Third-Party Policing: Theoretical Analysis of an Emerging Trend (From Police and Society: Touchstone Readings, Second Edition, P 402-426, 1999, Victor E. Kappeler, ed. -- See NCJ-183265)

• NCJ Number: 183271
• Author(s): Michael E. Buerger; Lorraine G. Mazerolle
• Date Published: 1999
• Length: 25 pages
• Sale Source: Waveland Press, Inc.
• Publication Format: Book (Softbound)
• Publication Type: Research (Theoretical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This article links the theoretical bases of crime prevention to the theory of third-party policing and examines gaps in traditional policing that have led to a formalization of policing through third parties.

Abstract

"Third-party policing" is the authors' term for "police efforts to persuade or coerce nonoffending persons to take actions which are outside the scope of their routine activities, and which are designed to indirectly minimize disorder caused by other persons or to reduce the possibility that crime may occur." In practice, third-party policing invokes formal, noncriminal controls imported from the regulatory wing of civil law. The article begins by summarizing the traditional "bandit-chasing," deviant-person focus of policing and then discusses the focus of modern police on crime prevention. The next section introduces the theoretical basis of third-party policing and then examines third-party policing in two location-specific police programs: the drug-abatement Beat Health Program in Oakland, Calif., and the problem solving RECAP Unit in Minneapolis, Minn. The article concludes with a discussion of the potential ramifications of the third-party trend. It advises that as long as third-party policing is not an articulated or developed doctrine, it remains vulnerable to court challenges and to decisions that restrict or overturn local attempts to create new controls. 10 notes and 66 references