‘Strikingly and stubbornly high’: Investigating the paradox of public confidence in the Irish police

Claire Hamilton,Lynsey Black

doi:10.1177/14773708211046194

Claire Hamilton, Lynsey Black

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1177/14773708211046194

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Abstract

While levels of public confidence in the police have declined internationally, the Republic of Ireland appears to have bucked this trend with confidence levels that remain ‘strikingly and stubbornly high’ ( Mulcahy, 2016 : 275). This situation appears all the more puzzling given the wave of scandals to have hit the force in recent decades, ranging from police corruption in Donegal in the late 1990s to a more recent whistleblower scandal that has resulted in the resignation of a slew of Ministers and high-ranking officials. Such developments beg important questions as to the factors sustaining public confidence over this tumultuous period. Drawing on international and domestic data, this article aims to probe this ‘paradox’ of public confidence in the Irish police. It argues that, although confidence is high, there is more to the dynamics of confidence in the police in Ireland than this initial appraisal suggests. Indeed, it advances the Irish case as an illustration both of the dimensionality of the public confidence concept and the complexity of the pathways to trust in the police.

Highlights

As a ‘core function’ of the state, it is essential that the public feel confident in the police
The Irish case serves as an illustration both of the dimensionality of the confidence concept and the complexity of the pathways to police legitimacy
The tensions that are apparent in the Irish situation between high levels of trust in police fairness and the acknowledgement of informalism, discretion, and occasional impropriety are suggestive of multiple pathways to confidence and legitimacy

Summary

Introduction

As a ‘core function’ of the state, it is essential that the public feel confident in the police. Confidence in the police is essential to their effective functioning since it facilitates greater reporting of European Journal of Criminology 0(0). As noted by Hough et al (2013: 43) ‘encounters with the most public-facing element of the CJS [criminal justice system] – the police – can inform ideas about other elements of the system (especially the courts and prisons), and about its fairness as a whole’ (see Hamilton and Black, 2019; Hough and Roberts, 2004; Indermaur and Roberts, 2009). Despite the vaunted importance of confidence or trust in the police, the data appear to show a decline in these measures in certain Western jurisdictions dating from at least the

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