NCJ Number
207688
Journal
Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies and Management Volume: 27 Issue: 3 Dated: 2004 Pages: 413-430
Editor(s)
Lawrence F. Travis III
Date Published
2004
Length
18 pages
Annotation
This article outlines and conceptualizes some of the recent policy developments in England and Wales contributing to both the fragmentation and pluralization of policing.
Abstract
In the late 1970's, the police in England and Wales had become more managerial and professional, suffering an erosion of public satisfaction, and securing public confidence and reassurance and addressing perceptions of safety. Since the late 1980's, management reforms have reshaped the public sector with one of many outcomes being the increasing penetration of public policing by private sector principles. Managerial reforms encouraged the contracting out to civilians and the private sector of traditional aspects of police work. Today, recent legislative changes and policy initiatives have included the contracting out of police services, regulating private security, visible public auxiliaries, community support officers, and accredited community safety officers. The Police Reform Act of 2002 allows for specified police support staff and civilians to be given particular powers in various circumstances in order to perform certain defined functions. A wide-array of policing is now conducted beyond the sponsorship of the state-provided professional police. These plural forms of policing, to varying degrees, seek to offer public reassurance through visible patrols. However, relations between the state and private governance are changing such that there is a borrowing of policing and security strategies, thereby blurring their distinctiveness. With this plurality of security providers, the future of policing must be concerned with effective coordination of the diverse actors and agencies. Tables, notes, references