The many faces of nodal policing: Team play and improvisation in Dutch community safety

Abstract

In this article, we seek to explain how one police organization, the Dutch police, has situated itself in various partnership arrangements that make innovative use of its authority and capacities. Such arrangements are notable for their strategic attention to high-risk places, and the flows of people, information and other goods in the spaces between them. We use the term ‘policing assemblages’ to capture the eclectic and rather fluid character of such partnerships. Four particular initiatives in Amsterdam are used to illustrate the ways in which such assemblages can emerge and function. We adopt the metaphor of ‘team play’ to characterize the relations between police and their partners in this ‘nodal’ policing field. We suggest that if nodal policing continues, the public police may play more varied and indirect roles in managing risky spaces and behaviors. Nodal policing could be helpful in a period of high public demand for security, but its stability and longevity requires further consideration.