Police Reform: Forces for Change
Abstract
This book focuses on the very topical subject of police reform in the UK. Currently, the police service is undergoing a time of significant change and reform as a result of the ‘modernisation’ agenda. Planned force re-structuring, the performance culture, recruitment and training issues are just a few elements of this extensive reform process. There is therefore a need for a text which looks at this current agenda for reform against its historical backdrop and debates the long term future of this process. The book spans three decades and is structured thematically around the main driving forces for reform, looking at the policy process and its related contexts. Key topics covered include system failure (when things go wrong), public order policing, international influences, economic issues and value for money, internal influences and political issues. The book adresses a complex and ever-shifting subject in an accessible manner.
... As discussed in the previous section, the catalyst for change in the police has come not only from the operational environment but also from system failures (Savage, 2007) poor decision-making and the use of force. These factors have formed a basis for the development of innovative policies and processes, such as COMPSTAT. ...
... The idea of professionalizing the police actually dates back to the 1930s (see for example Vollmer, 1936) but since the mid-1980s, different perceptions of how the police could become a professional organization have surfaced and have resulted in calls for the police to adopt modern forms of management and strategy development Green & Gates, 2014). In response to these calls for reform, the police have since implemented concepts such as Community-oriented Policing (Sklansky, 2014), Problem-oriented Policing (Leigh et al., 1996), performance management (Savage, 2007) and Intelligence-led Policing (Ratcliffe, 2016). The adoption and use of these concepts have, however, only been partially successful because of the lack of receptivity by the police . ...
... This perspective comprises of three different levels. The first level involves specific changes in policy, which are often focused on individual policing methods, tactics or strategies (Savage, 2007). The second pertains to a government-led reform program, which could include one specific aspect of policing or a comprehensive program following an incident involving a lack of accountability or capability. ...
This chapter explores and discusses the definition of Evidence-based Policing and its strengths and weaknesses as a strategic method for increasing the effectiveness of policing. It has been found that the original definition of Evidence-based Policing has evolved to become broader and more holistic. The strategy is not only about identifying research to assist with the development of policy or decision-making but is also about identifying methods to analyse and translate research findings or evidence for the police to use. It can also improve the use of Community-oriented and Problem-oriented Policing by including scientific information and analysis to assist with decision-making. However, the strategy is not without its limitations. The main limitation is the over-emphasis for the police to emulate the health profession, which suffers from similar problems in adopting and using evidence-based practices.KeywordsEvidence-based PolicingExperimental criminologyEvidence-based management
... As discussed in the previous section, the catalyst for change in the police has come not only from the operational environment but also from system failures (Savage, 2007) poor decision-making and the use of force. These factors have formed a basis for the development of innovative policies and processes, such as COMPSTAT. ...
... The idea of professionalizing the police actually dates back to the 1930s (see for example Vollmer, 1936) but since the mid-1980s, different perceptions of how the police could become a professional organization have surfaced and have resulted in calls for the police to adopt modern forms of management and strategy development Green & Gates, 2014). In response to these calls for reform, the police have since implemented concepts such as Community-oriented Policing (Sklansky, 2014), Problem-oriented Policing (Leigh et al., 1996), performance management (Savage, 2007) and Intelligence-led Policing (Ratcliffe, 2016). The adoption and use of these concepts have, however, only been partially successful because of the lack of receptivity by the police . ...
... This perspective comprises of three different levels. The first level involves specific changes in policy, which are often focused on individual policing methods, tactics or strategies (Savage, 2007). The second pertains to a government-led reform program, which could include one specific aspect of policing or a comprehensive program following an incident involving a lack of accountability or capability. ...
This chapter examines and discusses the adoption of evidence-based practices in the health and social care sectors. It explores some of the main factors that relate to the adoption of evidence-based practice by these sectors and whether the approach has been accepted as being able to increase the effectiveness of their service delivery. The police can learn from how the health and social care fields have implemented evidence-based practice especially from the integration processes and the frameworks used. The health and social care sectors found that in order for evidence-based practice to be accepted, the adopting organization needed to provide a supportive atmosphere, and for managers to encourage the use of the practice.KeywordsEvidence-based PolicingEvidence-based practice
... As contexts differ and develop and the salience of specific rationalised myths evolves, so will policies to address the problem of trust vary between places and over time. But policing is often also subject to sudden events (Savage 2007). Events, especially crises and scandals, can help define a problem of trust, but could also create an 'open situation' (Kingdon 1995). ...
... Key terms and concepts are subject to change and different interpretation as they travel from one context to another (Twining 2004, Savage 2007. They are often translated and understood differently (Crawford 2009, Schaap andScheepers 2014), or are incompatible with traditional cultural values and professional orientations in policing (Cassan 2010). ...
... Yet while this period saw the defining of a problem of trust, strategies addressing the problem had trouble materialising. Some of Lord Scarman's recommendations, including reforms of the police complaints process and the creation of community platforms, were integrated in the Police and Criminal Evidence Act of 1984 (Savage 2007). Meanwhile, community policing experiments were initiated by various police forces (Interviews retired chief constables 1 and 2, E&W). ...
