Policing: An introduction to concepts and practice

Alan Wright

• Publisher: Willan
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9781903240182
• eBook ISBN: 9781135997069
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Criminology
• Index: Social Sciences

This book provides a highly readable introduction to the role and function of the police and policing, examining the issues and debates that surround this. It looks at the 'core functions' of the police, the ways in which police functions have developed, their key characteristics, and the challenges they face. From the outset questions are asked about the conceptual contestability and ambiguity of policing, and different views of police roles are addressed in turn: policing as social control, crime investigation, managing risk, policing as community justice, and as a public good.

Chapter 1
The rise and fall of modern policing

This opening chapter sets out a critical account of the police as a modern institution. Beginning with everyday ideas about police work, it examines the factors that influence our understanding of the subject. It discusses the contemporary debate on the police, focusing particularly on the crisis in policing over the decades since the 1960s. As a preliminary to the more positive account of policing later in this book, this chapter summarises the influences that have led to this state of affairs. It argues that the paradigms of thought that underpin modernity have served to influence both the rise and fall of the modern police. The time is now right for a reappraisal of policing in the light of new conditions.

The arguments of this chapter are set out in five parts. The first examines some basic ideas about the nature of police work, drawn from everyday knowledge and from criminological studies. This section begins to indicate why we need to get beneath the surface to develop a deeper understanding of the concept of policing. The second part of this chapter explores the origins of the police and the way it has developed within the modern state. This includes a review of the founding of the professional police in the nineteenth century as a rational move by the state to deal with specific problems. The third part examines how the modern police developed as a mechanism for the promotion of social order and discusses the implications of that role for liberty in Victorian Britain. The fourth part explores the contemporary police in more detail. It raises the question of whether the police are now experiencing a form of crisis that is beginning radically to alter its character. It questions the extent to which the police institution can survive the pressures that now challenge its very legitimacy. The concluding part of the chapter addresses the central question, ‘What is policing?’ from the perspective of a number of influential criminological studies. It suggests that the catalogue of failure that these studies represents diverts attention away from a more positive account of policing which can be constructed from the changing social and political conditions of the present.

Police work

What is police work and how do we acquire our knowledge about it? Initially, it may appear relatively easy to describe police work simply by listing the kinds of tasks and activities carried out by the police. We may see police officers going about their work and we can gain insight into what they are doing in a variety of ways: through direct contact or indirectly from people who have such contact. More often, because for most people direct contact with the police is a comparative rarity, it comes from the media. Both documentary and fictional accounts of police work provide important sources of our perceptions. In Britain, television programmes such as Crimewatch UK, The Bill and The Thin Blue Line, however, each provide very different perspectives on police work. For readers who are unfamiliar with these programmes, Crimewatch UK provides factual accounts of unsolved serious crime and its investigation and encourages the public to come forward with information. The Bill is a series that dramatises the work of police in a city police division, highlighting the professional and private lives of those involved. (The name of the series is drawn from the Victorian nickname for the London police, namely, the ‘Old Bill’.) The Thin Blue Line is a comedy series lampooning police work in a local police station.

Depending on what we prefer to watch, these programmes produce very different perceptions of the nature of police work. We can make a similar point about the diversity of representation of the police in the US in programmes such as NYPD Blue, Hill Street Blues or on CNN news. Fly-on-the-wall documentaries and public appeal programmes such as Crimewatch UK provide information that may seem closer to reality, although even they do not give an objective overview of the whole field. In fact, although television programmes make up a very large proportion of public knowledge about police work, it is knowledge that is often partial, fragmentary and incomplete. In contrast, the task of this book is to analyse and assess the realities behind these perceptions: to establish a more cohesive account of policing than that available from everyday experience.

At the simplest level of analysis, the tasks carried out by the police reflect the reality of police work. For example, we can gain a very basic insight into what the police do by looking at the career of a police officer in Britain, which may span many years and encompass a number of roles. For the first two years in the service, officers work in a local police unit as uniformed probationary constables. During this time, they receive a considerable amount of training in law and policing skills, from basic training to training on the job. This includes tutoring by more experienced officers before constables are ready for independent patrol. Thereafter, their work includes such things as foot and motor patrols, dealing with reports of crime, traffic accidents, motoring offences, public disorder, emergencies and other incidents. They also respond to a variety of calls for service from the public. Increasing demands upon the police in recent years mean that police work is often concerned with reacting to such calls. However, they are also encouraged to engage with community-based activities, such as crime prevention and local problem-solving.

After two or three years, officers may continue in local uniformed policing or may apply to carry out more specialised work. This could include roles such as crime investigation, traffic patrol work, public order or community policing. Some specialist roles have even more specialised pathways within them. These include accident investigation, criminal intelligence, surveillance and community liaison work. Although some specialist work is local, in many cases special units or squads carry out the work. Murder squads, drugs squads and other units are often part of the central structure of police forces, although they may be part of local commands in some places. Other units, such as the National Crime Squad (NCS) and National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS), carry out investigations and provide intelligence on organised and cross-border crime. They are not part of local police forces but are autonomous policing agencies. Even if they go into such specialist police work, many officers return to ordinary duty later in their careers. After two years as a probationary constable, an officer can start to think about taking the first steps on the ladder to supervisory rank. A variety of management tasks, including such things as the supervision of the arrest, detention and questioning of suspects, are included in the work of those who take this route.

