The Quality of E-Police Services and Citizen Participation in Preventing Drug Distribution

Nowadays, in the age of information technology, utilizing high quality e-police services is an effective strategy to involve citizens in solving social problems and harms such as drug trafficking. This study aimed at explaining the impact of the quality of e-police services on citizens’ participation in preventing the distribution of drugs. This study was a quantitative, applied, and descriptive-survey research project in terms of methodology, purpose, and nature, respectively. The statistical population included undergraduate students of policing and of graduate students of crime prevention at the Amin Police University, who had had a long history of executive activity in the field of drugs distribution prevention. The sample size was comprised of 108 participants, and Ekaabi, Khalid and Davidson’s (2020) and Jazini and Dehghani’s (1396) questionnaires were used to measure the variables. The validity of the instrument was determined through face validity and confirmatory factor analysis, while their reliability was calculated using Chronbach’s alpha. To test the hypotheses, the data was analyzed using the SPSS version 22 and Smart PLS software packages. The results showed that various dimensions of the quality of e-police services have a positive and significant (0.69) effect (at the confidence interval of 0.01) on the participation of citizens in preventing the distribution of drugs. The quality of e-police services can also predict 0.38 percent of changes in citizen participation in preventing drug distribution. The results showed that the integration of the various dimensions of the quality of e-police services and the ease of access of citizens to the required information through the police web-based systems and online information centers increases the possibility of citizens’ participation in drug prevention programs.