Police require public trust to do their work well. Recognising this, police organisations across Europe implement various methods to gain trust: trust-building strategies. Surprisingly, the field of trust in the police and police legitimacy has paid scant attention to what the police actually do to improve trust. The present contribution outlines an approach to understanding police trust-building strategies in their social and institutional context applying a comparative, dynamic perspective. Departing from the assumption that trust and legitimacy exist in a dialogue between the public and the police, the author argues that trust-building strategies develop in an unpredictable, dynamic complex of interrelated social and institutional factors. What is seen as a suitable trust-building strategy is determined by dominant ‘rationalised myths’, ways of thinking about what good police work should look like. These are shaped by a diverse range of different actors and factors. This complex affects each phase in the development of police trust-building strategies: problem recognition, generation of strategies, and adoption of strategies. Illustrating the value of the socio-institutional approach towards trust-building strategies, each of these phases is discussed in the context of a comparative, dynamic study of police trust-building strategies in England and Wales, Denmark, and the Netherlands. It is argued that this more sophisticated understanding of trust-building in its social and institutional context does not just tell us something about the police, but also helps us understand how state institutions shape and maintain their position in the complex environments of our changing societies.
... At the Met -and every other British force -performance management has been a key component of the reforms introduced since the 1980s (Savage, 2007). In the early 2000s, pressure from performance indicators was such that resentment began to rise explicitly among the rank and file (Fitzgerald et al., 2002). ...
... Political strategies, however, must be taken into account to refine this diagnosis. In England, the decision to include confidence indicators in the performance framework was taken at the turn of the 2000s, at a time when policing organizations (especially the Association of Chiefs of Police) were advocating a more comprehensive range of measures and New Labour was seeking to increase the legitimacy of public services (McLaughlin and Fleming, 2012;Savage, 2007). When, in 2011, public confidence targets were removed at the national level, the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime chose to keep them. ...
... The second contrast relates to discrepancies in the very meaning of what is understood by performance management in each force. The timing of reforms differed starkly: performance management was introduced in the English police -and more specifically in the MPS -under Commissioner Kenneth Newman in the 1980s (Savage, 2007), whereas in France, performance management was not really applied until the early 2000s, with the adoption of the Budget Act of 2001 (De Maillard and Savage, 2012). This mirrors divergences in the general categorization of network performance management (NPM) reforms in each country ('modernizer' for France, 'core NPM state' for England; Pollitt and Bouckaert, 2011). ...
This paper analyses the implementation of Compstat-like processes in two large European police organizations: the Metropolitan Police Service in London and the Préfecture de police in Paris. Compstat-like processes are characterized by processes framed by performance indicators and targets, performance assessment sessions, units dedicated to the collection and analysis of performance data, and information processing requiring the use of crime data. Such processes raise two broad sets of questions. First, do these innovations lead to tighter or more encompassing crime control strategies? Second, does the old command-and-control organizational model of police departments emerge reinforced, or does innovation foster the emergence of a new, more deliberative, problem-solving style of management? The paper analyses the mix of common features (limited geographical decentralization, increasing internal accountability based on the centrality of quantitative data, the prioritizing of crime reduction, and the influence of new technologies on how data is used) and differences (the range of indicators used, broader in London, and the management styles, more in line with a neo-managerial impetus in London). Interpreting these contrasts requires an analytical framework combining both the administrative, political and cultural traditions in the two police forces and the intentional projects carried out by political and professional actors.
... Le monde policier dans son ensemble se caractérise par sa forte capacité de résistance au changement (Savage, 2007). En conséquence, les réformes touchant aux politiques publiques y sont généralement entreprises de façon réactive, en réponse à des pressions importantes. ...
... En conséquence, les réformes touchant aux politiques publiques y sont généralement entreprises de façon réactive, en réponse à des pressions importantes. L'étude des réformes de la police au Royaume-Uni au cours des années 1980 et 1990 a permis à Savage (2007) de discerner cinq types de moteurs du changement des politiques publiques : l'échec systémique révélé par un scandale, l'influence internationale, les considérations économiques, les pressions internes et la politisation du maintien de l'ordre. Les considérations développées dans cet article se rattachent essentiellement au premier de ces facteurs. ...
Cet article s’intéresse à la genèse des crises de légitimité policière associées aux réformes du contrôle externe de la police au Québec et en Colombie-Britannique. En misant sur l’analyse détaillée de trois cas, il cherche à mettre en lumière les ressorts de la dynamique qui mène de l’incident grave impliquant un policier à la crise de légitimité. Partant du constat d’une inégalité des incidents en ce qui concerne leurs effets, l’article cible les caractéristiques qui permettent à certains d’entre eux de se constituer en événements focalisants. Il étudie également la crise en elle-même, de façon à déterminer quels sont les éléments qui permettent à l’incident de devenir un catalyseur du changement dans l’action publique.