The purpose of this very basic account is simply to indicate the kinds of roles that police work entails. Of course, not every police officer will carry out every role. An elementary catalogue, however, starts to emerge. Even in the comparatively brief assessment offered above we can already identify the following:

• foot patrols;
• motor patrols;
• responding to incidents and emergencies;
• dealing with public disorder;
• crime investigation;
• criminal intelligence;
• surveillance;
• crime prevention;
• local problem-solving;
• community policing;
• dealing with motoring offences;
• dealing with traffic accidents;
• specialised traffic patrols;
• traffic accident investigation;
• supervising arrest, questioning and detention.

This list is not exhaustive. Many readers, especially police officers and those who have made a study of policing, will be able to add to it. What it shows, however, is that police work involves an evident diversity of tasks and activities. As Manning (1977) argues, however, police work is not what it may seem on the surface. It is often full of ambiguity, especially where there is controversy about its functions, effectiveness or legitimacy. For this reason, at every level, whether in ordinary duty or specialist roles, police officers need to reflect on the nature of policing in order to make sense of its complexities. From their very earliest days in the service, a police officer may meet difficult circumstances. However, the public does not lower its expectations because an officer has only limited experience.

Criminological studies of police work have sought to show the relative proportions of the types of work carried out by the police. For example, Shapland and Vagg (1988) suggest that dealing with ‘potential crime’ amounts to 53 per cent of police work; social disorder 20 per cent; information and service 18 per cent; and traffic 8 per cent. Bayley (1996: 39) in contrast, in a study aggregated across a number of countries, suggests that patrol work amounts to 59 per cent; criminal investigation 15 per cent; operational support 11 per cent; traffic 8 per cent; administration 8 per cent; and crime prevention 3 per cent. Although there are apparent similarities in category in these studies, the differences in quantification show the need for extreme care in identifying what is counted in particular cases. Other criminologists postulate models that cluster the different categories of police work. Fielding (1996: 42–59), for example, argues that three models characterise policing, namely the enforcement, service and community models. The enforcement model concentrates on the control of crime and enforcement of the law. The service model sets policing priorities for dealing with crime control, order maintenance and service delivery in consultation with the public. The community model gives priority to maintaining public tranquillity over crime control. Police and public share responsibility for dealing with crime and disorder. There is, he says, ‘no perfect model of policing and it is probably necessary to borrow elements from each model to arrive at a police service that meets all the demands of the public’ (Fielding, 1996: 42–3). In many ways, this is a more useful approach for our purposes. As will be evident from Chapter 2 onwards, this is the method we will adopt in this book, clustering and comparing in order to interpret, rather than quantifying different categories to put forward a scientific theory of policing.

The criminological literature also provides us with other kinds of information about police work, including criticism of the way the police operate. Many scholarly and research-based texts follow this critical approach. We will discuss this critical trend later in this chapter. However, it is noticeable that such texts usually refer to the work of ‘the police’ rather than to the concept of ‘policing’ per se. The problem is that if we specify our study as that of ‘the police’ we are already starting to make assumptions about the concept that interests us. Reiner’s (1992a, 2000a) The Politics of the Police specifically focuses on the development of the police in modern society. This enables him to interpret the nature of the police organisation, its history, culture and social construction. Similarly, Bayley’s (1994) Police for the Future focuses on the way in which the police (in the US and elsewhere) should adopt a more community-based approach to crime prevention. Again, it is worth emphasising how concepts delimit and qualify the ways in which we might think of the police institution. It is important to remember, however, that studies of the police are not necessarily theories of policing. As we shall see in Chapter 2, there are good reasons for expanding our understanding of policing beyond this focus on the police. As Fielding (1996) suggests, it is as much the role of criminologists to make the logic of policing clear as to provide an empirical critique of the work of the police. Indeed in recent years, writers such as Johnston (1992; 2000) have extended the debate on policing far beyond discussion of the public police alone.

Although sociologists may have a different view, historical accounts are as relevant to our understanding of policing as are those based upon scientific research. Historical accounts of the work of the police are a primary means through which we can assess its relation to the state and its record in ensuring or denying the liberty of citizens. This applies particularly to the form of police introduced in early nineteenth-century Britain. It is also interesting to consider even earlier forms of policing and to assess the historical trajectory of which both they and the modern police are part. Although this book focuses on British policing, comparative studies also are helpful. There are certainly similarities in police work across the world. However, as Mawby (1990) shows, it is dangerous to assume too much from the superficial similarities in policing in different jurisdictions. There are also differences in constitutions, history and operating styles. The British and US models of policing, for example, have aspects that remain, to some extent, local. The fact that police accountability in both Britain and the US often includes a degree of local public involvement makes a difference to police work on the streets. It is in this sense that we can safely talk about ‘the British policing tradition’. In contrast, policing in some European states has so far shown a higher degree of centralisation and state control than that in Britain or the US. As we discuss in Chapter 3, this affects the policing of public disorder. In former totalitarian regimes, it also affects the viability of involving local people in anything resembling community policing. The implication of these points is that it is well worth looking at the context within which policing has developed. For this reason, throughout this book we will draw upon historical sources in addition to conceptual and empirical studies.

