Police In England Research Articles

Can we speak in confidence? Community intelligence and neighbourhood policing v2.0

Informed by empirical data collected in the London Borough of Sutton (LBS) in four sweeps between 2007 and 2010, this article examines the impact of a community engagement methodology encouraging citizens to articulate their local security needs to Neighbourhood Policing teams (NPTs). By acting on this community intelligence police are able to ‘tune’ their interventions towards those problems generating most social harm. In so doing, the data suggest police are able to improve public confidence and increase overall community well-being. This case study of Sutton is used to illuminate some broader patterns and trends in how policing in England and Wales is being reconfigured in response to a set of economic and ideological pressures. It is suggested that the combination of forces are liable to induce a revised version of the principles and practices associated with the initial model of Neighbourhood Policing (NP).

On the beat: variations in the patrolling styles of the police officer

PurposeThis article seeks to look at the police officer on patrol. It aims to explore three categories of work undertaken during periods of un‐tasked patrol where officers can self‐direct their work.Design/methodology/approachInformed by empirical data from an ethnographic study of front line community policing in Britain, the categories of work are illustrated through the profile(s) of officer(s) whose actions best support each style.FindingsThe coming together of officers with different skills and the propensity to undertake different types of police work can broaden the community policing philosophy as well as the practice itself. While an expansive policing mandate can be used to justify and explain the pursuit of preferential areas of police work by the patrolling officer, findings also uncover evidence of the persistence of police practices and attitudes that alienate certain community groups.Research limitations/implicationsGiven the sustained popularity of localized policing models, further ethnographies are needed to broaden the analysis of patrol work particularly as additional research of this kind conducted with different groups of officers may well reveal evidence of different patrol styles.Practical implicationsIf the full potential of community policing is to be recognized then the police service needs to encourage front line officers to devise ways of learning about, making contact with, and working with, the diverse groups that comprise local communities. However, introducing new policies and working practices needs to be accompanied by attitudinal and behavioural change.Originality/valueThe paper presents a new and original set of patrolling styles of the police officer.

Does Acpo Know Best: To What Extent May the Pip Programme Provide a Template for the Professionalisation of Policing?

This paper uses a case study approach to examine the claim of the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) that the Professionalising Investigation Project (PIP) it introduced to the police service should be considered the template for the professionalisation of policing in England and Wales. Specifically, interviews were conducted with senior police officers, including a chief officer, and a questionnaire circulated to detectives in the selected force. Whilst the results of this small-scale study may not be generalisable to the wider police service, they highlight the paucity of scholarly research on the PIP and suggest that it may not have had the impact on investigative practice that has been claimed. As much as anything, this case demonstrates the need for independent evaluation of important public sector change programmes like the PIP.

Exploring recent developments in restorative policing in England and Wales

The evolution of the policing role over the last decade has led to 33 police forces in England and Wales integrating restorative justice practices, in one form or another, into their responses to minor crime committed for the first time by both youths and adults. Most recently, this reform dynamic has been used in response to more serious offences committed by persistent offenders and expanded to include all stages of the criminal justice process. Despite the significant positive rhetoric that surrounds the adoption and use of restorative justice, there are a number of procedural and cultural challenges that pose a threat to the extent to which restorative justice may become embedded within the policing response. This article explores these developments and highlights where potential problems for implementation may arise as well as some strategies to overcome them.

‘Standing’ by: disability hate crime and the police in England

This article discusses the Don't Stand By: Hate Crime Research Report (DSB) (Mencap, 2011), which documents failings in policing practices related to reporting and responding to disability hate crime. Such failings, we argue, constitute not so much direct discrimination but acts of ‘normalcy’. Normalcy is the process whereby taken for granted ideas about what is normal become naturalised; in this respect being non-disabled is seen as normal. Acts of normalcy, whilst less tangible, are by no means less violent or harmful than acts of ‘real discrimination’ or ‘real violence’ (Goodley and Rumswick-Cole, 2011). Systemic and cultural normalcy within the police is not new, as can be seen in the case of Stephen Lawrence.

