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1 – 10 of over 30000Harry Barton and Malcolm J. Beynon
The UK police service has a major challenge to introduce innovative ways of improving efficiency and productivity, whilst at the same time improving public opinion as to their…
Abstract
Purpose
The UK police service has a major challenge to introduce innovative ways of improving efficiency and productivity, whilst at the same time improving public opinion as to their effectiveness in the “fight against crime”. The purpose of this paper is to outline an exploratory study of the ability to cluster police forces based on their sanction detection levels over a number of different offence groups and whether these clusters have different associated public opinions towards them.
Design/methodology/approach
Using secondary data and the fuzzy c‐means clustering technique to exposit clusters of police forces based on sanction detection levels, relating them in a statistical analysis with public opinion on the police.
Findings
The clustering analysis shows how police forces can be considered relative to each other, based on their sanction detection levels of certain offence groups, including; burglary, fraud and forgery and criminal damage. Using the established clusters of police forces, in respect of independent variables relating to public opinion, including confidence in police; there does appear to be statistically significant differences amongst the clusters of police force.
Research limitations/implications
The results demonstrate the connection between the police's attempt to fight crime and public opinion. With the public opinion measures considered post the establishing of police forces’ clusters, the results show the public does notice the level of sanction detections achieved. The identified disconnect of the public with the criminal justice system is something that can be improved on in the future.
Practical implications
Demonstrates that there is a significant link in the relationship between the levels of sanction detection levels of police forces and public opinion about their ability to fight crime.
Originality/value
This paper employs fuzzy c‐means, a modern clustering technique nascent in this area of research.
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During the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the onslaught of flooding, the single most important role for government and the public sphere was deemed to be law and…
Abstract
During the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the onslaught of flooding, the single most important role for government and the public sphere was deemed to be law and order, at times to the exclusion of other public responsibilities. Law and order were articulated almost exclusively as a policing matter with the emphasis on order rather than law. Policing took different public and private forms in the early days of the flooding. This chapter examines the nature of that policing and the unquestioned presence of private police as a key element of the law and order response to Katrina in New Orleans.
Xiaochen Hu and Nicholas P. Lovrich
Purpose: For contemporary policing, the police–public communication process is one of the most essential elements of law enforcement management. The promotion of police–public…
Abstract
Purpose: For contemporary policing, the police–public communication process is one of the most essential elements of law enforcement management. The promotion of police–public relations, police integrity, and police accountability all depend upon effective communication. While ever a challenge for law enforcement agencies, the coming of the COVID-19 pandemic changed substantially the character of both mediated and interpersonal communication between the police and those policed as of 2020.
Methodology/Approach: Building upon the concept of electronic community-oriented policing (E-COP), this chapter proposes an expanded theoretical model of police–public online communication during a time in which in-person contacts are constrained and various forms of mediated communication assume major importance.
Findings: Using a sample of COVID-related police Facebook posts collected between February 1 and May 31, 2020, this chapter illustrates how the expanded E-COP model is helpful in orchestrating an effective police response to a major public health emergency. It also advances the argument that police–public online communication will be not only become widely used during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, but will likely become routinized.
Originality/Value: The proposed model also provides practical suggestions for law enforcement agency leaders who endeavor to advance the goals of community-oriented and guardianship-directed policing. Some likely barriers to more effective use of social media are singled out for special attention.
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Jens Sjöberg, Cecilia Cassinger and Renira Rampazzo Gambarato
The research aim of this article is to generate novel insights into how public sector organizations (PSOs) strategically communicate with the public about critical issues on…
Abstract
Purpose
The research aim of this article is to generate novel insights into how public sector organizations (PSOs) strategically communicate with the public about critical issues on social media. To this end, the study explores the public's experiences of the Swedish Police's sense of safety communication on Instagram in the third largest city in Sweden, where the lack of a sense of public safety is a main societal challenge.
Design/methodology/approach
The research was designed as a case study employing photo-elicitation interviews as a method to collect the empirical material. A phenomenography approach was used to analyze public experiences of the Swedish Police's Instagram communication in Malmö, Sweden.
