EXAM CONTENT POLICE AND POLICING

• Police History: Development, reform, crisis

  • 1829 Metropolitan Police Act: First professional force (London only): principle of 'citizens in uniform'; "The police are the people & the people are the police" (Robert Peel): Required to maintain public's 'Willing cooperation'.
• Police History: Crisis

  • Policing in Crisis? 1970s, 1980s: Corruption scandals, accountability, inefficiency, public order tactics, militarisation & politicisation; powers regulated by PACE 1984.
  • 1990s, 2000s: Miscarriages of justice, institutional racism (Stephen Lawrence murder), austerity & compromise
• Sources of Police Legitimacy

  Reiner (2010)

  Bureaucracy – chain of command

  Rule of law – check on powers

  Minimal use of force – key strategy

  Non-partisanship – independence

  Accountability – to courts, public

  Service role – informal tasks

  Prevention – over detection

  Effectiveness – provision of redress
• Current issues for the Police

  INTERNAL ISSUES

  • Reform of police structure (to meet demands of online & cross border crime)
  • Budgets & staffing
  • managing funding arrangements
  • Recruiting and Training new officers
  • increasing officer diversity
  • Policing diverse communities
  • Legitimacy -Everard Rape and murder
• Current issues for the Police

  CRIME ISSUES

  • Policing COVID
  • Responding to vulnerable & mentally ill
  • Domestice Violence
  • Knife crime
  • County lines drug offending
  • Public order (Brexit, extinction rebellion)
  • Terrorisom (threat level; radicalisation), organised crime
• Why does Police Culture Matter?

  • Organisational culture: A 'deeper level of basic assumptions and beliefs that are shared by members of an organisation, that operate unconsciously and define in a basic and take for granted fashion as organisation's view of itself and its environment' (Shein, Organisational Culture and Leadership, 1985: p.6).
• Why does Police Culture Matter?

  • How they interact with the various individuals & groups they encounter
  • Whether they ignore behaviour, issue a warning, or make an arrest
  • How they respond to argumentative, aggressive, fleeing suspects
  • Whether they will back up corrupt behaviour among colleagues
  • Whether their notes, arrests reports & testimony, will reflect reality
  • Whether they will police citizens with equality & fairness
• Police culture: Alternative Accounts

  identification of a range of police cultures

  • Elizabeth Reuss-Ianni (Two Cultures of Policing, 1982): street cops and management cops + Competing & conflicting cultures in modern urban policing
  • Street cop culture: Key focus on research; action-orientation, work of frontline officers: danger & excitement of crime fighting
  • Management cop culture: Organised, strategic, good communicators; Move beyond street cop culture to secure promotion; join "bosses & lose trust of street officers.
• Police culture: Alternative Accounts

  Identification of a range of police cultures

  • Differences within Police Culture: Urban & rural; uniform & detective; officers, middle management, command; differences based on sex, gender, ethnicity, age
  • Cultural barriers to change: risk aversion & blame culture; hierarchy & rank structure; no support for innovation; little long term planning
• Police Diversity in 2020: Could Do Better

  • BBC News, 10 June 2020 - 'Black Lives Matter: Police Diversity Does Not Reflect UK Society'
  • UK's first Black chief constable, Mike Fuller: Representation "very poor" at all levels; "people can't look to the police service and feel it reflects the society that it serves"
  • Home Office: Diversity improved, but further to go
  • England & Wales: 6.9% officers from ethnic minority backgrounds population = 14%
  • Mr Fuller: "The perception among a lot of young black people in particular, is that policing is not provided in a fair and equitable way"
• Police Diversity in 2022: Broken?

