Future Police Research Articles

Research and Policing in Times of Austerity

This article considers the importance of independent research into the police organisation in times of austerity. By examining police organisational culture, the current economic climate and the recent change in government, the article illustrates the advantages for the police when engaging with external organisations for the purposes of research. Such engagement would assist in maintaining or increasing public confidence whilst also providing greater transparency and accountability. Using previous research experience as a benchmark, this article will highlight the particular difficulties in researching the police organisation. In times of austerity, budgetary constraints placed on the police service will have a significant impact on research and it is suggested that the police may retreat from external research, preferring instead either to conduct ‘in-house’ research on a smaller scale or perhaps more likely to postpone research altogether. Cutting staff investment and research may only provoke the police service to return to former cultural enclaves, resulting in the police service becoming more insular and narrowly focused in its long-term objectives. As a result, the future of policing throughout the United Kingdom may become less assured and lead to a decrease in public support.

SECURITY AND PUBLIC ORDER IN THIRD SILESIAN UPRISING

The Third Silesian Uprising eventually succeeded. The division of Upper Silesia was favourable to Poland. During it, as in every conflict in the history of humankind, security and public order deteriorated. The effects of this process were noticeable especially for civilians. The public authorities of the Third Silesian Uprising tended to restrict these negative processes by organizing its own police structures and court-martials. True, those efforts did not eliminate anarchy, but limited its range and scale. Service in police-like uprising formations was a good school for future police officers of the Autonomous Silesian Voivodship Police, officially organized in July 1922, yet, the roots of personnel structures had been created since 1919 and the Third Silesian Uprising was a very important experience in this historical process.

The Rise of Policing in Peace Operations

Civilian police have become such a sought-after commodity for use in peace support operations that the phrase ‘international police peacekeeping’ is now in common usage in the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations. The nomenclature is, however, rather misleading, as police personnel may now be tasked with peace enforcement and peacebuilding tasks in addition to more traditional peacekeeping roles. Police personnel bring new capabilities and skill sets to bear in peace operations, and operational difficulties regarding quantity, quality and standardization are beginning to be addressed. However, concerns over the relevance of current policing models to post-conflict settings suggest that future international policing efforts would benefit from a closer consideration of how to balance the demands of international and local policing norms.

Challenges, issues and change: what's the future for UK policing in the twenty‐first century?

PurposeThis paper aims to review calls on the UK police service to respond to the dual challenge of increasing governmental/public demands for improvements in police efficiency and effectiveness in the likely context of decreasing real time increases in financial resources. Specifically it aims to highlight the reform of police organizational structures, a greater focus on performance management and people development initiatives as areas that have the potential to bring about significant benefits for future UK policing.Design/methodology/approachUsing the results of Government‐sponsored research and other secondary data the approach is to explore the potential for implementation of new approaches to policing.FindingsThere would appear to be a consensus between the Government and the police service of the need for reform. The mechanics of successful implementation, however, face institutional, cultural and financial obstacles.Research limitations/implicationsThe complexity of policing and its interaction with government and the public requires significant analysis. The success of future initiatives can only be judged through analysis following implementation.Practical implicationsThe paper identifies that there may be tangible areas of policing activity that could benefit from the implementation of new techniques such as the “lean” principles of management as a means of focusing on more cost effective ways of utilising future police resources.Originality/valueThis paper draws together and contextualises specific areas of police practice that could benefit from new ways of working and posits improvements in efficiency for the future.

South African policing at a crossroads

This article explores the distinct but related notions of ‘minimal’ and ‘minimalist’ policing in the context of South Africa. We argue that these conceptions can shape a new vision for the future of policing in this country, one which is especially needed at a time when the political elites are seeking to re-militarize and centralize policing. This article searches for an answer to the question: Who should the public police be in emergent democracies where there is a plurality of policing providers, state and non-state? Drawing on research conducted in the city of Durban this article demonstrates that, to a large extent, policing is being carried out by agents other than the police. In this context, the article articulates a more circumscribed role for the police in a time (and place) of uncertainty, one that is anchored in local structures of strategic planning and regulation. Within such structures, non-state actors should be supported to play meaningful roles in ‘everyday policing’, but in ways that are moderate and bound by legal constraints within a human rights framework.