Findings
Findings show that the police's strategic communication of safety on Instagram is experienced along the dimensions of a sense of protection, a sense of proximity and a sense of ambiguity. Taken together, these dimensions broaden and develop the knowledge of what communicating a sense of safety in the public sphere entails.
Originality/value
This study adds to previous research on strategic communication in public sector organizations by demonstrating what strategic communication accomplishes at the receiving end outside of the organization.
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Stewart Selase Hevi, Gifty Enyonam Ketemepi, Caroline Dorkoo and Akorfa Wuttor
This paper aims to investigate how community policing experience elicits public trust in the police, citizens’ psychological safety and community well-being in Ghana.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate how community policing experience elicits public trust in the police, citizens’ psychological safety and community well-being in Ghana.
Design/methodology/approach
A cluster sampling technique was used in the selection of 474 community members, who answered questions relating to community policing experience, public trust in the police, citizens’ psychological safety and community well-being. Structural equation modelling was employed to test the relationships and effects of the hypothesized paths.
Findings
The findings showed that community policing experience was positively related to public trust in the police, citizens’ psychological safety and community well-being in Ghana.
Research limitations/implications
Mediation does not fall within the scope of the current study; hence, issues of indirect effects among the variables were not examined. Nevertheless, future studies should consider investigating the phenomenon through mediation analysis.
Practical implications
The study further highlights that probable negative consequences of divulging information to the police about potential or actual crime may hinder citizens from engaging with police. Hence, police administrators must find ways to conceal identities of whistle blowers on crime and its related issues, so they do not suffer any personal cost.
Originality/value
In this research, the academic scope of community policing was expanded by linking the concepts of public trust in police, citizens’ psychological safety and community well-being, which the study admits has been undertaken separately in empirical policing literature but not within the context of developing countries such as Ghana.
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– The purpose of this paper is to examine key factors responsible for unwillingness of Russian respondents to contact police in life-threatening situations.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine key factors responsible for unwillingness of Russian respondents to contact police in life-threatening situations.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is based on a survey data (n=5,088) collected during 1998-2007 in Volgograd, Russia. The multivariate regression is employed for data analysis.
Findings
Findings of this study suggest that pervasive public distrust and dissatisfaction of police institution coupled with fear of police abuse and negative previous experiences with crime reporting are responsible for citizens’ unwillingness to contact Russian police.
Research limitations/implications
The findings imply that both instrumental and normative approaches to the police legitimacy are useful when explaining the issues of public-police cooperation in Russia.
Practical implications
Paper also has practical implications pertinent to the 2011 police reform in Russia.
Originality/value
The study also provides an original empirical research in previously under-research area of public-police cooperation in Russia and advances the understanding of Russian police by using the process-based model of policing.
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Carlos Wing‐Hung Lo and Albert Chun‐Yin Cheuk
This paper is an in‐depth analysis of community policing in Hong Kong. It includes an outline of the evolution of community policing in Hong Kong, identifies the structural…
Abstract
This paper is an in‐depth analysis of community policing in Hong Kong. It includes an outline of the evolution of community policing in Hong Kong, identifies the structural arrangements for the practice of community policing, examines major community‐based programs that have been launched, evaluates the performance of this strategy, and considers constraints on these policy initiatives. It shows that this community effort has already gone beyond the confines of promoting community relations in Hong Kong. The results have been encouraging. They include a significant improvement in the quality of police‐public interactions, the engagement of the public and their increased support in crime control and prevention, and the beginning of the conversion of traditional police enforcement to that of police services. However, the Force's use of community policing schemes predominantly for the pragmatic purpose of crime control has accounted for the lack of breakthroughs in forging a strategic partnership with the public to promote a secure and harmonious environment.
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Alana Saulnier and Scott N. Thompson
The purpose of this paper is to explore institutional realities and public perceptions of police use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in Canada in relation to each other…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore institutional realities and public perceptions of police use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in Canada in relation to each other, drawing attention to areas of public misunderstanding and concern.
Design/methodology/approach
Public perceptions data are drawn from a national survey (n=3,045) of UAV use. Institutional realities data are drawn from content analyses of all Special Flight Operation Certificates issued by Transport Canada from 2007 to 2012 and flight logs of a regional service kept from 2011 to 2013. Officer interviews (n=2) also provide qualitative insights on institutional realities from this same regional service.
