Critical ethnography and the study of policing from ‘the other side’

Abstract

This chapter makes the case for a critical ethnography of policing. Situating this approach within the renewal of police ethnography in the last two decades, the chapter suggests that there are alternative, critical approaches to police research that have been undervalued and can help us understand both how policing is done and how it might be done differently. Drawing upon work from within and outside police studies, the chapter seeks to explain what is critical about critical ethnography and why this approach is beneficial to the collective effort to understand policing. In doing so, it makes a renewed case for the study of policing from the outside demonstrating the continued importance of ethnographic research on rather than with police. In an era of productive partnership working between researchers and police institutions, the chapter suggests that there is an under-appreciated role for research on policing conducted not just from the outside but from ‘the other side’. With reference to a case study of research on the policing of protest, the chapter considers the benefits and challenges associated with this approach to research and suggests that we can learn a great deal by studying those who are subject to policing. Advocating the study of the policed, the chapter suggests that critical ethnography enables us to view policing from a different perspective, a process which is vital to our ability to uncover and understand problems in policing and ultimately to inform change. As public debates about what, and who, policing is for have become louder in recent years, this type of research is of increased importance.