... На наступному етапі «Ефективність», що асоціювався з поняттями аудит та інспектування, поліція вдосконалювала та застосовувала більш проактивні методи боротьби зі злочинністю, в деяких випадках стимульовані звітом Національної ревізійної комісії (National Audit Commission) [57] «Допомога у розслідуванні -ефективна боротьба зі злочинністю». Зрештою, це призвело до низки експериментів та ініціатив, включаючи поліцейську діяльність, керовану аналітичною розвідкою, як у Кентській поліцейській моделі [58, с. 210], хоча Севідж [51] припускає, що повна поява ILP збіглася зі створенням NIM. Іннес і Шептицький [59, с. 22] припускають, що відхід від традиційних методів мотивувався зростаючими вимогами до поліції бути більш підзвітною і «економічно ефективною», «... нові практики ILP (і NIM) сприяли цим змінам». ...
... This has led to changes to the organisations themselves and how they are governed and managed. For instance, Tony Blairs' New Labour government in the U.K. from 1997, famously tried to 'modernise' and facilitate the continuous improvement of all locally delivered public services including the three blue light services (Finlayson, 2003;Stewart, 2003;Savage, 2007;Department of Health, 2000;. It was not, however, in any way unique and much of this 'performance' agenda was reflected in similar agendas in North America, across Europe and in Australasia. ...
The forthcoming book is published as part of the Routledge State of the Art in Business Research Series, and is co-authored with Prof. Pete Murphy at Nottingham Trent University. We explore the application of public management theories to emergency services and the development of professionalism within the police, fire and rescue and ambulance services. Drawing on latest research, it examines the increasing need for better collaboration and identifies the nature and extent of the academic and practitioner divide and the research gap between the academic and professional communities in each of the services. The book adds to the small but growing body of evidence in a field which is still under-researched in the management inquiry and will help scholars to appreciate the important role and contribution of these services.
... Stelfox (2015) wrote about the development of homicide investigation to identify where savings might be made in light of funding cuts. In his book exploring why changes in policing have taken place, Savage (2008) suggested that failings in major crime investigations have been responsible for driving change. ...
... This new way of working promised a number of benefits, including enhanced police legitimacy (Dalgleish and Myhill 2004) and increased public confidence (Tuffin et al. 2006). In the UK, this drive was given impetus by the Scarman report in the wake of the Brixton Riots (Scarman 1982, Savage 2007. ...
Research on police legitimacy and public confidence underlines the importance of the police demonstrating moral alignment with the communities they serve. However, less attention is given to conflict between values, either within communities or between communities and the police. This study explores value conflicts in community or neighbourhood policing from a perspective of political realism, which suggests that such conflicts are inevitable and can only be resolved in temporary and contingent ways. It does so through a case study of neighbourhood policing, seen through local ward panel meetings, in one London borough. In total, 33 semi-structured interviews with 43 participants were undertaken, and seven hours of observations. This paper identifies four value-based conflicts that emerged through the meetings, and shows how neighbourhood police officers were able to provisionally resolve them, thus supporting confidence and legitimacy. However, it also shows how austerity has put this capacity at risk, both operationally, and through a receding of confidence as an organisational priority, with potential long-term consequences for public confidence in the police. With global protests such as Black Lives Matters, and anti-lockdown demonstrations, underlining the importance of public confidence and legitimacy to police organisations across the world, this paper adds to the evidence on the capacity of community policing to support this, offers a new perspective to understand the role of values in policing, and discusses the policy implications.
... Moreover, these groups are often segregated socially and spatially from the hegemonic group, promoting under-policing practices. Thus, discriminatory policing violates the principle of equality before the law (Savage 2007) and creates tension between these groups and the police, leading to distrust in procedural justice and police performance. These attitudes, in turn, shape the singular sense of moral alignment of each group with the police. ...
This study investigates the different dynamics undermining the relationships between the police and four distinct groups of Israeli citizens—Arabs, ultra-Orthodox Jews, and immigrants from Ethiopia and Russia. The comparative analysis reveals the sources of inequality in policing, its characteristics, and results. The structural equation modelling elucidates that procedural justice and the effectiveness of the police shape the moral alignment between the groups and the police. These factors have different effects on the groups’ identification with the state. The results underscore the considerable importance of the government’s role in guaranteeing social inclusion and the sharing of common values. The findings may help in designing a set of reforms and training programmes—not just a single reform—suited to the special needs of each group, to cope with the challenges of equal policing in an era of global social instability.
... Backed by criminological research, the "preventive turn" (Crawford and Evans, 2012: 798) suggested that the police should attempt to intervene more strongly in the future rather than simply reordering the past (Johnston and Shearing, 2003). The newfound desire to actively shape the future was closely accompanied by political efforts to render the police -and the criminal justice system more generally -more effective and more efficient (Garland, 2001;Savage, 2007;Jones et al., 2017: 779). In fact, all major strategic, tactical, technological, and managerial developments in policing since the 1970s -i.e. ...
... Officers need to understand the paradigm shift of applying their own judgement, common law fairness, and Wednesbury reasonableness to specific legislations such as the Human Rights Act 1998, which makes it mandatory to be considered in any police actions with a minor exception in cases related to counterterrorism actions. Savage [124] argues that the 1998 human rights legislation that incorporated the European Convention on Human Rights has significance for all institutions in the UK but particularly for the police. Officers are required to understand the English Legal System and procedures in the criminal justice system such as how the Magistrates Court and Crown Court operate and what role the defence and prosecution play to ensure justice. ...
