Officer strategies for managing interactions during police stops

ABSTRACT

This paper draws on ethnographic research carried out in England and Wales soon after the Lawrence Inquiry to present an historical analysis of the strategies used by officers to manage interactions with suspects during police stops. The paper uses Goffman’s conceptual apparatus to explore how officers established order during interactions, monitored suspects’ demeanour closely to decide what was going on and how to proceed, and carefully controlled information to stage-manage encounters. By way of comparison, the paper describes interactions with known offenders who were stopped more regularly. The conclusions emphasise how officers exerted control during interactions through subtle uses of power, and discusses the policy implications.

KEYWORDS:

• Police stops
• interaction
• demeanour
• procedural justice
• Goffman

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Nigel Fielding and Martin Innes for their support throughout my doctorate, and Ben Bradford, Michael Shiner and the three peer reviewers for their comments on drafts of this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 The code covers the exercise of police search powers and, between 2003 and 2011, included the recording of other non-statutory encounters.

2 Similar strategies have been identified in England and Wales (Stone and Pettigrew 2000, Sharp and Atherton 2007) and elsewhere in the US (Brunson and Miller 2006).

3 Fieldwork was carried out in 1999/2000 in Central Leicester (Leicestershire), Chapeltown (West Yorkshire), Greenwich and Hounslow (both Metropolitan Police) and Ipswich (Suffolk), and in 2003 in Bournville (West Midlands), Hackney (Metropolitan Police), Sefton (Merseyside), South Notts (Nottinghamshire) and Wrexham (North Wales).

4 The number of other interactions was not recorded.

5 The practice of officers detaining someone to ‘build grounds’ for a search was prohibited in 2003 in England and Wales, though it remained lawful to find grounds if someone had not been formally detained.

Additional information

Funding

The fieldwork was originally carried out for the Home Office, who also part-funded my doctorate. The views expressed in this paper do not necessarily represent those of the Home Office or College of Policing (my current employer).