  • IOPC Report into Charing Cross Police station
  • Mysogyny, homophobia and racism
• A record number of police offices - BUT

  • July 2019: Boris Johnson commits to reverse loss of 20,000 officers during ten years of austerity by 2023
  • March 2019: 123,189
  • March 2023: 147,440 (+24,251)
• The Casey Report

  • “Sergeants and Inspectors are expected to manage very large numbers of constables and junior staff as a core feature of their work, without the time and the tools to do so.” (p.11)
  • “vetting processes are not vigilant ” (p.12)
• The Casey Report

  • •“…the pace and speed that the Government expects policing to deliver a significant uplift has contributed towards senior staff and officers in Met HO … seeming more concerned about hitting the recruitment target numbers for financial reasons…than about meeting objectives to address demand pressures, broaden the skill base or improve the diversity of the Met, or how this uplift contributes to a workforce plan” (p.77)
• What is the relationship between Public and Private security?

  • Are they complementary or conflicting?
  • Are they partners in crime prevention or does private security encroach on jurisdiction of public police?
  • Is Private security passive (focused on surveillance) & public active (focused on investigation)? Or do both do both?
  • Shearing and Stenning (1981): Private security industry aims to avoid hostility by emphasising prevention over investigation

  Key aspects of relationships:

  • Interchange of personnel
  • Use of each others services
  • Blurring of public and Private
• Private Policing: A global phenomenon

  • Private security workers now outnumber police officers in many countries.
  • Private guards in shopping malls, hotels, gated communities, schools
  • Private surveillance providers
  • Alarm monitoring
  • Street Patrols
  • Armed Transport
  • UK, 2015 policing employment - 151,000 police officers, 232,000 private guards
• DIVERSITY: The Good News

  • The proportion of police officers in E&W identifying as an 'ethnic minority (excluding white minorities)' rose from 4.7% in 2010 to 8.4% in march 2023
  • The proportion of female officers in E&W is now the highest ever rising 25.7% in 2010 to 34.7% in march 2023
  • 30% of chief officer roles were held by women. 5/10 most senior roles in the Met are held by women
• Diversity: The less good news

  • 8.4% & of police officers in E&W 'identify as ethnic minorities (excluding white minorities)'
  • 18.3% identified as being from an ethnic group excluding white
  • 147,440 full time police officers in E&W
  • 11,966 identify as an ethnic group (other than white)
• Private security: "The industry go inequality"

  • “The problem is that pluralizing under market auspices at present does not improve security equally across society. It favors institutions & individuals that are well-to-do.
  • "Commercial policing not balanced either by voluntary neighborhood crime prevention or by public policing…leads to the inequitable distribution of security along class lines."
• Private security: "The industry go inequality"

  • If public safety is considered a general responsibility of government, perhaps even a human right, then increased reliance on commercial private policing represents a growing injustice”.  (Bayley & Shearing, 1996)
  • And if the rich opt out because they are paying twice, the result may be “a poor police policing the poor” (Bayley, 1994. Police for the Future, p.144)
• Paying for peace: The haves & have nots

  A firm led by former Scotland Yard senior officers has successfully prosecuted more than 400 criminals and is now carrying out murder inquiries.

  TM Eye, which has a 100% conviction rate, is thought to bring more private prosecutions than any other organisation besides the RSPCA

  Met Police Federation Chairmen Ken Marsh described the rise of private detectives as a 'Staggering indictment' of the state of policing.
• Paying for Peace: the haves & the have nots

  ‘Eventually there will be a two-tier system with the haves and the have-nots, and if you have money and live in a £20million house in Chelsea you can pay for private security,’ he said. (Mail online February 2018)
• Police Accountability

  • Police Accountability and the IOPC (formerly the IPCC) - a brief overview
  • what is police corruption?
  • Deaths following police contact and police use of firearms
  • The Fatal shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes in 2005
  • The IPCC investigation
• Challenges for the Investigation (de Menezes case)

  • The IPCC was new and inexperienced - established April 2004
  • Delay in referring the investigation
  • Missing/ Faulty cctv
  • Police and witnesses give conflicting accounts about whether a warning was given
  • Officers delay and collaborate in writing their notes. Refuse to answer questions in interview
  • Surveillance log altered
  • disinformation about Jean Charles de Menezes
  • inaccurate information provided by the MPS