Just Authority? Trust in the Police in England and Wales

Public attitudes towards crime, policing and justice remain 'hot' social and political topics. Low confidence in the criminal justice system challenges the legitimacy that underpins the effectiveness of the police and the courts. The police depend upon the authority they can command rather than the force they can deploy as a last resort. This book analyses the meaning, distribution and significance of trust in the police and the legitimacy of legal authorities. The book: presents data on the measurement of trust; drawing on information from 25 years of the British Crime Survey to highlight key trends and historical trajectories; explores the roles played by fear of crime, anxieties about neighbourhood breakdown, the mass media, and contact with the police; addresses the geographical distribution of trust; and shows the importance of public trust and confidence in generating legitimacy, compliance with the law and cooperation with authorities. Just Authority? provides the most authoritative and comprehensive analysis thus far, it also reflects on our time relating such findings to the London Metropolitan Police Service, drawing upon over five years of experience of working to embed a conceptual approach to public opinion into an overarching 'confidence' strategy. This book will be of interest not to just to students, researchers and academics but also to practitioners and policy makers who are tasked to engage with complex and shifting notions of public trust and police legitimacy.

A competence assessment framework for scientific support within policing in England and Wales

The Association of Chief Police Officers commissioned Skills for Justice to develop a competence assessment framework to support police forces' scientific support units evidence the competence of their staff against nationally agreed standards of competence. This will also help forces on their journey towards ISO 17025 and ISO 17020 accreditation. A six point framework has been developed and published and is now being implemented across many forces.

The Impact of the Human Rights Act 1998 on Policing in England and Wales

This article explores the impact of the Human Rights Act (HRA) 1998 on the police service of England and Wales. It draws upon qualitative data produced during interviews with police personnel to provide the first empirical study of the influence of the HRA on the police service at an organizational level and on the day-to-day working practices of police officers. Whilst the fundamental aim of the HRA is to protect and enhance citizens’ rights and freedoms, we argue that there is little evidence to suggest that it has promoted a greater awareness of, and respect for, human rights amongst police officers. Rather, the HRA has become institutionalized by the police service into a series of bureaucratic processes that, although requiring conformity by officers, do not encourage active consideration of human rights issues. Instead of shaping police work to make it more responsive to human rights, bureaucratic processes are used by officers to legitimize and justify their existing practices. Focusing on ‘risks’ rather than ‘rights’, officers satisfy the ‘tests’ introduced by the HRA through an assessment of the dangers posed by particular individuals and crime types and the resource implications of effectively managing them. An important result of this is that the HRA is not used to achieve a balance between individual rights and community interests, but becomes a framework for mandating police decision making and protecting officers from criticism and blame.

Massacre by the Book: Amritsar and the Rules of Public-Order Policing in Britain and India

In the immediate aftermath of the 1919 killings at Amritsar, where British forces commanded by Reginald Dyer gunned down hundreds of unarmed Indians at an illegal demonstration, debate centered on whether Dyer's actions were typical or atypical of British behavior in India. While British commentators generally regarded this violence as aberrant and ‘un-British,’ Indian nationalists and some British observers saw the killings as merely an unusually naked manifestation of the generalized violence of British imperialism. This article offers a re-examination of the Amritsar killings by placing Dyer's behaviour within the context of the rules governing public-order policing in both India and Britain. While broadly agreeing that the killings were part of a pattern of state violence in British India, it argues that the killings were not carried out in opposition to the rule of law but were, in fact, authorized by the law. In both Britain and India, the rules of public-order policing gave police and military commanders the power to use deadly force in dispersing crowds and by remaining deliberately vague about when such force should be used. The restraint of state violence in Britain came about through the vigilance of the press and Parliament, but in India state violence against large crowds was much more common due to fewer external checks. The killings at Amritsar did not violate the rule of law, therefore, but they did expose a profound difference between Britain and India in how that law was enacted.

Calling in the Met: serious crime investigation involving Scotland Yard and provincial police forces in England and Wales, 1906–1939

The paper analyses the scheme whereby provincial chief constables, encouraged by the Home Office, could call in the help of Scotland Yard's experienced detectives to investigate serious cases, especially murder, that were considered to be beyond the capacity of the local force to solve on its own. While the scheme was on balance successful in that more than 50% of such call-outs between 1919 and 1928 resulted in convictions, it is suggested that its significance extended beyond the mere profit and loss accounting approach. For the arrangements cast a mirror on many of the conflicts and some of the developments in policing during this period. Thus they illuminated the tension between respect for local, even if inexperienced, police autonomy, on the one hand, and efficiency and expertise on the other; or, more broadly, between constitutional localism and central governmental direction of policing in England and Wales. But with the press campaigning for more efficient use of the scheme, its arrangements actually attested to the favourable prospects, in the late 1920s and 1930s, for inter-force cooperation in the form of national crime prevention schemes (such as that designed to intercept cross-country ‘motor bandits’). It was thus one of the unacknowledged elements in the forcing house for organisational change experienced by British policing before the war.

