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In recent times, police policy makers have been encouraged to use public opinion surveys to identify, and target the allocation of resources to, activities that members of the public believe are important. However, these surveys have concentrated on the types of problems that the public would like addressed, and have not determined what types of activities they would prefer the police to be undertaking. In the present study, a comprehensive list of police activities formed the basis of a survey used to examine attitudes toward police priorities in Australia. Comparisons were made between police and public understanding of the police role, and between present and preferred priorities. The results suggest that the public has an understanding of policing which differs from that of police officers. However, the picture of what they want police to be doing is similar to that of the police, albeit giving higher priorities to almost all of the activities. Police managers may need to educate the public about the functions of the police service, emphasizing functions other than investigating crime and providing advice. At the same time, the police may need to alter their resource allocation and modify organizational structure and reward systems to encourage operational officers to be more involved in the activities that the public see as high priority. This should result in better ties with the community, a better understanding within the community of the police role, and more realistic expectations on both sides of the outcomes of policing.

Taking advantage of the breakdown of formal social control directly following Hurricane Andrew in Miami, Florida this paper conducts a naturally occurring breaching experiment to examine the deeper structure of values about policing and police practices. Both citizens of the damaged neighborhoods and the attending police were interviewed to determine the degree of consensus/dissensus concerning ideal and actual priorities of policing during the crisis period. The findings reveal a remarkable degree of consensus among citizens and the police. The implications for a consensus versus a conflict view of policing are discussed.

The themes of accessibility and accountability have come to dominate the police reform agenda in the UK. They are evident, especially, in the rhetoric of ‘neighbourhood policing’, which has been delivered across England and Wales, and in the ‘policing pledge’, which sets out a series of commitments regarding what the public can expect from their local police service. This paper is concerned with exploring these themes and their application in neighbourhood policing. It examines how officers in two police services have sought to implement the requirements of neighbourhood policing and the policing pledge in terms of improving accessibility and accountability of local policing. In doing so, it focuses on arrangements for consulting with members of the public, providing updates regarding their actions and outcomes in addressing local problems and on the provision of data and maps about crime problems. Practice implications are identified.

The purpose of this study is to explore how a large UK police force – Greater Manchester Police (GMP) – sought during a period of continuing budget reductions to take a cost-effective approach to certain types of fraud through the establishment of a central Volume Fraud Team (VFT), which in turn would also have wider operational resource benefits across the force. It then explores the decision to merge that team with its existing serious and complex fraud team.

The research was undertaken over a period of two years by interview and desk review to explain the internal processes which underpinned the approach and the initial outcomes. It discusses why the approach was short lived as a consequence of other factors.

The paper sets out briefly the context of changes to the policing of fraud since 1979 and describes the GMP decision-making processes that established a centralised response to volume fraud and major (serious and complex) fraud. The paper assesses the available data on the approach and whether the changes facilitated a more effective means of addressing fraud and other internal policing priorities. It then discusses the decision in 2014 to merge the staff resources for volume and major frauds in response to identified policy trends in fraud investigations and changes in fraud reporting.

The single case study is limited in terms of focus and in applicability to the wider law enforcement response to fraud.

The research discusses practitioner issues arising from the complexities of balancing resources and priorities against changing trends and patterns of criminal activity in a specific area of policing.

The research is an original study into the internal and external change agendas, and there are, therefore, wider lessons for the policing of fraud in the UK.

The purpose of this paper was to assess the expectations of policing of citizens and police members in South Africa and to determine citizens' perceptions of the police.

The paper shows a cross‐sectional survey design was used. Stratified random samples of both the police (N=677) and the community (N=2,153) were taken in the North West Province of South Africa. The measuring battery for the community contained two sections, namely a section with biographical questions and items about contact with the police, neighbourhood concerns and confidence in the police, and a section about expectations. The measuring battery for police members also included two sections, namely a section with biographical questions, and a section with questions about their (police members') perceptions of the community's expectations.

The paper finds that regarding community expectations, a principal component analysis with a direct oblimin rotation resulted in four internally consistent factors, namely crime prevention, crime investigation, control, and assistance. The results showed that members of the community and the police differ regarding perceptions of present policing priorities. Most police members reported that their performance in serving the community was good, while a total of 47 percent of community members who had contact with the police showed little confidence in the police, and 44 percent felt dissatisfied with the service they received from the police.

The paper researches the relationship between what the community expects of the police and the perception police members have of their functions in only one province in South Africa. More research into expectations in other provinces is needed.

The results of this paper can be used as a baseline for future studies of the expectations of, and satisfaction with, the police in South Africa.

The purpose of this study is to assess, since the 2006 Fraud Review, recommendations, strategies and consequential organisational and other changes at national, regional and local levels relating to fraud, using the Northeast as a case study. It also notes that implementation may have been influenced by institutional changes and related emerging governmental policy agendas and institutional changes relating to organised crime, terrorism and cybercrime.

