Suchergebnisse

As a standard operating backdrop in the United Kingdom, for more than a decade austerity has become an increasingly dominant logic as to how policing can be delivered and (re)configured to do 'more with less'. Yet beyond simple rationalisation of public policing in line with market principles, a more complex and long-standing trajectory underpins relations between the police and commercial 'others' set within this climate. With austerity as a guiding 'code', it has accelerated rather than punctuated the evolution of public policing dispersal. Using path dependency theory, the paper argues that change across both law and policy via different forms of critical juncture has embedded commercial principles, while simultaneously reconfiguring the symbolic (and operational) status of the police and their relationship with the public. In turn, the paper highlights that such pluralisation, in a genealogical sense, has tilted police authority away from central state control to a more dispersed and commercial model – but on a long-term trajectory which long precedes austerity as part of path-dependent change

Debates about the past in Northern Ireland still remain hotly contested, and in over twenty years since the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, an agreed account of the 'truth' about events and actions during the conflict remain as polarised as ever. Yet Southern's book presents a potentially unique (and seldom told) insight into the views and experiences of a key actor in the conflict - the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), and officers who served in the organisation. Yet aside from providing some very necessary police officer perspectives as part of the wider conflict narrative, the book also leaves itself open to questions around the robustness of perspective used, in many cases, to unquestionably justify the role of the RUC.

Police stop and search practices have been subject to voluminous debate for over forty years in the United Kingdom. Yet critical debate related to the use of 'everyday' stop and search powers by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) has, despite the hyper-accountable policing system of Northern Ireland, been marked by its absence. This paper presents the first ever analysis of PSNI's use of PACE-type powers - currently used at a higher rate and with poorer outcomes compared to the rest of the U.K. While it can only be considered as an elusive power, about which detailed research evidence is markedly lacking, stop and search in Northern Ireland seems to serve as a classificatory tool for PSNI to control mainly young, socio-economically marginal male populations. The paper provides new theoretical insight into stop and search as a simultaneous overt and covert practice, and speaks to wider issues of mundane police power – and practice – within highly contested and politically fractured contexts.

The intention of this article is to provide a structural and operational analysis of policing beyond the police in Northern Ireland. While the polity enjoys low levels of 'officially' recorded crime as part of its post-conflict status, little empirical analysis exists as to the epistemological roots of security production outside that of the Police Service of Northern Ireland. The empirical evidence presented seeks to establish that beyond more prominent analyses related to paramilitary 'policing', the country is in fact replete with a substantial reservoir of legitimate civil society policing – the collective mass of which contributes to policing, community safety and quality of life issues. While such non-state policing at the level of locale was recognised by the Independent Commission for Policing, structured understandings have rarely permeated governmental or academic discourse beyond anecdotal contentions. Thus, the present argument provides an empirical assessment of the complex, non-state policing landscape beyond the formal state apparatus; examines definitions and structures of such community-based policing activities; and explores issues related to co-opting this non-state security 'otherness' into more formal relations with the state.

The policing of demonstrations is a crucial activity that reveals much about the quality of democracy in a given society. In addition to presenting the papers that make up the dossier, this article contributes to Northern Ireland's accumulated experience in dealing with demonstrations. Brazil and Northern Ireland constitute divided societies in which the police is co-responsible for conflicts and face serious legitimacy problems, at least for vulnerable groups. Lessons from Northern Ireland indicate that mutual understanding between police and protesters is vital to limit the potential for public order incidents and events to become unmanageable.

O policiamento das manifestações é uma atividade crucial que revela muito sobre a qualidade da democracia em uma dada sociedade. Além de apresentar os artigos que compõem o dossiê este artigo contribui com a experiência acumulada da Irlanda do Norte para lidar com manifestações. O Brasil e a Irlanda do Norte constituem-se em sociedades divididas nas quais a polícia é corresponsável pelos conflitos e enfrenta problemas sérios de legitimidade, pelo menos para os grupos vulneráveis. As lições da Irlanda do Norte apontam para o fato de que o entendimento mútuo entre a polícia e os manifestantes é vital para limitar o potencial para que incidentes e eventos de ordem pública se tornem incontroláveis.

n January 2014, the Northern Ireland Policing Board (NIPB) commissioned the University of Ulster to conduct research into public confidence in policing to help inform the work of the Board and its oversight of police service delivery. More specifically, the research team were tasked with exploring 'the influence that politicians, community leaders and the media have on public confidence in policing in Northern Ireland'. To date, the subject of 'confidence in policing' within a Northern Ireland context has been relatively under researched, both in academic and policy terms. Thus, the present research is the first empirical research to be produced in Northern Ireland which considers the issue of confidence in policing from the perspective of community leaders, politicians and the media – including the key influences and dynamics which underpin police confidence at a community level. The report begins with a comprehensive review of academic literature, policy documents and contemporary events related to confidence in policing. The research then provides an overview of the methodology used to undertake the research, with the remainder of the report comprised of the findings from the discussions with representatives from the media, political parties and the community and voluntary sector who participated. The report concludes with an overview of the central findings along with a series of recommendations.