Role identification, community socio-economic status demands, and stress outcomes in police officers

This study applied the job demands–resources and conservation of resources models to police work, with the specific aim to examine the possible interaction between objectively measured work demands (community socio-economic status (SES)) and personal resources (role identification) on stress-related outcomes. A total of 89 officers from 10 small, suburban police departments (five from high SES areas and five from low SES areas) completed surveys that focused on community SES demands and role identification as factors that potentially influence positive and negative psychological outcomes. Results indicated that community (SES) demands and role identification interacted to predict a variety of the outcomes. Role identification as a psychological resource served to reduce the effects of high community SES demands on emotional exhaustion. Implications of these results for future police research are discussed.

Personality of South African Police Trainees

There have been efforts to identify a "police personality" based on dispositional and socialization models. Personality traits of successful police applicants at the Police College in Pretoria, South Africa (N = 1,145 police trainees), with regard to sex, ethnic group, and English language reading skills, were described in terms of scores on the Temperament and Character Inventory. South African police trainees generally evaluated themselves as substantially lower in Novelty Seeking and Harm Avoidance combined with lower Cooperativeness, but they scored much higher on Self-Directedness, Persistence, and Self-Transcendence compared to South African university students from the same area. These are characteristics expected from future police officers, which supports the dispositional model.

Post-Conflict Rebuilding of the Police: Lessons from Sierra Leone

This article presents an overview and analysis of the police restoration project in post-conflict Sierra Leone. The article begins with an historical description of the Sierra Leone Police (SLP), a chronology of the decade-long civil war, and a discussion of how the conflict affected the personnel and operations of the SLP. The article then examines the rebuilding effort by dividing it into three phases: first, personnel and infrastructure improvements; second, police training and standardization of procedures; and third, integration of policing with other justice system components. Finally, the article offers a summary of lessons learned from the overall project and recommendations for consideration in future post-conflict police reform efforts.

Using the “Mr. Big” technique to elicit confessions: Successful innovation or dangerous development in the Canadian legal system?

Canada’s legal system recognizes that police interrogation procedures may contribute to false confessions, and has provided safeguards designed to protect the rights of the accused and reduce the likelihood of these errors. Police in Canada are using a complex noncustodial interrogation procedure called the “Mr. Big” technique, to elicit confessions for recalcitrant suspects. Remarkably, this undercover (in that suspects do not know they are speaking to law enforcement officers) interrogation technique boasts a 75% confession rate and a 95% conviction rate when used (Gardner, 2004). However, it is possible that suspects in these situations may experience undue pressure to confess falsely. The purpose of this paper is fourfold: (1) to explore the nature of the Mr. Big technique; (2) summarize some recent Canadian legal cases relevant to confession evidence (e.g., R. v. Oickle, 2000; R. v. Mentuck, 2000); (3) examine Canadian law and police practices in the context of different jurisdictions around the world; and, (4) discuss the scientific evidence relevant to the Mr. Big procedure. We conclude the paper by discussing recommendations for current and future police practice, directions for future research, and the ways in which psychological research could inform legal policy and procedures in the future.

International Comparative Perspective of Police in Schools Resulting from a Fulbright Alumni Initiatives Award

This article outlines the results of a Fulbright Alumni Initiatives Award 2005–8, which provided resources and support for an international school police officer exchange programme between officers in the United States and the United Kingdom. This multi-year exchange programme had several outcomes including exchange opportunities for 11 officers from London and Colorado; the development of a school/community safety curriculum; international collaborative school safety research project planning and implementation; and programme dissemination opportunities. Extensive knowledge and idea sharing resulted from this exchange programme and current as well as future school policing programmes around the world can benefit from the details outlined in this case study.

