Suchergebnisse

AbstractFinancial austerity has brought considerable pressure upon policing services in England and Wales in the past decade. For the British government, one mitigatory vehicle to alleviate this pressure is the expansion of police collaborative units operating across two or more police forces. To date however, such cross-force collaborations have been beset by a series of problems and progress has been inexorably slow. Drawing upon the reflections of police officers and staff involved at varying stages of cross-force collaborations, this paper explores why collaborations have so far largely failed. The paper argues that while the challenges of cross-force collaborations echo those of previous police efforts to work with external partners, these difficulties are intensified during cross-force collaborations in which partners present divergent policing agendas. As such, cross-force collaborations may be usefully understood as 'complex problems,' marking them out as particularly challenging and demanding new and distinct approaches to problem-solving.

Child safeguarding has come to the forefront of public debate in the UK in
the aftermath of a series of highly publicised incidents of child sexual
exploitation and abuse. These have exposed the inadequacies and failings
of inter-organisational relations between police and key partners. While
the discourse of policing partnerships is now accepted wisdom, progress
has been distinctly hesitant. This paper contributes to understanding both
the challenges and opportunities presented through working across
organisational boundaries in the context of safeguarding children. It draws
on a study of relations within one of the largest Safeguarding Children
partnerships in England, developing insights from Etienne Wenger
regarding the potential of 'communities of practice' that innovate on the
basis of everyday learning through 'boundary work'. We demonstrate how
such networked approaches expose the differential power relations and
sites of conflict between organisations but also provide possibilities to
challenge introspective cultures and foster organisational learning. We
argue that crucial in cultivating effective 'communities of practice' are:
shared commitment and purpose; relations of trust; balanced exchange of
information and resources; mutual respect for difference; and an open and
mature dialogue over possible conflicts. Boundary crossing can open
opportunities to foster increased reflexivity among policing professionals,
prompting critical self-reflection on values, ongoing reassessment of
assumptions and questioning of terminology. Yet, there is an inherent
tension in that the learning and innovative potential afforded by emergent
'communities of practice' derives from the coexistence and interplay
between both the depth of knowledge within practices and active
boundaries across practices.

This paper focuses on surveillant relations between citizens and police. We consider how online platforms enable the public to support the task of policing, as well as empowering the public to work without and beyond the police. While community-supported policing interventions are not new, more recently mobile and accessible technologies have promoted and enabled a DIY (Do-It-Yourself) culture towards policing amongst the public. The paper examines watch groups or those who task themselves with monitoring suspicious or actual behaviours. We consider two empirical examples: first, a community alert group mediated through social media. Second, a group of businesses that circulate, via a website, CCTV images of (alleged) wrongdoing in their premises. Drawing on David Garland's (1996) work on responsibilisation, we situate the growth of these types of responsibilised groups within the contemporary economic and political climate of crime control in the UK. We argue that citizens are establishing new surveillant relations that are pushing policing in new and evolving directions.

This paper focuses on surveillant relations between citizens and police. We consider how online platforms enable the public to support the task of policing, as well as empowering the public to work without and beyond the police. While community-supported policing interventions are not new, more recently mobile and accessible technologies have promoted and enabled a DIY (Do-It-Yourself) culture towards policing among the public. The paper examines watch groups or those who task themselves with monitoring suspicious or actual behaviours. We consider two empirical examples; first, a community alert group mediated through social media. Second, a group of businesses that circulate, via a website, CCTV images of (alleged) wrong-doing in their premises. Drawing on David Garland's (1996) work on responsibilisation, we situate the growth of these types of responsibilised groups within the contemporary economic and political climate of crime control in the UK. We argue that citizens are establishing new surveillant relations that are pushing policing in new and evolving directions.

Child safeguarding has come to the forefront of public debate in the UK in the aftermath of a series of highly publicised incidents of child sexual exploitation and abuse. These have exposed the inadequacies and failings of inter-organisational relations between police and key partners. While the discourse of policing partnerships is now accepted wisdom, progress has been distinctly hesitant. This paper contributes to understanding both the challenges and opportunities presented through working across organisational boundaries in the context of safeguarding children. It draws on a study of relations within one of the largest Safeguarding Children partnerships in England, developing insights from Etienne Wenger regarding the potential of 'communities of practice' that innovate on the basis of everyday learning through 'boundary work'. We demonstrate how such networked approaches expose the differential power relations and sites of conflict between organisations but also provide possibilities to challenge introspective cultures and foster organisational learning. We argue that crucial in cultivating effective 'communities of practice' are: shared commitment and purpose; relations of trust; balanced exchange of information and resources; mutual respect for difference; and an open and mature dialogue over possible conflicts. Boundary crossing can open opportunities to foster increased reflexivity among policing professionals, prompting critical self-reflection on values, ongoing reassessment of assumptions and questioning of terminology. Yet, there is an inherent tension in that the learning and innovative potential afforded by emergent 'communities of practice' derives from the coexistence and interplay between both the depth of knowledge within practices and active boundaries across practices.