Economic Rhetoric and Policing Reform (From Police and Society: Touchstone Readings, P 375-392, 1995, Victor E. Kappeler, ed. - See NCJ-151401)

• NCJ Number: 151422
• Author(s): P K Manning
• Date Published: 1995
• Length: 18 pages
• Sale Source: Waveland Press, Inc.
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Criminal Justice Research Bulletin, 7(4): 1-8, 1992. Reprinted with permission.

Annotation

This article discusses some of the changes that have occurred in American urban policing since 1970 and their consequences vis-a-vis police reform.

Abstract

These changes include alterations in police budgets, in the pattern of public support for the police, in police involvement with the media, and in the relationships between reform groups and police management. In addition, police officers have higher educational levels, forces are more mixed in terms of gender and racial group, there are greater legal constraints on police practice, and the police are losing their monopoly on legitimate violence. As a result, the language of economics and management has been used to reconceptualize the police mission and to reformulate police training. The economic metaphor for policing urges the public to regard policing in terms of supply and demand and in market-competitive terms which do not meet the reality of the distribution of police services. This economic conception denies the central role of the police, which is to use force to advance the interests of the State. 7 notes and 51 references