Glamor and charm of Sydney
I was in Sydney for six weeks as this issue, Volume 20 Issue 2, had to be readied for publication. As this editorial was being composed, I wrote the following to one of the most respected Editors of the journal, namely, Clifford Shearing, a front-ranking scholar in our field, ‘Diversity, discipline on the street, lack of squalor, and what I would call a bustling orderliness in the city impressed me immensely. My wife and I never felt unsafe wherever we had been in the city: shopping centers, places of entertainment, parks and so on.’
As always, Clifford wrote back promptly, “Your experience of Sydney was not unlike my experience of Disney World, with my daughter, in the mid-1980s. What I experienced was precisely your surprising ‘bustling orderliness.’ Clifford adds, several years ago, I visited my daughter who had been living in Sydney. We borrowed a car and decided because our time was short we would park wherever we could find parking – be it legal or illegal. Every single time we parked illegally, someone would come up to us and say, “Illegal park mate, you cannot park there’. This, for me, is the essence of Australian ‘mateship’. Its friendship, but with a collective good that is promoted through it. There is a ‘blotchiness,’ but it is underlaid with a deep respect for compliance. My answer to your puzzle, as you know, is ‘policing’ (nodal policing) not ‘police.’ Moreover, this is something that Australian police, for all their conventionality, I think understand. They understand, Jean-Paul Brodeur’s ‘Web of Policing’ (Personal Correspondence, January 2019).
I wrote to another Editor of the journal, a Founding Editor, Tim Prenzler, with my impression of Sydney, ‘Years ago, as a teenager,’ Tim (Personal Communication, January 2019) said, he was ‘amazed by the city. The skyscrapers seemed to blend perfectly with the brilliant blue harbor and leafy green belts. The place had a genuine buzz. The ferries, zoo, and beaches were all very exciting. Moreover, the opera house and bridge were stunning’. Tim pointed out that ‘one of the most striking features has been the near absence of homeless people and disorder on the street.’
Police challenges as presented in the current issue of PPR
After dwelling on the exquisite aspects of Sydney, it is appropriate, that we discuss the salient issues that emerge from the Issue 2, Volume 20.
The first article, the findings from the study, ‘A descriptive model of the relationship between police CCTV systems and crime. Evidence from Mexico City’, Carlos J. Vilalta, Thomas W. Sanchez, Gustavo Fondevila and Magda Ramirez, reinforces an appropriately cautionary view of the costs and benefits involved in large-scale CCTV projects. True, the police are increasingly making use of public space CCTV systems to deter, interrupt and investigate the crime. The available literature shows considerable complexity in outcomes and, often, no, or limited, outcomes in crime prevention. Police cannot passively rely on camera systems to prevent crime but must work carefully.
In the next article, ‘Public servants or police soldiers? Analysis of opinions on the militarization of policing from police executives, law enforcement, and members of the 114th Congress U.S. House of Representatives’. This innovative study of opinion on police militarisation amongst key stakeholders in both politics and police practice, by Frederick W. Turner II & Bryanna Hahn Fox, highlights the need for much better management.
In the third article, ‘Public confidence in the police: tests of instrumental and expressive models in a developing country city’, by Louis Kusi Frimpong, Martin Oteng-Ababio, George Owusu & Charlotte Wrigley-Asante, it is shown that police need to work on improving relations with their communities, but that crime prevention remains their fundamental duty. The paper appropriately concludes with a beneficial suggestion that police legitimacy requires a research-based approach to addressing public safety issues.
The article that follows is an Australian study about young people with cognitive disability. This group, especially indigenous young, has disproportionate levels of contact with the criminal justice system as demonstrated in ‘Young people with cognitive disabilities and overrepresentation in the criminal justice system: Service provider perspectives on policing’ by Kelly Richards & Kathy Ellem.
The second study in this issue is on the critical topic of public perceptions of police comes from the United Kingdom and is focused on differences between ‘Black and Minority Ethnicities (BME)’ and ‘non-BME’ communities. ‘Understanding the public perception and satisfaction of a UK police constabulary,’ by Imran Awan, Michael Brookes, Monique Powell & Sarah Stanwell, reinforces the findings of many previous studies that minority social groups tend to have less favorable views of police than majority groups. The paper concludes by emphasizing the potential value of closer engagement between police and their local communities, especially with young people, to improve equality in public satisfaction with police services.
The final paper in the issue – ‘How long does it take? An exploration of the time between case assignment and a detective’s first investigative activity’, by Seth Wyatt Fallik, adds to the body of knowledge about police investigative work, with a focus on the problem of citizen and victim perceptions of excessive periods to completion. The study of 184 detectives, based in Houston, confirms the significant role that discretion plays in police work and the need for more efficient and effective means of investigating a crime.
The Volume 20, Issue 2 ends with a review essay that Body cameras have become almost de rigueur in policing, with many police departments around the world either having adopted cameras or examining their feasibility. With this in mind, this timely paper by Erick Laming – ‘Police use of body-worn cameras’ reviews the uptake of cameras internationally, analyzing the different forms of operationalization and evidence about their impact and concludes with an in-depth Canadian case study. The author shows that the effects of body-worn cameras have been most beneficial, but that more research is needed beyond the use of force and complaints measures to areas such as investigative value and financial cost-benefit.
1. Edited at the office of the International Police Executive Symposium, IPES, WWW.IPES.INFO
