Law and Governance

Abstract

This chapter contributes to the arguments presented in this book, and to wider debates about police legitimacy, by using interviewees’ accounts of the effects of the law and the structures and processes of governance on them to examine the implications this has for police legitimacy. Specifically, attention is paid to the influence of reformed police governance on their attitudes and experiences. This is achieved by interrogating interviewees’ explanations of the purported right of police to exercise power founded in law and on the formal oversight and political direction (or governance) of police. This is the third broad category of understanding of the purported right of police to exercise power that was voiced by the chief officers who were interviewed in 2016; the interviews in 2020 did not explore this class of explanation. As discussed in Chap. 5, law was commonly cited by interviewees as an element of policing by consent. However, the emphasis put on law and governance was such that it requires specific consideration. This chapter argues that the mechanism and manner of police governance is important because it influences what chief officers do, and how they do it. In turn, it is contended, chief officers affect what more junior officers do and how they do it, and what police officers do and how they do it largely determine police effectiveness and legitimacy (Loader, 2020).