Policing mobile criminality: implications for police forces in the UK

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to consider how the national intelligence model (NIM) of policing in Britain has been affected by changing patterns of mobility, since its inception in 2004.Design/methodology/approach – Conceptually, the paper draws on the “new mobilities paradigm”. Empirically, it is based on a small, exploratory study, comprising analysis of investigations carried out over a three‐month period in 2007 and 2008, by a serious and organised crime unit in a police force in England, and 11 interviews carried out in three police forces in England. The data are used for illustrative purposes only.Findings – It is argued that increased levels of mobile criminality are impacting significantly on British police forces, placing considerable strain on the practical structures which underpin the NIM, and posing serious challenges to operational efficiency and effectiveness.Originality/value – This paper makes a contribution by linking the social changes documented in the emergent social scienc...

It Depends What You Mean by 'Confident': Operationalizing Measures of Public Confidence and the Role of Performance Indicators

Centralized performance frameworks for the police in England and Wales have been the subject of considerable debate. Evidence from both the British Crime Survey and local force surveys shows that setting performance targets for public confidence in the police based on single indicator survey measures can have conceptual and practical difficulties. Specifically, such measures can misrepresent the views of some respondents and might underestimate public support for the police. We argue in favour of local public attitudes surveys reconfigured to measure aspects of procedural fairness, police legitimacy, and public intentions to co-operate.

The impact of the LicensingAct 2003on drinking habits, offences of crime and disorder, and policing in England's newest city

A number of studies relating to the impact of the Licensing Act 2003 have been described as either inconclusive or lacking implementation detail. This study, five years after the introduction of the Act, adds to this body of research by assessing the implications for Preston, England's newest city. Through interviews with police officers, licence holders and paramedics, it concentrates on how the Act was implemented and outlines the changes that have occurred. In essence, it shows how consumers are more likely to ‘pre‐load’ prior to leaving home, how drinking and associated crime patterns have been extended into the early hours of the morning, and how incidents of alcohol‐related crime have reduced.

What is Trust and Confidence in the Police?

One of the first actions of the new Home Secretary was to scrap public confidence as the single performance indicator of policing in England and Wales. Yet public trust and confidence will remain important to policing policy and practice. Trust and confidence can (a) encourage active citizen participation in priority setting and the running of local services, (b) make public bodies more locally accountable and responsive, and (c) secure public cooperation with the police and compliance with the law. Analysing survey data from London, we find that overall ‘public confidence’ condenses a range of complex and inter-related judgements concerning the trustworthiness of the police. We argue that confidence summarizes a motive-based trust that is rooted in a social alignment between the police and the community. This social alignment is founded upon public assessments of the ability of the police to be a ‘civic guardian’ who secures public respect and embodies community values (Loader and Mulcahy, 2003). By demonstrating their trustworthiness to the public, the police can strengthen their social connection with citizens and thus encourage more active civic engagement in domains of security and policing.

Different Things to Different People? The Meaning and Measurement of Trust and Confidence in Policing Across Diverse Social Groups in London

One of the first actions of the new Home Secretary was to scrap public confidence as the single performance indicator of policing in England and Wales. But public trust and confidence will remain important to policing policy and practice. Trust and confidence can (a) encourage active citizen participation in priority setting and the running of local services, (b) make public bodies more locally accountable and responsive, and (c) secure public cooperation with the police and compliance with the law. Analysing survey data from London we find that overall 'public confidence' condenses a range of complex and inter-related judgements concerning the trustworthiness of the police. This is the case across different population groups and those with different experiences of crime and policing. Even recent victims and those worried about crime seem to place less priority on police effectiveness compared to police fairness and community alignment when responding to summary confidence questions. We argue that confidence summarises a motive-based trust that is rooted in procedural fairness and a social alignment between the police and the community. This social alignment is founded upon public assessments of the ability of the police to be a 'civic guardian' who secures public respect and embodies community values (Loader & Mulcahy, 2003). By demonstrating their trustworthiness to the public, the police can strengthen their social connection with citizens, and thus encourage more active civic engagement in domains of security and policing.

