POLICING

MATTHEW COATES&

MEHZEB CHOWDHURY

ANCIENT LAW ENFORCEMENT• In ancient Egypt, law enforcement was led by

high-ranking officials, who carried the King’s symbols as a sign of allegiance to him

• In ancient Greece, under the ‘Epohri’ law enforcement system, Epohrs (five men elected to serve for a year) had investigative, judge, jury and executioner powers

• In Rome, Lictors served as body guards for public officials and carried out routine sentences

ANCIENT LAW ENFORCEMENT (continued)

• In England, the first organised law enforcement group were King Arthur’s knights of the round table.

• It followed with Alfred The Great’s (849 AD – 899 AD) ‘Mutual Pledge System.’

• The system was the first to implement ‘community-based’ policing.

LAW ENFORCEMENT IN MEDIEVAL ENGLAND

• 1066 AD – England invaded by William I, who set up the circuit judge system

• 1166 AD – Henry the Lawgiver established trial by jury of ‘one’s peers’ and classifies certain crimes (murder, robbery etc.) as felonies

• 1215 AD – Magna Carta ensured due process and civil liberties

• 1272 – 1304 AD – King Edward I set up curfew and nightwatch system and gave bailiffs powers of arrest

VEERING TOWARDS ‘THE BOBBY ON THE BEAT’

• 1326 AD – Edward II brought in the first Justice of the Peace, and a constable to assist him

• 1750 AD – Industrial Revolution instigated the increase of crime

• Civilian associations formed their own private police forces

• Birth of the ‘Bow Street Horse and Foot Patrol’ – which introduced first real detective unit

METROPOLITAN POLICE DEPARTMENT

• 1829 – Formation of the Metropolitan Police Force by Sir Robert Peel

• 1,000 uniformed officers called ‘Bobbies’ recruited and trained along military lines

• 1836 – Bow Street Patrol absorbed by the Met. Police Force

• 1836 – Justices of the Peace no longer referred to as such, instead, called Commissioners now

• 1842 – Detective Department formed

THE MODERN POLICE SYSTEM IN THE UNITED KINGDOM

• 1901 – Fingerprint Bureau formed• 1929 – Commencement of the ‘Police Box’

system on an experimental basis• 1935 - Metropolitan Police Forensic

Laboratory opened• 1963 – The first computer used by the Met (an

ICT 1301) set up in the Receiver’s office for use on pay and crime statistics

• 1964 – Police Act unified police governance

THE MODERN POLICE SYSTEM IN THE UNITED KINGDOM (continued)

• 1973 – Women are directly integrated into the police force

• 1980 – Formation of the Air Support Unit• 1986 – The Police and Criminal Evidence Act

(PACE) 1984 brought into effect• 1995 – UK National Criminal Intelligence DNA

Database set up• 1997 - Installation of N.A.F.I.S. the National

Automated Fingerprint Identification System

DYNAMICS OF MODERN DAY POLICING

• Territoriality and the Police

• The Governance of Policing and Security

• Cultural Construction of the Police

• Intelligence-based Policing

• Community Policing• Police Reform & Funding

• Sociological Constructions of the Police

• Occupational Stressors in Policing

• Police and Counterterrorism

• Criminal Profiling• International Cross-

Border Policing• Restorative Policing

TERRITORIALITY AND THE POLICE

• England and Wales – 42 Police Forces• Scotland – 8 regional Police Forces• Northern Ireland – 1 Police Force

GOVERNANCE OF POLICE AND SECURITY

• The 1964 Police Act brought a unified system of police governance

• Policing is not just about the single body of the 'police' but rather involves other agencies of social control

CULTURAL CONSTRUCTION OF THE POLICE

English 'bobby' seen as:•a faithful, incorruptible public servant who is unwavering in his commitment to the community•part of the 'thin blue line' between orderly and disorderly society•unarmed because he works with broad-based public consent and respect but 'armed' with prestige and street wisdom rather than power

