The changing place of the police in society

Question 1

Early policing

Answer 1

Shifting nature of ‘policing’ obligation:

Statute of Winchester 1285
‘community responsibility’ for policing

Office of ‘constable’ as unpaid covering a wide range of duties from tax collection to pollution

Question 2

Not so different from policing today

Answer 2

‘listening to endless stories about fanciful slights, old grievances, new insults, mis-matched expectations, infidelity, dishonesty and abuse…Patient listening, and gentle counseling are undoubtedly what patrol officers do most of the time’
(Bayley, 1994:31-2)

Question 3

Professionalisation of the police function:

Answer 3

Expanding nature of society, economy and leisure activities demanding more formal policing:

Successive legislation during 18th century regarding pay, duties, service strength, police offices in London

Recognition of centrality of police to reforming CJS by Peel, then Home Secretary (Rawlings, 2008)

Question 4

The met police 1829:

Answer 4

‘the assumption was that by the regular patrolling of his beat and the careful checking of doors and windows, especially at night, the patrolling police constable would deter thieves…apprehend any individual about whom he had reasonable suspicion…’
(Emsley, 2008:74)

Start of enduring professionalisation and constitutional status of the British ‘Bobby’ (Kelling, 2003)

Question 5

Contemporary developments:

Answer 5

Royal Commission on the Police 1962

Not all Dixon of Doc Green!
Composition of police as (largely) white males

Divisions between ‘the police’ and society

Notably racial tensions and Brixton riots 1981 (Newburn, 2008; Reiner, 2010)

Question 6

Police & Criminal evidence act 1984:

Answer 6

death of ‘citizen in uniform? (Reiner, 2010)

Continuing issues of ‘institutional racism’ through Macpherson (1999) and beyond

Legislative ‘control’ of police role for first time:
Crime & Disorder Act 1998

Question 7

The 4 C’s questioning what police do – the beginning of the end of generic role?

Answer 7

1. Change
2. Consultation
3. Comparison
4. Competition

Question 8

The Real Role of the Police?

Answer 8

Majority of police time NOT related to catching criminals or detecting crime. Only half of public initiated contacted with police related to crime issues; only 22% of calls to police crime related

Question 9

Police as???

Answer 9

‘de facto social workers…a secret social service…If the law-and-order panacea for problems was bigger guns, the liberals’ was a sociology degree’ (Reiner, 2010:142)

Regardless of competing perspectives, authority of
police still sacrosanct

Question 10

Influences on the Police Role

Answer 10

The onset of ‘late modernity’
(Garland, 2001)

Post WW2 rises in crime

Fear of crime

‘Broken society’

Terrorist threats

Civil rights

Question 11

Traditional’ police tactics

Answer 11

Classic Clarke & Hough patrol study 1984

Detection issues as limited indicator or role (Walker et al., 2009)

Overall, great uncertainty of what police actually do

Question 12

Changing Times, Changing Role?

Answer 12

Demanding nature of modern state which created need the ‘police’, currently picking them apart:

Neo-liberalism

Fragmenting society

Populist politics

Market economy

Consumerism

‘In this context, the British conception of the police as a body with an omnibus mandate, symbolizing order and harmony, [has become] increasingly anachronistic’ (Reiner, 2010:255)

Question 13

The End of the ‘Peeler’? Hardly. But…

Answer 13

Disparity between pressure and expectation, actual role, and empirical impact (Tilley, 2008)

Much of the fluctuation in crime linked to economic issues
(Reiner, 2010)

Criminologies of everyday life being transferred out of police hands (Garland, 2001; Young, 1999)