Post-Lawrence Policing in England and Wales: Guilt, Innocence and the Defence of Organizational Ego

One of the many reforms to have emerged from the Stephen Lawrence inquiry is that requiring the police to make a record of all stops (Recommendation 61). What might have been accepted as a fairly routine extension of the existing regulatory framework was widely resented by officers who considered it part of an 'attack' on the police service spearheaded by allegations of institutional racism. This 'attack', it is argued here, has been experienced as a form of collective trauma, giving rise to a series of defence mechanisms and allied forms of resistance that have distanced the new recording requirement from its intended purpose. Such defences, it is concluded, should be anticipated and addressed as part of the process of reform.

Policing: Continuity, Consensus and Controversy The Political Quarterly Lecture 2010

While British policing has an unparalleled worldwide reputation for excellence, its system of governance has not been formally examined for almost fifty years. Known as the tripartite system, giving overlapping but compatible powers and duties to the Home Secretary, to local Police Authorities and to Chief Officers of Police, it is now long overdue for reconsideration and adjustment. More than one political party is suggesting significant reform but only of individual parts of the system. Given other issues concerning the police, particularly the number of United Kingdom forces and the fixation with the number of police officers as an indication of political success, there is now an urgent need for agreement that policing in Britain should have a holistic and cross‐party re‐examination, possibly but not necessarily in the form of a Royal Commission.

Boom to Bust or Bust to Boom? Following the Effects of Weed and Seed Zoning in New Britain, Connecticut, from 1995 to 2000

This article addresses the effects of weed and seed zoning operations on arrests and calls for assistance in New Britain, Connecticut, during the 24-month before and 36-month after the inception of operations. Data are taken from New Britain police dispatch statistics and applied to a study of arrests and citizen calls for assistance across 738 U.S. Census block collection units (BCUs). The article employs tests of significance to assess the overall effects of zoning on these police activities across pre- and post-intervention periods and uses both weighted displacement quotient (WDQ) and exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA) models to test for possible displacement associated with zoning. Results indicate that weed and seed zoning was significantly associated with displacement of arrest activity in pre- and post-intervention time periods but displayed no relationship with displacement of calls for assistance (CFAs). Though WDQ analyses do not indicate proximity effects, local indicators of spatial association (LISA) maps show noteworthy changes in the spatial clustering of arrest activity over time. Of principal concern here is the idea that weed and seed may prompt changes in the geography of crime without actually reducing crime rates. An ancillary concern is whether significantly higher arrest rates within weed and seed zones represent advances in community policing.

Squaring the circles: research, evidence, policy‐making, and police improvement in England and Wales

The paper will explore both evidence‐based policing and the policy process around policing in England and Wales, using the case studies of an attempted restructuring of forces, the introduction of neighborhood policing, and the creation of a national improvement strategy. It will examine the issues through the lens of the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA), which is responsible for the development of the national strategy for improvement. The approach taken will be to seek to locate the NPIA’s strategy development within a discussion of evidence‐based policing and policy‐making in policing.

Pluralisation of policing in England & Wales and the Netherlands: exploring similarity and difference

Recent decades have seen a growing ‘pluralisation’ of policing providers and authorisers in liberal democracies (Crawford 2003, Johnston and Shearing 2003). Some have interpreted this as part of a major transformation of policing in western liberal democracies that reflects fundamental shifts in the nature of governance (Bayley and Shearing 1996, 2001). Others have stressed continuities with the recent history of policing and the persistence of significant national and local differences in policing structures (Jones and Newburn 2002, Ferret 2004). These discussions have some parallels with wider debates about convergence and divergence in penality and the ways in which structural and cultural shifts influence policy developments across different societies (Garland 2001). We here examine recent changes in policing within two EU countries – Britain and the Netherlands. This paper discusses areas of similarity and difference in plural policing developments, and speculates about what factors might explain these. There is evidence of structural and cultural shifts working to shape policing in similar ways, but also of the mediating influence of distinctive national and local political institutions and cultures. These particular contexts provide possibilities for the resistance and re-shaping of global forces, as well as provide a framework for the emergence of distinct policy innovations.