Introduction: New racial missions of policing: comparative studies of state authority, urban governance, and security technology in the twenty-first century

Abstract

Why do police worldwide continue to reproduce race, racism and ethnic conflicts even as more members from historically stigmatized groups participate in policing, and as states adopt explicitly post-colonial, anti-racist policy agendas? Why do new policing practices and technologies affirm racial, caste and ethnic distinctions even as diversity and anti-racial profiling campaigns become central to defining norms of police professionalism in every world region? In this introduction to this collection, I will begin by acknowledging how the intersections of policing and race have returned to the forefront of public and academic concern in the US and UK. I then provide context by highlighting the gaps in the literature that this set of contributions addresses. I conclude by sketching the outline of a comparative, international framework for studies of race and ethnicity that aims to offer fresh avenues for scholarship and policy-making.

Keywords:

• Police
• racism
• globalization
• urban neoliberalism
• comparative studies
• diversity

Notes

1. United Press International ‘Jury: London police shooting not lawful’, 12 December 2008.

2. BBC News Online ‘Delay in Met Police race report’, 8 July 2009, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/8140064.stm