INTELLIGENCE-BASED POLICING

• Collection and Analysis of Data• Leading to Allocation of Resources to Best

Respond to the Situation

COMMUNITY POLICING AND PARTNERSHIPS

• Three main aspects:– Presence of visible, accessible and locally known

figures in neighbourhoods– Community engagement– Application of targeted policing and problem

solving

POLICE REFORM AND FUNDING

• Police and Crime Commissioners created in 2012

• Government budget cuts causing problems for the police and policing

SOCIOLOGICAL CONSTRUCTIONS OF THE POLICE

• The police occupy an important segment of both sociological and criminological imagination

• Each construction alters the position and role of the police

• Criminological theorists and where they place the police in their respective theories makes for interesting reading

SOCIOLOGICAL CONSTRUCTIONS OF THE POLICE (continued)

• Classical criminology:– As offenders are rational choice actors, voluntarily

taking risks, the success of the police is measured in terms of their ability to deter criminals from committing crimes

– These can be through both situational and/or social crime controls

• Critical criminology– Holds the police as a state-controlled tool to regulate

citizens and manage conflict to reproduce the dominant social and economic order

– Class-based discrimination is undertaken by using the police

SOCIOLOGICAL CONSTRUCTIONS OF THE POLICE (further continued)

• Feminist Criminology:– Lack of female recruitment in the police until the

late 20th century illustrates the patriarchal institution that is the police

– Police are organisationally thought to be gender-biased due to alleged poor handling of domestic abuse, sexual assault and rape cases

– Police said to be state-funded and so state-run tools of oppression of women

OCCUPATIONAL STRESSORS IN POLICING

• It comes with the territory• Exposure to physical burnout and psychological

stress are considered ‘normal’ for personnel• Episodic stressors, such as active involvement in

criminal apprehension and traumatic incidents cause drainage of energy and enthusiasm

• Effects of such stress can be alcoholism, divorce, coronary heart disease, digestive disorders, irritability, loss of appetite, chronic fatigue, or even suicide in some cases

OCCUPATIONAL STRESSORS IN POLICING (continued)

• Organisational stressors occur on a daily basis and cause long-term physical, emotional and personal problems

• Organisational stressors include:– Dealing with demanding supervisors– Being passed up for promotion– Non-cooperation among fellow professionals– Pension and salary worries– Frustration at lack of resources and absence of

rewards

POLICE AND COUNTER-TERRORISM

• 9/11 and London bombings changed dynamic of policing terrorism

• Increased use of CCTV cameras and monitoring systems to give citizens feeling of security (Foucalt’s panopticon – but in reverse!)

• Heavily reliant on intelligence networks and partnerships

• Commentators argue that police follow a paramilitary model to fight terror

RESTORATIVE POLICING

• Centres on the notion of doing justice by repairing the harm of crime rather than simply punishing or treating the offender

• Focus on both the offender and the victim• Understood to be the most ‘ambitious’ form

of community-based policing• A move away from problem-oriented policing• Success reliant on individual police personnel

CRIMINAL PROFILING

• Used primarily for high-profile cases involving serious offences, such as homicides, kidnappings etc.

• Profiles involve typologies of psychological, physiological, historical, and geographic factors

• Relies heavily on skills and expertise of individual profilers

• Significantly less glamorous than media depictions

CRIMINAL PROFILING (continued)

• Problems associated with criminal profilers:– Profiler Training– Profiler Accessibility– Profiler Utility

• The hazards of profiling as an investigative tool:– Creation of false leads– Drainage of resources– Legal challenges in court– Bad Press if things go wrong

INTERNATIONAL CROSS-BORDER POLICING

• Countries with political and military power exerting dominance by crossing over to other sovereign nations, often demanding cooperation with an, “Or, else…” attitude

• US legislation, Integrated Cross Border Law Enforcement Operations Act, now makes it possible for American officers to enter other nation states and make arrests, enjoying powers of the police of the host nation

INTERNATIONAL CROSS-BORDER POLICING (continued)

• Mutual agreements can also be entered into for cooperation regarding apprehension and extradition of criminals

• Joint operations and intelligence-sharing also possibilities for transnational crime

• There are also organisations such as Interpol, and International Police which specialise in ‘networked’ policing