Intake and service staff: practices and challenges of a pivotal yet underexplored police occupation

Abstract

Abstract This paper puts the spotlight on what is known within the Dutch police as ‘intake and service staff’ who are responsible for collecting, handling and filing crime reports from citizens. Comparable occupations are, for example, ‘front counter staff’, ‘call-takers’ and ‘police dispatchers’ in the Anglo-Saxon world. Many of the intake and service staff are women employed in part-time jobs. They hold the lowest rank in the force, have received only basic training and represent an underexplored police occupation. Scholarly publications that address the intake and service aspect of police work are scarce. However, intake and service staff are of utmost importance for ensuring satisfactory police–citizen contact and building public trust and legitimacy. We report on empirical research into the everyday practices and challenges of intake and service staff carried out in Rotterdam, with the aim of describing their work and formulating suggestions for improvement and for future research.