This chapter outlines the historical development of police education in the United Kingdom, more precisely in England and Wales, and highlights new strategies and planning for the professional development of the police. There is a plethora of research carried out regarding professionalism in policing to meet the needs and challenges of the twenty-first century. Considering the recent developments in police education and training, this chapter mainly discusses three newly introduced routes for recruitment and education of police constables under the Policing Education Qualifications Framework (PEQF), namely Police Constable Degree Apprenticeship (PCDA), Degree Holder Entry Programme (DHEP), and Pre-Join Degree (PJD). Higher education institutions (HEIs), in partnership with the police forces, are providing professional qualifications for policing as a graduate level profession. Though they have made remarkable progress in developing police education programmes, they are facing various challenges in implementing the qualification framework. This chapter also explores pedagogical aspects of police education including the effectiveness and contrast between different forms of teaching and learning. While featuring the challenges and prospects of the new police education programmes, this chapter also outlines different aspects of partnership for delivering these professional qualification programmes.
... Sollicités dans les rencontres tant par les pouvoirs publics et institutionnels que par les organisations internationales, les syndicats s'insèrent dans les débats post-2011 sur la « réforme du secteur de la sécurité ». La malléabilité de la RSS leur permet justement de se positionner et d'avoir une influence sur le sens de la « réforme » (au sens d'agenda reshaping, concept développé par Stephen Savage, 2007), notamment en appelant à la mise en place d'une « sécurité républicaine ». ...
Cet article interroge les projets menés au nom de la réforme et de la démocratisation de la police en Tunisie post-révolution. La période suivant le départ de Ben Ali a effectivement connu une série de réajustements au sein des forces de sécurité, notamment à la suite d’une ouverture sur de nouvelles sources d’influence, émanant de professionnels de la sécurité organisés sous forme de syndicats ou d’associations, ou bien d’acteurs internationaux. Partant d’une analyse du projet de police de proximité porté par le PNUD et le ministère de l’Intérieur, cet article tâchera de montrer que, si les structures et les normes régissant les forces de l’ordre ne connaissent pas de modification profonde, le rapprochement entre policier et citoyen mené au nom de la réforme a pour effet de sélectionner la participation citoyenne en excluant les dominés. L’action menée par les syndicats policiers nouvellement formés contribue encore à réduire le spectre du changement politique en réduisant le contrôle sur les policiers en même temps que leur redevabilité vis-à-vis de la population. Ces syndicats parviennent, en reprenant à leur propre compte les discours de la « Réforme du secteur de la sécurité » (RSS), à légitimer et à consolider leur position de représentants des corps policiers. Il s’agira donc de revenir sur un processus de changement à l’oeuvre sans présumer de son issue, en le réinscrivant dans sa temporalité politique et entre les lignes de tension entourant la définition de ses termes au sein des forces de l’ordre.
... Loader (2016) argues that assumptions about policing's efficiency and effectiveness began to crumble in the 1970s. During the 1980s and 1990s, in parallel with other UK public-sector organisations, the police service was subjected to wide-ranging changes in structures and management processes, as part of New Public Management regimes (Savage, 2007). In 1992, Sir Patrick Sheehy (1993) was commissioned to undertake a review of police roles and responsibilities and its publication resulted in a restatement of its traditional values and Peelian principles. ...
Liminality is the transitional phase of a rite of passage when individuals no longer hold to their traditions but have yet to transition to a new status. Utilising cultural characterisations reported by a sample of policewomen ( N = 127) from England and Wales, a hierarchical cluster analysis revealed empirical demonstration of a traditional preliminal condition, a transforming postliminal state and a liminal betwixt and between period, which are associated with different discriminatory experiences and policing styles. Women as potential liminal workers may offer a way to nudge movement towards the postliminal incorporation of a more academically oriented professional police culture.
... The professionalization of the police force and evidence-based policing (EBP) are closely linked, and many of the recent models, such as performance management (Savage 2007), intelligence-led policing (Ratcliffe 2016) and community-oriented policing (Skalansky 2014), have included EBP as the core driver for implementation and accountability. Police legitimacy and overall trust/confidence in the police is a fundamental feature of law and social control; in the UK, the police service and ancillary organisations (including the security services, Border Force, etc.) are generally accepted as government agencies assuming responsibility for controlling and investigating crime (see Newburn and Reiner 2007). ...
Annual estimates of the total cost of farm crime to the UK economy amount to the region of £45 m (NFU in NFU Rural Crime Report 2018. https://www.nfumutual.co.uk/news-and-stories/rural-crime-report-2018/, 2018). The purpose of this study was to assess the extent, effects and responses to farm crime from key stakeholders, principally the police and farming population. Survey responses were collected from farmers (n = 96) in rural Wales. Key findings suggest that the main categories of farm crime including machinery and livestock theft were similar to national patterns. Perceptions of organised crime groups from outside the local area being responsible for criminal activity were also prevalent. Satisfaction and trust in the police was generally healthy, despite awareness that the investigation and prosecution of farm and/or rural crime was often not being adequately resourced. The implications of this research propose that a broad lack of police training/experience, insight into farming issues generally, and wider organisational resource commitment, all hinder effective policing of farm business crime.
