NCJ Number
85992
Journal
Sociological Review Volume: 28 Issue: 2, New Series Dated: (May 1980) Pages: 377-413
Date Published
1979
Length
37 pages
Annotation
This article considers the origins and implications of police political activity in both the United States and Britain, contending that the overt police campaigning on behalf of law and order issues in both countries since the 1960's represents an unwarranted and undesirable intervention into the policymaking arena.
Abstract
The evolution of police autonomy, professionalization, and unionization is viewed historically and measured against the ideology that traditionally ascribes political neutrality to the police. The dominant social origins and class concerns of most police officers are identified as ethnic blue collar, and the political convictions to which the rank-and-file have always subscribed as right of center. Overt involvement of rank and file police organizations into the law and order campaigns of the 1960's, particularly against citizen review of police practices, is explained as the politicization of legitimate labor and professional concerns. Police power appears pitted against liberal concerns of social equality and civil rights and contradicts the need for law enforcement to maintain a distance from policy legislation. A total of 126 notes are provided.