown in 2020 among 600 Chinese police officers. The analyses reveal that police departments’ prompt and adequate adjustment to the pandemic, police officers’ procedural justice in interacting with citizens, and police perceptions of police trustworthiness among the citizens all had direct and indirect effects on public compliance to lockdown enforcement during the pandemic. These findings affirm the role of police procedural justice in public compliance to law enforcement in China and stress the importance of organizational adjustment and public trust during an emergency situation such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Implications to pandemic-related policymaking and enforcement are also discussed.