The rise of the modern police

The modern police developed in the nineteenth century as the specific response of the state to problems of crime and security. For those who accepted the civil authority of the state, this represented a rational development. As such, it was considered appropriate to develop legitimate institutions to protect the life, liberty and property of citizens within the rule of law. However, whether the police promote order and provide protection or simply provide a means of state oppression geared to class interests is an important question for those studying the rise of policing. To answer it, we must seek evidence in the historical development of the police institution. The study of policing before the police helps us to understand the changes in conditions that led to the foundation of the ‘new police’. This new departure in keeping order was to some extent based upon perceptions of the failure of older methods. The following can only be a sketch of the terrain. Detailed discussions are to be found in specialised accounts of police history such as that of Emsley (1996a, 1996b) and Rawlings (2002).

In most of medieval Europe, the system of feudal land tenure provided private jurisdictions for keeping order. Military commitment of the vassal to the lord in exchange for grants of land was the main feature of the system. Ultimately, the king held all land as feudal superior. In Britain, the soke or district, in which the lord had private jurisdiction over free-men, came from Danelaw and existed well into the second millennium. The use of mercenary armies, however, gradually led to the decline of the feudal system and the rise of the system of royal justice. In Britain, royal power was absolute, especially after the Norman Conquest. However, it often had little direct effect. On the contrary, pre-modern law and order in England was largely localised and community based. As such, policing before the police continued to follow the earlier model of the Anglo-Saxon tithing-man, responsible for keeping the peace and enforcing the law within his group. The local focus of order had a longer-term impact. In the eleventh century, the Normans developed the system of constables from these earlier Anglo-Saxon structures (Reith, 1943: 14). The descendents of the Norman constable existed in some parts of England well into the nineteenth century (Emsley, 1996a: 11–23).

In 1285, the Statute of Winchester gave a more formal sense of legitimacy to these local measures for keeping order. It also gave militia-style roles to armed freemen under the so-called Assize of Arms. Importantly for policing, it provided for watch and ward guards for local communities. Later, the Justice of the Peace Act 1361 also provided conservators of the peace to ensure order in counties and boroughs. However, as Choong (1997: 2–3) suggests, until the mid-seventeenth century, the theory of governance under which these measures were enacted was that in which absolute power lay with the Crown. Parliamentary rule came only after the demise of the divine right of the monarchy in the English Civil War (Bill of Rights 1689). The rule of Parliament, however, did not imply universal franchise, even after the Reform Act of 1832. Nevertheless, these changes signalled the development of a state based more upon law and reason. The rise of a modern police was only possible after such a transition.

Economic change in the late seventeenth century also led to social and political change. The Industrial Revolution led to the rise of a property-owning middle class but also to an impoverished working class. As Hill (1969) remarks, summarising the changes to be observed in Britain in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries:

… we have moved from a backward economy to one on the threshold of industrial revolution: from an agricultural to an industrial economy … We have moved from a society in which it was taken for granted that a fully human existence was possible only for the narrow landed ruling class to a society in which an ideology of self help had permeated into the middle ranks.

(Hill, 1969: 287)

These changes also led to the growth of a large urban working class who provided labour for the new industries (Evans, 1996: 107). Concern for equality or moral restraint did not drive these developments. This was especially the case where commercial exploitation of workers or the proceeds of the slave trade were the basis for new wealth. As a result, the economic ground was far from level. There was widespread poverty. Social conditions were poor. Social and political unrest in the cities during this time provided problems of order that were categorically different to those of pre-modern Britain (Evans, 1996: 147–75). This called for a form of policing different from that which was appropriate to largely agricultural communities.

Emsley sets out details of the events leading to the setting up of the Metropolitan Police in 1829. According to Emsley:

Developments in the last decade of the eighteenth and first quarter of the nineteenth centuries took place against a background of increasing debate about the state of the police in the metropolis, with the word ‘police’ increasingly being used to describe the system for maintaining public order, for preventing theft and for detecting offenders.

(Emsley, 1996a: 21–2)

Rising crime and disorder provided the impetus for a new police for London. Although a Tory, Peel was committed both to reform and to social order. He s...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Figures
• Preface
• Introduction
• 1 The rise and fall of modern policing
• 2 Policing as a rational function: back to basics?
• 3 Peacekeeping: policing as social order
• 4 Policing as crime investigation
• 5 Policing as the management of risk
• 6 Policing as community justice
• 7 The politics of policing
• References
• Index