... Loftus (2010) argues that the traditional cop culture may potentially be challenged by more recent developments and reforms within policing, which are expected to weaken the potency of negative cultural influences. For example, shifts towards community (Sklansky, 2014); reassurance policing (Innes et al., 2009); recasting the public as customers and imposition of performance indicators (Savage, 2007); critiques of officers' prejudicial behaviours (such as sexism, racism and homophobia) resulting in efforts to increase ethnic and gender diversification (Reiner, 2010); introduction of ideas deriving from procedural justice and more recently the professionalisation agenda (College of Policing, 2016; Williams and Cockcroft, 2018). According to Loftus these innovations could introduce alternative cultural influences, such as the ethic of care (Heidensohn, 1986, Rabe-Hemp, 2008, more academically informed practices (Brown et al, 2018) and a model for a police identity based on procedural justice . ...
Perceptions of police occupational culture were measured in a sample of senior women in policing (N = 169) through an online survey conducted late 2017/early 2018 to explore the occurrence of sexual harassment and sex discrimination. Negative aspects of ‘cop’ culture are associated with greater rates of harassing and discriminatory experiences. Social Identity Theory (SIT) examined the salience of role, gender and seniority as factors relevant to those experiences. Conclusions discuss implications for reform and cultural change.
... This picture is somewhat complicated because many officers become academics. Outsider texts, such as textbooks (Drew and Prenzler, 2015;Roberg et al., 2014), and critical reviews (Savage, 2007), tend to be more "about" the police and often developed from within specific disciplinary perspectives, mainly sociology, law and criminology (Bowling and Foster, 2002;Skolnick, 1966), although someparticularly edited textscombine insider and outsider perspectives (Fleming, 2015). ...
Policing and Public Management takes a new perspective on the challenges and problems facing the governance of police forces across the UK and the developed world. Complementing existing texts in criminology and police studies, Morrell and Bradford draw on ideas from the neighbouring fields of public management and virtue ethics to open the field up to a broader audience. This forms the basis for an imaginative reframing of policing as something that either enhances or diminishes "the public good" in society. The text focuses on two cross-cutting aspects of the relationship between the police and the public: public confidence and public order. Extending award-winning work in public management, and drawing on extensive and varied data sources, Policing and Public Management offers new ways of seeing the police and of understanding police governance. This text will be valuable supplementary reading for students of public management, policing and criminology, as well as others who want to be better informed about contemporary policing.
... For instance, the Police force in the UK was established by the State in 1829 to ensure social control and public order on the streets (Reiner, 2012). However in the last few decades, due to the changing political, social and criminal justice environment (Caless and Tong, 2015;Martin et al., 2017) and societal developments (Savage, 2007), the purpose of the Police role has developed beyond the streets and into the private lives of citizens whereby the Police are dealing more with social, family/domestic issues. This has changed the priorities of policing towards a more socially responsible, community focused role but also at the same time, one that needs to be alert to the changing nature of crime; cybercrime and potential terrorist threats. ...
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to attempt to demonstrate that formal mentoring is a helpful tool to develop managers within the changing context of the UK Police, and to highlight how managers can have an influence on mentoring programmes and the learning within them.
Design/methodology/approach
A longitudinal qualitative case study approach was chosen and semi-structured interviews were conducted alongside focus groups.
Findings
The findings showed that both mentees and mentors perceived they were learning within the mentoring relationship. Also, despite some common themes in relation to the key moderating factors, managers were seen as both facilitating and hindering these mentoring relationships.
Research limitations/implications
It was recognised that although interesting to compare and contrast the findings between the two different case study organisations, the findings drawn from this study may not be directly applicable to other mentoring programmes beyond these UK Police Forces. More could have been explored in the focus groups and information could have been collected from those that did not attend the interviews or the focus groups.
Originality/value
This research adds value as there is little written about the mentoring and managers, within the interesting changing context of the UK Police force. The insights from this mentoring research suggest that there is much learning to be gained by both parties through mentoring and that line managers need to be encouraged away from the day to day reactive approach towards being more proactive with supporting the personal development of their team members (and themselves) into the future. If they are more involved and supportive of learning and development interventions, then they and their team members will gain more from the experience and this will ultimately help them to make a more positive difference within their role.
... Over the last two decades different conceptions of professionalisation have surfaced, prompted by calls from various stakeholders, including government and policy makers as well as the service itself, to instigate modernisation and reform. These include the Scanning, Analysis, Response and Assessment (SARA) model drawn from Goldstein's problem-oriented policing (Leigh, Read and Tilley, 1996), the introduction of performance management (Savage, 2007), intelligence-led policing (Ratcliffe, 2016) and community oriented policing (Sklansky, 2014). Efforts at utilising these approaches have only been partially successful not least because of a degree of resistance by the police themselves, particularly in their take up of academic research (Canter, 2000;Thacher,2008). ...
Evidence-based policing (EBP) is an important strand of the UK’s College of Policing’s Police Education Qualifications Framework (PEQF), itself a component of a professionalisation agenda. This article argues that the two dominant approaches to EBP, experimental criminology and crime science, offer limited scope for the development of a comprehensive knowledge base for policing. Although both approaches share a common commitment to the values of science, each recognizes their limited coverage of policing topics. The fundamental difference between them is what each considers ‘best’ evidence. This article critically examines the generation of evidence by these two approaches and proposes an extension to the range of issues EBP should cover by utilizing a greater plurality of methods to exploit relevant research. Widening the scope of EBP would provide a broader foundational framework for inclusion in the PEQF and offers the potential for identifying gaps in the research, constructing blocks for knowledge building, and syllabus development in higher level police education.