Collective Victimisation and the Threat to Public Order

The article presents, for future research, a possible conceptual model for understanding the elements of public order within postmodern society. It deconstructs public order into component parts of progressive collective victimisation, social mores and human rights. It argues that public order may be undermined by progressive collective victimisation that commences with the erosion of social mores that support networks of understandings within the community, and that continues until it creates a perception of a threat to the physical security of a defined class. It presents the view that this victimisation process can be related to social exclusion that precludes the individual from self-actualisation. This continues, unless abated, until it threatens the fundamentals of human survival. The victimisation process, if unchecked, creates within the excluded societal group, a ‘fight’ or ‘flight’ response. The article suggests that future police administrators may need a political awareness not required of their predecessors, and supportive information systems to keep the peace in the 21st century.

Responsibilisation revisited: From concept to attribution in crime control

To date, most discussions of responsibilisation have been conceptual – suggesting what the term may mean, and what its impact may be. This study explores factors that influence people to accept more responsibility for protecting themselves against the risk of crime victimisation. Using data from a random postal survey in an Australian jurisdiction, we explain variation in citizens’ responsibilisation for crime control. We find that people's views of police, particularly expectations of police attendance, satisfaction with police performance, perception of police responsiveness to calls for service, and attitudes to police legitimacy influence people's acceptance of responsibility for crime control. Findings also show responsibilisation is associated with gender, education, and fear of crime. These findings are independent of people's experience of crime victimisation. We highlight policy implications from our findings, including risks of responsibilisation for future policing strategies.

COUNTERBLAST: The Flanagan Report and the Future of Policing

COUNTERBLAST: The Flanagan Report and the Future of Policing

It's a long way to Auchterarder! ‘Negotiated management’ and mismanagement in the policing of G8 protests1

Recent analyses of protest policing in Western democracies argue that there has been a marked shift away from oppressive or coercive approaches to an emphasis on consensus based negotiation. King and Waddington (2005) amongst others, however, suggest that the policing of international summits may be an exception to this rule. This paper examines protest policing in relation to the 2005 G8 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland. We argue that 'negotiated management' cannot be imported wholesale as a policing strategy. Rather it is mediated by local history, forms of police knowledge and modes of engagement. Drawing on interviews and participant observation we show that 'negotiated management' works best when both sides are committed to negotiation and that police stereotyping or protestor intransigence can lead to the escalation of any given event. In closing we note the new challenges posed by forms of 'global' protest and consider the implications for future policing of protest.

Decentralisation Trends in European Union Police Cooperation: Implications for Efficacy and Accountability

In the past decade police cooperation in the European Union (EU) has been based on state-centrism cultivating the establishment of national coordination mechanisms within the states. Recent developments, however, point to an increasing importance of decentralised practices and arrangements for European police cooperation. In addition, developments are visible that predict increasing interlinking between supra- and sub-state police cooperation efforts. What implications do these developments entail for practices of police cooperation, for the centralised national coordination mechanisms and for Third Pillar policy-making on police cooperation? This paper aims at exploring these developments and examining possible implications with particular attention for the efficacy and accountability of future police cooperation in the EU. To that end the paper consists of four sections. The first section presents some theoretical notions to assist the discussion of relevant issues in centralised and decentralised police cooperation. Section two thereafter looks at developments in police cooperation in Europe that contributed to the present day dominance of police cooperation via centralised coordination mechanisms at national level. Next to a broader historical development of police cooperation in Europe also a number of EU policy instruments aimed at establishing coordination on national level in the Member States will be pointed out. Against that background section three empirically regards four independent developments, both inside as outside the EU institutional sphere. In short these are the changes in the legal position of the Europol National Units, the new possibilities of the Interpol communication system, the emergence of joint commissariats in European border regions and the advancement of the principle of availability in European police cooperation. Thereafter section four of this paper reviews possible implications of these developments focussing on practices of police information exchange, the role of centralised national institutions and the characteristics of Third Pillar policy. Particular attention is in this respect given to the impact on efficacy and accountability of police cooperation that could result from these changes.

