Policing with the community Flashcards
Northern Ireland and policing with the community
Northern Ireland has until relatively recently, existed in a kind of criminological netherworld…its raison d’ etre seemed to be to provide a plethora of ‘terrorism’ and counter-insurgency ‘experts’ with the raw
material to feed their often fanciful imagination…a pre-Enlightenment void where the rules of the criminological game, as they were considered in Britain, did not apply
Realities of the conflict
1969-formation of PSNI
Over 3500 deaths
48 029 injuries
37,034 shooting incidents
16,360 bomb explosions
19,666 people charged with terror
offences (’69 – ’02)
Post-PSNI era
Issues of collusion, legacy and the past (Ni Aolain, 2000, BBCNI 2022)
Continuing paramilitary policing & public disorder potential (Jarman et al., 2013)
Current ‘severe’ dissident terrorist threat as classified by MI5
Change over the years:
Hunt Report 1969 – structure and composition of RUC (and B-Specials)
Cameron Report 1969 – examined civil disturbances associated with
beginning of Troubles
Scarman Report 1972 – examined civil disturbances of 1969
Bennett Committee 1979 – investigated interrogation practices
of the RUC
Loyalist and Republican
Ceasefires 1994
Good Friday Agreement 1998
Patten Report 1999
Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) – came into
existence 4 th November 2001
Police (NI) Acts 1998 / 2000 /
2003
January 2007 – Sinn Fein’s historic acceptance of policing
Devolution of policing and justice powers May 2010
Published in September 1999
175 recommendations
Considered views of 10,000 people through public meetings
450 written submissions at those meetings
2500 individual written submissions
Everything from ‘the most shoddy piece of work seen in his entire life’ (David Trimble)
to the most complex blueprint for police reform attempted anywhere in the world, ever
and all in between
Essentially wrestled 30 years of state monopoly on policing from the Government (Bayley, 2007)
The two ‘streams’ of pattern reforms
Stream 1:
‘Systems’ of policing
Badges
Symbols
Recruitment
Training
Human Rights
Stream 2:
‘concerned with broader questions around the governance of security, or, policing more broadly conceived
New focus on policing in NI
And if there’s a key bit…and I think it’s the “holy grail” of
policing around the world – it’s community policing. Of course
this can mean lots of things to different people, but it is firmly
founded on the principle which underpins policing in Britain in
Ireland – that is policing with the consent of the community
Policed
Basic Conceptions of Community Policing
Prevalent in US from 70s
Moves away from legalistic, narrow law
enforcement (Mani, 2000)
Increased citizen input into policing (Roberg, 2005)
Change in ‘cop culture’ towards a service delivery orientation
(Fielding, 2005)
‘Soft’ style of policing
(Innes, 2005)
Aligning acceptable levels of enforcement with local standards of conduct (Skolnick & Bayley,
1990)
Pro-active, solution based, community driven policing based on persuasion, negotiation and community interaction (
Community policing & the PSNI
Delivery of Patten into a workable form
undertaken in 2002 by ACC Peter Sheridan
Attempt to condense the vast and varied definitions and practices of
community policing into a workable format
Accountability
Requires police officers at all levels of the service to be accessible to the community and responsible for the service that they deliver
Beyond legal accountability to consensual accountability
Police as accountable to the community – procedural and
distributive justice
‘In a democracy, policing, in order to be effective must be
based on consent across the community. The community
recognises the legitimacy of the policing task, confers authority
on police personnel carrying out their role in policing and
actively supports them.
Consent is not unconditional, but depends on proper accountability’
Empowerment
Means including the views of the community in deciding on the policing priorities of that area. Encouraging local people to actively participate in policing
Police helping communities and providing tools to participate in
Policing
‘It is important to create a sense of joint ownership for
addressing crime and community safety amongst members of the community and the police’
Community policing as a positive frame’ in which policing can work
Empowerment:
Recognition of neighbourhoods a problem:
- Dependence
- Conflict
- Resolution
- Interdependence
Partnership
The police cannot be truly effective when working alone. The collective effort of the police, the community and other agencies is needed to ensure effective problem solving
Cooperative efforts at delivering problems solving
Premised upon police’s limited capacity at policing
About maximizing potential resources and solutions from those with stake in policing
Potential limitations of:
– Available partners
– Community context
– Interest
‘not only may resources be drawn away from other forms
of social provision, but those forms of social provision may
be increasingly drawn into policing and security concerns’
Problem solving
Is the process of studying crime and disorder problems in a structured
way, which identifies the underlying causes of problems and seeks to
offer solutions
Golden thread of community policing
Police no longer only agency in solving problems:
‘A police shift towards a decentralised, flexible team
work system that would allow officers to develop the local
knowledge and…skills to deal creatively with matters’
Patten Rec. 50
Involves a structured approach to the identification and resolution of policing problems, making use of community consultation, partnerships and information, to address crime,
fear of crime and reduce demands on police resources
Service Delivery
Reflects the concept that the police exist to serve the community.
Policing should be community centred and it should also be
effective and efficient in addressing problems
Service delivery a key component of community policing:
Police exist to serve entire community
Police as community centred service
That service is effective, efficient, accountable
Reduce social distance between police and public through a
customer-oriented approach
The 3Es of economy,
efficiency and effectiveness
External community characteristics (Bayley, 1994)
‘asymmetrical encounters’
Historical experience (Topping et al, 2018; Ellison and Mulcahy, 2001)
Impact of police response