... Over the last two decades, different conceptions of professionalization have surfaced, prompted by calls from various stakeholders, including government and policymakers as well as the service itself, to instigate modernization and reform. These include the Scanning, Analysis, Response and Assessment (SARA) model drawn from Goldstein's problem-oriented policing (Leigh et al., 1996), the introduction of performance management (Savage, 2007), intelligence-led policing (Ratcliffe, 2016) and communityoriented policing (Sklansky, 2014). Efforts at utilizing these approaches have been only partially successful, not least because of a degree of resistance by the police themselves, particularly in their take up of academic research (Canter, 2000;Thacher, 2008). ...
Evidence-based policing (EBP) is an important strand of the UK’s College of Policing’s Police Education Qualifications Framework (PEQF), itself a component of a professionalisation agenda. This article argues that the two dominant approaches to EBP, experimental criminology and crime science, offer limited scope for the development of a comprehensive knowledge base for policing. Although both approaches share a common commitment to the values of science, each recognizes their limited coverage of policing topics. The fundamental difference between them is what each considers ‘best’ evidence. This article critically examines the generation of evidence by these two approaches and proposes an extension to the range of issues EBP should cover by utilizing a greater plurality of methods to exploit relevant research. Widening the scope of EBP would provide a broader foundational framework for inclusion in the PEQF and offers the potential for identifying gaps in the research, constructing blocks for knowledge building, and syllabus development in higher level police education.
This paper conducts a comparative analysis of police accountability in criminal investigations in the USA and Bangladesh. It explores the legal frameworks, institutional mechanisms, and challenges that shape police oversight in these two jurisdictions. The study highlights the significant differences between the two countries, with the USA having a robust legal framework anchored in constitutional protections, federal statutes, and a range of oversight bodies. In contrast, Bangladesh's police accountability system is rooted in colonial-era laws with limited oversight mechanisms and is further weakened by corruption and political interference. The paper examines essential case laws influencing police conduct in both countries, such as Tennessee v. Garner in the USA and BLAST v. Bangladesh in Bangladesh. The analysis reveals that while the USA has made strides in integrating technology into accountability processes, Bangladesh faces numerous challenges, including outdated laws and a lack of technological infrastructure. It is a qualitative research. Recommendations for both countries include modernising legal frameworks, enhancing the independence of oversight bodies, and adopting international best practices. The findings emphasise the need for continuous reforms to ensure transparent and effective police accountability in both jurisdictions.
The past 25 years has seen the greatest attempted political shifts in the reform, governance and character of UK policing in nearly 200 years. This article takes a broad, but incomplete, look at that increased trajectory of party politics involvement in changes in British policing, the possible effect on governance, operational independence and leadership, and the probable impact of those activities on tactical effectiveness (for example, in performance, community engagement, discipline, morale, retention and recruitment). It is the increased trajectory and significance of party politics that has created a paradigm shift in the British policing model and impacted on contemporary interpretations of the wrongly called Peelian Policing Principles. This article seeks to show that Savage’s model of police reform, as a conjunction of driving forces, is useful in exploring the primary use made, over the past 25 years, of the politicisation of police reform by the other five elements of the model. It also seeks to identify what we can learn from this exploration for the future of police reform. Nothing of what follows here signifies anything but disgust at the ghastly behaviour of some criminals in police uniforms. It comprises some evidence for use at a possible Labour ‘root and branch reform of the MPS’. This proposal might take up the misguided suggestion to disband the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), as a result of possible extinction-level events for the 200-year-old MPS experiment in policing and will inevitably and irrevocably lead to the destruction of the British policing model – one of the global pillars of democracy. Brown also offered some more effective possible reforms using Savage’s model.