Findings
The data reveal disparities between institutional realities and public perceptions. Although federal, provincial and regional services currently use UAVs, awareness of police use of UAVs relative to traditionally piloted aircraft was low. Further, support for police use of UAVs was significantly lower than traditionally piloted craft; but, support also varied considerably across UAV applications, with the greatest opposition tied to tasks for which police do not report using UAVs and the greatest support tied to tasks for which police report using UAVs.
Originality/value
This research provides previously unknown descriptive data on the institutional realities of police use of UAVs in Canada, positioning that knowledge in relation to public perceptions of police use of the technology. The findings raise concerns over how UAVs may negatively shape police/civilian relations based on procedural justice literature which demonstrates that a lack of public support for the technology may affect the police more broadly.
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The purpose of this paper is to incorporate historical theories of political economy as means better to clarify and classify contemporary state police and private policing…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to incorporate historical theories of political economy as means better to clarify and classify contemporary state police and private policing practices.
Design/methodology/approach
A diverse historical investigation of largely, non‐traditional public police history was conducted by utilizing a selective variety of social, political, and economic sources.
Findings
The paper finds that several theoretical features of eighteenth and nineteenth century Marxian, classical, and neoclassical political economy have contributed in defining the origins of contemporary American public police and private policing practices. Born from these perspectives, public goods theories frameworks, in conjunction with Wilson's police officer job function typologies in Varieties of Police Behavior, more clearly illustrate the current political and economically defined state supported police relative to private market arrangements.
Research limitations/implications
This research describes the positioning of this mixed economy in theoretical fashion, but does not provide contemporary private sector market growths or publicly supplied police trends that are a suitable next step for further research.
Practical implications
The public “monopoly” of state supported police is largely rejected. More interdisciplinary research approaches should be pursued in the twenty‐first century that better reflect the American political and economic realities of public and private forms of policing.
Originality/value
This paper is highly original when considering the paucity of theory utilized in describing simultaneous state and private policing scenarios.
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Julia Ryland and Benjamin D. Scher
This study uses autoethnography to examine the impact of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 on policing and public health in the UK. Bridging the gap between scholarly discourse and…
Abstract
Purpose
This study uses autoethnography to examine the impact of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 on policing and public health in the UK. Bridging the gap between scholarly discourse and practical law enforcement insights, this paper aims to highlight the cognitive dissonance experienced by frontline officers when using policing methods that conflict with evidence-based practices and personal values. It critiques routine police procedures, highlighting the ineffectiveness of criminal sanctions in reducing drug offences and the resultant damage to community trust and police legitimacy.
Design/methodology/approach
Using autoethnography and critical reflection that combines personal narrative and ethnographic observation, this paper presents a practitioner's perspective on the challenges of enforcing low-level drug offences. It integrates the author's experiences as a neighbourhood police officer in Camden Town, London, with theoretical analysis to highlight the practical realities of drug law enforcement at the intersection of law enforcement and public health.
Findings
This research reveals contradictions between current drug law enforcement strategies and public health objectives, and the consequences for law enforcement. It highlights the risks of limiting police discretion and preventing their ability to respond appropriately to complex needs. The paper emphasises the need for public health and trauma-informed policing strategies to mitigate the adverse effects on vulnerable and disadvantaged communities.
Practical implications
Improved public health outcomes: prioritising treatment and support over punishment. Adoption of trauma-informed practices: reducing marginalisation, stigma and improved experiences of police interaction. Improved trust and legitimacy: when the public perceive policing as fair and aligned with community values, it strengthens procedural justice and police legitimacy. Enhanced officer well-being: an improved working environment and experience, through more meaningful, impactful work and improved interactions and relationships with the public. Policy change: policymakers should recognise the discretionary role of police when developing drug policy and acknowledge the risks associated with enforcement approaches that conflict with community needs and broader policing objectives.
Originality/value
Offering a novel critique of prohibitionist drug policies within the British context, this paper advocates for a cultural shift towards public health and trauma-informed approaches in UK policing. It emphasises the importance of recognising police officers' discretionary role as “citizen-agents” and the integration law enforcement approaches with harm reduction initiatives for enhanced procedural justice and police legitimacy.
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