“You Don’t Need 55 Forms That Say the Same Thing”: The Burden on Police to Produce Extra-Institutional Knowledge

Abstract

Central to the police role and function are the inter- and extra-institutional demands for “knowledge” on crime and frontline policing. However, this subject has failed to generate the required empirical attention. The current study thus draws on Ericson and Haggerty’s conceptualization of police as “knowledge workers” to reveal the extent to which knowledge production for other institutions remains salient and, as a latent function, burdens policing. To do so, we employ results from the analysis of two ethnographic studies of police paperwork. Results revealed significant extra-institutional information needs that have considerable effects on police work with seemingly little use-value, and a consensus that much of police paperwork represents a misplaced burden due to repetition. We conclude with a critical discussion on the policy implications of these findings.