Les conditions socioprofessionnelles des agents de l’appareil sécuritaire ont fait l’objet d’une publicisation croissante après le 14 janvier 2011, mais aussi d’une mobilisation inédite des policiers tunisiens. Constitués en syndicats, ces derniers ont entamé des cycles de négociation avec les gouvernements successifs, s’imposant comme des interlocuteurs légitimes des pouvoirs publics. À travers une trentaine d’entretiens avec des syndicalistes policiers appartenant à trois organisations concurrentes à Tunis, Gafsa et Sfax, cet article revient sur le rôle des syndicats policiers tunisiens dans les évolutions statutaires des agents du ministère de l’Intérieur. En se penchant sur les enjeux qu’ont constitué les salaires, les avancées en grade et la séparation entre corps « civil » et corps de la « tenue », il montre que la période post-2011 voit une (re)valorisation du statut de l’agent, notamment à travers des augmentations salariales importantes, mais aussi des perspectives de montées en grade renouvelées. Si le régime de Ben Ali était souvent qualifié d’« État policier », cela avait tendance à obscurcir les conditions socioprofessionnelles réelles des agents de l’institution sécuritaire. Le contrôle politique exercé sur les agents des forces de sécurité avant janvier 2011 reposait, entre autres, sur le maintien des agents dans une situation économique assez précaire. L’irruption des groupes d’intérêt policiers sur la scène publique modifie radicalement le rapport de force entre élite politique et sécuritaire, et agents de la force publique. Ces derniers, en s’alignant sur le fond et la forme des revendications salariales par la centrale syndicale UGTT, parviennent à obtenir la signature d’un accord gouvernemental pour des augmentations par tranches de leurs salaires. L’impact des syndicats policiers ne se limite pas à des aspects matériels. Ils négocient, et obtiennent une montée en grade pour les agents de grades inférieurs. Ils négocient également un réagencement des règles d’avancement dans l’institution, pour une prise en compte des titres scolaires dans les montées en grade. Ces éléments tendent à opérer un renversement de la pyramide hiérarchique au sein de la police, mais aussi à créer des horizons professionnels désirables pour des agents qui étaient auparavant exclus de certaines fonctions. À cet égard, les syndicats s’inscrivent dans les thèmes révolutionnaires et la construction politique d’un discours de « la dignité » dans une acception socioprofessionnelle. Enfin, ces bouleversements des normes institutionnelles par l’action syndicale sont visibles dans la remise en cause d’une répartition des postes sur la base d’une division historique entre corps « civils » (correspondant notamment aux commissaires, aux inspecteurs, etc.) et « de la tenue » (officiers, commandants, brigadiers, etc.). Alors que les commissaires ont occupé les principales positions de pouvoir sous Ben Ali, les officiers du corps de la tenue tendent maintenant à occuper des postes dans la haute hiérarchie ministérielle. Ces évolutions vont dans le sens de l’émergence d’une nouvelle génération de cadres sécuritaires. Cet article montre que ces évolutions modifient profondément la répartition des pouvoirs au sein de l’appareil sécuritaire, ainsi que les rapports entre supérieurs hiérarchiques et subordonnés. Les revendications socioprofessionnelles alimentent une concurrence intersyndicale qui favorise l’adoption des mesures préconisées, ainsi que la construction de marges d’autonomie des bases à l’égard de la hiérarchie. À travers l’analyse des évolutions des normes socioprofessionnelles dans la police tunisienne, cet article réinterroge les effets des changements de régime sur les institutions régaliennes.
This chapter examines Evidence-based Policing in the United Kingdom. Despite the police being defined as not being open to change, the acceptance and adoption of Evidence-based Policing in the United Kingdom has increased since 2000. The increase in the acceptance of the strategy has been aided by the establishment of master courses and graduate degrees by universities. The policing profession in the United Kingdom has taken a balanced approach to implementing Evidence-based Policing and does not focus on the narrow view of randomized control trials being the only acceptable method for gathering evidence.KeywordsEvidence-based PolicingUnited KingdomPolice research
Cél: Az észak- és nyugat-európai rendőrségi szervezetek közelmúltbéli strukturális reformjai közül e tanulmány a holland rendőrség 2012–2013-as átalakítását vizsgálja.Módszertan: A releváns nemzetközi szakirodalom felhasználásával bemutatja az ország korábbi és jelenlegi rendészeti berendezkedését, a reformot előidéző körülményeket, valamint az annak értékeléséből származó megállapításokat.Megállapítások: A tanulmány rámutat a reform végrehajtásával kapcsolatos alapvető hibákra: arra, hogy a reformtól túl gyorsan vártak jelentős eredményeket, annak végrehajtása aszimmetrikusan tolódott el a strukturális változtatások irányába, és a reformok előre nem tervezett hatásaként a rendőrség és védelmezett közösségei egymástól eltávolodtak.Érték: A reform tapasztalatai hozzájárulhatnak a jövő rendészeti átalakításaival kapcsolatos kihívások érzékeltetéséhez.
This article begins by exploring the development of police professionalism in the UK. It considers the drivers that have shaped the direction of police professionalism in England and Wales, including the influence of professional and institutional logics. Next, it outlines the current phase of ‘professionalism’, examining what has influenced the adoption of the current normative framework with specific reference to the PEQF and evidenced-based approaches. It will argue that attempts to re-professionalise the police have tended to be situated between ‘ideal types’ of professionalism, one which favours ‘professional trust and autonomy’ driven by professionals themselves towards a model of organisational professionalism motivated by a desire to standardise and limit occupational autonomy. Latterly, it will argue that these ‘ideal types’ used to conceptualise the changing nature of police professionalism fail to account for broader reconfigurations that shape professional identifies fully. Drawing mainly on the work of Noordegraaf [2016. Reconfiguring professional work: changing forms of professionalism in public services. Administration & Society, 48 (7), 783–810; 2020. Protective or connective professionalism? How connected professionals can (still) act as autonomous and authoritative experts. Journal of professions and organization] it is shown that there is a need to reconceptualise our understanding of professionalism to identify the range of factors influencing and reshaping professional identities.
This article provides a literature review into the utilisation of role play and reflection, as valuable teaching strategies which should be considered for implementation, within the Police Education Qualification Framework. The aim of this article is to challenge the current pedagogical teaching methods utilised as part of the National Policing Curriculum, by highlighting the benefit of a more experiential-based learning strategy, for Professional Policing Degree students, based within England and Wales.