The research for the paper was undertaken by desk reviews of primary and secondary material. The paper also involved face-to-face interviews with personnel from the regional fraud unit and the three North-east police forces’ fraud units. The interviews were semi-structured and were conducted on grounds of anonymity for the personnel and the forces involved, with a focus on trends and issues. The personnel were invited to comment on a draft of the paper in terms of accuracy of the information they provided; no revisions or additions were proposed. Interpretation of that information is the sole responsibility of the author.

The paper finds that, despite the decade since the Fraud Review, issues of effectiveness or relevance of national fraud strategies, absence of incentives and identifiable benefits and continuous influence of competing agendas on police priorities continue to marginalise fraud as a mainstream police function and limit the level of resource committed to what also continues to be a rising area of criminality.

The research looks at the recommendations, strategies and consequential organisational and other changes at national, regional and local levels through implementation by four policing units in the North-east. It also notes that implementation may have been influenced by institutional changes and related emerging governmental policy agendas and institutional changes relating to organised crime, terrorism and cybercrime. While the research is limited in that, it draws on the experience of three local and one regional fraud unit; its findings support further research about the implementation of strategies and agendas in practice on the ground.

The research validates many of the findings by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) and supports the need to review national strategies to ensure effective implementation at local level for what also continues to be a rising area of criminality.

The research raises important issues concerning public concern over fraud where majority of frauds are of high volume, low value with low levels of recovery and usually targeted at individuals but where the policing responses are targeted elsewhere.

The research is the first study on the local implementation of national strategies on fraud and raises positive and less positive aspects of how far national strategies and intentions are addressed on the ground.

This paper aims to explore the tripart relationship between British police officers, Local Authority representatives and community members based on a Midlands neighbourhood case study. It focuses on experiences of the strengths and challenges with working towards a common purpose of community safety and resilience building.

Data was collected in 2019 prior to enforced COVID lockdown restrictions following Staffordshire University ethical approval. An inductive qualitative methods approach of semi-structured individual and group interviews was used with community members (N = 30) and professionals (N = 15), using a purposive and snowball sample. A steering group with academic, police and Local Authority representation co-designed the study and identified the first tier of participants.

Community members and professionals valued tripart working and perceived communication, visibility, longevity and trust as key to addressing localised community safety issues. Challenges were raised around communication modes and frequency, cultural barriers to accessing information and inadequate resources and responses to issues. Environmental crime was a high priority for community members, along with tackling drug-related crime and diverting youth disorder, which concurred with police concern. However, the anti-terrorism agenda was a pre-occupation for the Local Authority, and school concerns included modern slavery crime.

When state involvement and investment in neighbourhoods decline, community member activism enthusiasm for neighbourhood improvement reduces, contrasting with government expectations. Community members are committed partnership workers who require the state to visibly and demonstrably engage. Faith in state actors can be restored when professionals are consistently present, communicate and follow up on actions.

This 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.

Informed 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.

The 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.

Given 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.

If 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.

The paper presents a new and original set of patrolling styles of the police officer.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the negotiation of boundaries of strategic vs operational responsibility between Chief Constables and Police Crime Commissioners (PCCs).

The discussion reflects on interviews with Chief Constables (n=11) and PCCs (n=11) in matched pairs, exploring the relationship between the two figures, specifically in relation to the issue of the operational independence of the Chief Constable in the new accountability structure.

The findings demonstrate that experiences vary and depend on the particular personalities and experience of the individuals involved. PCCs were particularly likely to test the boundary of operational vs strategic responsibility in relation to issues which had been brought to their attention by members of their electorate.

Future research could seek a larger sample as it is possible that those areas where real tensions existed declined to participate. Given the findings, it would also be informative to revisit the topic in the run-up to the next PCC elections.

The (re)negotiation of boundaries may become the norm given that both roles are subject to reassignment at short notice, and may become particularly salient in the run-up to future PCC elections. Crucial policing decisions which affect everyone are inevitably influenced by these background negotiations.

Previous research has not been based on interviews with both PCCs and their respective Chief Constables, and hence there is dearth of material which reflects on the relationships between these two powerful individuals and their ongoing negotiations of issues with real practical and conceptual implications.

The purpose of this article is to present the findings of research into the impact of a new performance system for the police in The Netherlands.

For this research, the international literature about the effects and side effects of performance steering in the public sector was scanned and more than 150 local stakeholders in five Dutch police regions were interviewed in semi‐open interviews, using a checklist. The study analyzed the specific impact of the results‐based agreements in various branches.

On the whole, the police do not get isolated as a consequence of the results‐based agreements and they do not disassociate themselves from the societal networks they participated in before. The authors offer several explanations why many of the expected negative effects have not occurred.

Valuable in this article is the focus on the situational context and the implementation context for an adequate assessment of the significance of performance‐based steering of the police in practice. It gives an update of the Dutch state of affairs and recommends another starting point for police performance measurement in the near future.