Understanding Community Policing as an Innovation: Patterns of Adoption

In the 1980s and 1990s, community policing was viewed by many as a radical innovation in the field of policing, with the vast majority of police agencies reporting to have adopted the approach. Despite its overwhelming popularity, most police agencies did not adopt the central elements of community policing. This study examines patterns of community policing adoption of 474 police departments across the United States. Using an innovations framework, a model was developed that measures the extent to which community characteristics, organizational complexity, and organizational commitment can explain differences in the adoption of community policing. Findings suggest that the innovations approach can explain some variation in the adoption of community policing and should be considered in future police research.

Workforce Modernisation and Future Resilience within the Police Service in England and Wales

This article is based on a presentation given to the National Workforce Modernisation Programme Conference at Leeds in 2008. It argues that the issue of future police resilience should not stand in the way of modernisation and that while it may be used as a defence of the status quo there is growing evidence that reform can be expected to enhance police service delivery. It argues that the nature of police establishment growth has meant that there has been no attempt to match police numbers to police functions and that incremental growth, which has characterised police officer expansion, now means that it is difficult to defend current police numbers. This problem is made worse by the challenge presented by police abstraction rates, which appear to have increased in line with police establishment. It is also suggested that the increasing operational role of police staff is rarely taken into account by HMIC when assessing police performance even though many former police functions are now the responsibility of civilian personnel. As a result the threat to police resilience, used as a defence of current police establishment, may significantly exaggerate the challenge that workforce modernisation represents.

Why ‘soft’ policing is hard: on the curious development of reassurance policing, how it became neighbourhood policing and what this signifies about the politics of police reform

AbstractTracing the development of Reassurance Policing and its recent translation into Neighbourhood Policing, this article examines why it is that ‘soft’ policing functions appear so difficult for the police to perform. It is argued that over the past three decades the reform of policing in the UK has tended to oscillate between positions emphasizing coercive ‘hard’ policing functions and alternative conceptions that focus upon the conduct of soft policing, where the emphasis is upon a more persuasive mode of social control. Reassurance Policing is identified as important as, through its incorporation of aspects of the Signal Crimes Perspective, it provides a coherent logic that sets out why both hard and soft policing are important. It is concluded that future policing styles need to be able to respond to the diverse demands of the public and that this will require a combination of hard and soft policing. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Mental health and prospective police professionals

PurposeTo assess the mental health of members of the police force and expose any gaps existing at what should be its ideal level, with reference to aspiring policemen of the future. Aims to explain the health realization model and give a definition of optimal mental health with specific reference to the police force.Design/methodology/approachEmploys the well‐being inventory, a survey investment designed specifically to measure five dimensions of optimal mental health, to assess the mental condition of 179 prospective police professionals.FindingsThe results of the survey appear to suggest that future job satisfaction for many prospective police professionals in the study could be less than optimal, with the implication that high notes of mental dysfunction in its various forms could be experienced.Practical implicationsIt is imperative that sound mental health instruction be incorporated into all future police training programs. However, further research needs to be done in order to advance a process which is at present only experimental.Originality/valueEmphasizes the value of teaching future police officers the nature and source of optimal psychological functioning.

Separated by a common goal: some problems of interagency working

The future of policing and crime reduction in England and Wales seems firmly set in the partnership arena. Reports of many successes in this area are frequently circulated and there is no doubt that properly organised partnerships can have a major effect in particular circumstances. However, relationships between partners can sometimes be less than cohesive, particularly at a functional level, leading to undesirable consequences. This paper considers the relationship between key partners in a particular local crime reduction partnership and examines the political problems that can sometimes occur and which frustrate policy makers and planning in this area.