The Police Education and Qualification Framework (PEFQ) mandated that from 2020 police recruits must be educated to degree level. This change has generated much debate around the relationship between academia and the police. There has been less discussion about parallel organisational change. To explore the opportunities for graduate officers to find the ‘discretionary space’ to employ the skills associated with university study, 234 police constables were surveyed. Analysis revealed that officers faced barriers to decision-making from bureaucratic and managerial procedures. Findings suggest that police organisations may need to make changes structurally and procedurally to benefit from a graduate workforce.
Despite a long tradition of pessimism regarding the scope for meaningful change in police practices, recent structural reforms to police organizations in several European countries suggest that significant change in policing is possible. Drawing on recent research into the establishment and consequences of a national police force in Scotland, this article uses instrumental, cultural and myth perspectives taken from organization theory to examine how change happened and with what effects. It highlights how police reform involves a complex interplay between the strategic aims of government, the cultural norms of police organizations and the importance of alignment with wider views about the nature of the public sector. The article concludes by identifying a set of wider lessons from the experience of organizational change in policing.
This chapter raises questions about leadership in police organisations by interrogating the trajectory of modernisation in the Hellenic Police. Greece’s national police force continues to negotiate modernisation imperatives with a legacy of political partisanship, clientelism and deep entrenchment in militarism and bureaucratism. These historical and contemporary conditions have punctuated democratic police modernisation by shaping an organisational outlook that both limits the responsiveness of the organisation to external demands for change, and also compromises its capacity to pursue change organically through a strong culture of police leadership.
Davis provides an important commentary on the changing discourses of police leadership. The chapter problematises conventional discourse and the status that the assumption of leadership as person-centred and power neutral has acquired. Drawing on critical leadership studies, the chapter documents an alternative discourse which positions the experience and enactment of power in leadership as central. Situating these competing discourses in the changing landscape of contemporary policing, Davis argues that dynamics of rank as an authority are fundamental to understanding how police leadership responds to changing demand and expectations. As police organisations seek to move beyond an over-reliance on rank in leadership, Davis calls for a greater critical appreciation of rank as an authority to understand the experience and practice of leadership in the police.
This paper develops further criminological understandings of ‘localism’ in police governance and contribute to broader theoretical discussions about ‘governance’ in contemporary policing, via a critical analysis of major recent law and policy reforms in England & Wales. Recent legislation has brought important changes to the balance of constitutional-legal powers and institutional architecture of police governance. However, we argue that for several reasons, it is problematic to interpret these developments in straightforward terms of greater 'localisation'. First, in so far as there has been a decentralisation of control, this represents a growth of 'regional' rather than 'local' auspices of power. Second, there is widespread evidence of continuing interventionism by ‘the centre, asserting strong influences on local policing via a range of national bodies. Third, important developments in the wider context of police policy-making – most importantly the conditions of austerity – have circumscribed the capacity of Commissioners to set their own policy agendas and resulted in a retrenchment of policing provision at the most ‘localised’ geographical units of neighbourhoods. Indeed, the combination of decentralising formal responsibility for policing policy and restrictive central financial controls amounts in practice to a ‘devolution of blame’ by the centre for falling service standards. Finally, we argue that the growing complexity and fragmentation of police governance cannot be captured adequately by ‘vertical’ analysis of central-local relations. Whilst central influences remain predominant, policing policy networks have become more diverse, with important developments at ‘horizontal’ levels locally, regionally and nationally. Within this more fragmented governance framework, central influences continue to drive local poling, but primarily via a range of ‘arms length’ institutions and techniques.
Despite historic increases in crime and violence, Latin America’s police forces are characterized by long periods of institutional weakness punctuated by rare, sweeping reforms. To understand these patterns of institutional continuity and change, the author applies the concept of structural power, demonstrating how police leverage their control of coercion to constrain the policy options available to politicians. Within this constrained policy space, politicians choosing between continuity and reform assess societal preferences for police reform and patterns of political competition. Under fragmented societal preferences, irrespective of political competition, reform brings little electoral gain and risks alienating a powerful bureaucracy. Preference fragmentation thus favors the persistence of institutional weakness. When societal preferences converge and a robust political opposition threatens incumbents, politicians face an electoral counterweight to the structural power of police, making reform likely. Using evidence from periods of continuity and reform in Argentina, Brazil, and Colombia, the author traces both outcomes to shifts in societal preferences and political opposition. Despite the imperative to address citizens’ demands by building state capacity in security provision, these cases show that police reform is often rendered electorally disadvantageous.
In this chapter, the focus is on the use of voluntary ‘appropriate adults’ in police custody suites when detainees are judged to have issues with capacity. First of all we discuss the austerity context in which policing takes place and the increasing numbers of individuals identified as ‘vulnerable’ who come into contact with the police. Austerity is shown not only to have had impacts on police resources but also on who they are asked to police. Drawing on data from an evaluation of a voluntary service in the North East of England, the implications of vulnerability in a neoliberal society are discussed. Finally the chapter critically considers the development of a service relying on volunteers and make the case for a national statutory scheme.
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