Having the community police itself is known as Community Driven Crime Control (CDCC), and Kam Wong, chairman of the department of criminal justice at Xavier University in Ohio in the US, considers it a cheaper and more affective alternative to CCTV cameras.
It is a theory he has been promoting for some time, and it is being implemented in the American city of Cincinnati.
Dr Wong argues that the police might project an image of being all powerful, but they are dependent on the community to report problems to them. The problem is, he says, often people don't care enough to report crimes.
He says offering monetary rewards encourages citizens and not cameras to take the responsibility of pointing out just who is responsible for crimes. This method is effective because it is usually citizens who have the most knowledge of the crime, not the police. Taxi drivers, shopkeepers and bus drivers can all be used as city patrol systems. Rather than putting the police solely in charge, CDCC empowers citizens to tackle the issue using a 'bottom-up' approach.
When the community is in control, it solves problems with the community's best interests in mind. It can work in tandem with the police, and problems can be tackled at a grassroots level.
To a certain extent, the Hong Kong police are already using the community as an ally in solving crime. Citizens are asked to report cases of burglary, theft and murder. The most recent 'acid attack' in Mong Kok has prompted the police to raise the reward to HK$300,000.