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An International Journal 11 , , Crime, Law and Social Change 50 , , The Howard Journal of Criminal Justice 51 5 , , Criminology, conflict resolution and restorative justice, , Articles 1—20 Show more. A blueprint for democratic policing anywhere in the world?
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Police reform, political transition, and conflict resolution in Northern Ireland G Ellison Police quarterly 10 3 , , Policing in an age of austerity: Globalization, police reform and development: G Ellison, N Pino Springer , Introduction In the context of the global financial crisis and after inheriting a record budget deficit, the British Coalition government decided in that the best way forward was a programme of austerity. What followed were major cuts to public expenditure, including a substantial reduction in police budgets.
Whether this was the right decision is beyond the remit of this chapter.
However, the effect on the police has been substantial. The police in Britain had enjoyed a sustained period of growth — both in terms of police numbers and increased responsibilities undertaken by police personnel — despite increases in competition and falls in recorded crime Millie and Bullock, ; Millie, This was to change. With the Comprehensive Spending Review HM Treasury, government funding of the police in England and Wales was reduced by 20 percent through to The scale of these cuts was unprecedented and has required police services to reconsider their priorities.
At the same time the police have had to deal with major change in governance structures with the introduction of elected Police and Crime Commissioners in November — albeit following an election where only 15 percent of the electorate turned up to vote Rogers and Burn-Murdoch, The new policing landscape of fewer resources and assumed greater democratic accountability has generated a lot of uncertainty among serving police officers and questions over what form policing will take post-austerity.
In this context the question of what the police are for becomes pertinent and is the focus for this chapter. According to McLaughlin High policing is associated with the work of the intelligence community, whereas low policing is the domain of everyday often uniformed officers. Contemporary policing activities include crime fighting, crime reduction, dealing with anti-social behaviour, tackling terrorism, public reassurance, traffic duties, immigration control, schools work, offender management, event security, disaster management, making people feel safer and so on.
A narrowing of focus may be beneficial and the current cuts may provide the opportunity for this to occur with the possibility that post-austerity policing will be both slimmer and fitter. As noted, there is more to policing than fighting crime — however, fighting crime is clearly a significant aspect to police work; but it is only one aspect. While visible patrols can assist with gaining local intelligence, they rarely deal with actual crime Kelling et al. On a micro level visible patrol might deter criminal activity Ratcliffe et al.
For Innes the visible officer acts as a signal of control.
What are the police for? Re-thinking policing post-austerity | Andrew Millie - theranchhands.com
The value of visible patrol is not in terms of crime fighting potential, but in reassuring the public that the police are there, are on the side of the public and will intervene if required. Morgan and Newburn, ; McLaughlin, , or as Punch once termed it, a secret social service function. The aims of reassurance policing have included improving quality of life and feelings of safety, and addressing fears of crime Tuffin et al.
Mistreatment by response teams or high profile cases of misconduct or corruption can have greater influence on public confidence. From recent history the cases of Stephen Lawrence Foster et al. Theresa May b has commented that: True policing requires both. Similarly, there have been historic debates concerning whether the police are a force or a service e.
Avery, ; Reiner, The answer is that the police are both force and service. In fact, according to Reiner The order maintenance function is therefore conservative, reproducing order acceptable to those with power. There is clearly negative potential with such an approach, with those who challenge the status quo being seen as opposed to a conservative order and then disproportionately policed.
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For Brogden and Ellison But preserving social order is not all bad and according to Reiner However, if these functions are defined too widely, then the police start to adopt roles more suitable for other agencies, community groups or volunteers. An emphasis on order preservation rather than order production is helpful for understanding the role of the police. Order production is for others such as parents and schools who have roles in producing orderly citizens although, of course, also citizens that challenge the status quo.
Yet, as Reiner notes, the police have increasingly been required to produce order. Areas where the police roles have been stretched perhaps too widely - including in the production of order - are considered next.
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How did the police become so wide? A wide definition of policing is not new. According to Lee , cited in Banton, Many of these tasks were passed onto other agencies; however, others were added to the police remit such that, by the s the Conservative government attempted to lighten the load — albeit unsuccessfully Wilson et al. Tasks that were suggested as superfluous included missing persons, schools work, noise nuisance, event stewarding, court summons, court security, immigration and certain traffic duties Millie, Policing in an Age of Austerity.
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