On behalf of the team at Police Practice & Research (PPR), I would like to welcome you to this very special issue of the journal featuring the work of researchers from across the globe. You may be wondering why we have chosen to depart from our usual mode of publishing to produce this fantastic compendium of research for the inaugural 2021 issue and I can tell you there were several reasons.
The first reason is – as many of you are already aware – PPR is in the process of undergoing significant transformation. Among the changes made has been a shift in the structure and leadership of the both the Editorial team and the Editorial Board. This January I have taken over the helm from the journal’s long time Editor, Dilip Das. On behalf of the entire team, I would like to thank Dr. Das, who has made significant contributions to both the journal and to the scholarly publishing community more generally. I am sure I speak for many in expressing gratitude for his leadership these past many years.
With some of the changes referenced above, there has been a new anticipation and excitement over the future directions of the journal. To jumpstart that process, we have created a new website, a new social media presence (on Twitter (https://twitter.com/police_practice) and Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/ppr_journal), and created an authors’ video series featured on our site and on our new YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5e0L48Z-aicpSvBygejDLA). However, we also quickly realized that we were inheriting a somewhat sizable backlog of over two years’ worth of articles that had yet to be published. This backlog was concerning to us, particularly as having articles in the ‘forthcoming pile’, can place an undue burden on early career researchers, as well as on those who are relying on their academic output to secure grants and other opportunities. Recognizing this is an important issue for our authors, Editorial Board members at PPR recommended approaching Taylor and Francis about producing this special issue. The great people at Taylor and Francis were open to this idea and worked diligently to make it happen.
Last, this has been an extremely difficult year across the globe. The COVID-19 pandemic has placed tremendous strain on police in terms of new responsibilities (e.g., enforcing stay-at-home orders), new problems (scams associated with the pandemic), and their own health and wellness. Following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis (MN) on 25 May 2020, new allegations of police abuses in Nigeria, and growing concerns over policing in other countries, police all over the world have experienced renewed scrutiny and demands for reform from many sectors, culminating in movements to ‘defund the police’, ‘#EndSARS’, and so on. In the face of continuing and potential budget cuts, as well as looming personnel shortages, police in many countries are also dealing with spikes in violent crime. As we move toward the close of 2020, the challenges are daunting. Perhaps even overwhelming.
Police researchers from around the world have been hard at work studying these and related challenges. Time is of the essence, and PPR’s editorial board pushed to get this issue out quickly because many of the articles offer insights on the scope and nature of the problems facing the police in 2020 and beyond. The issue is a carefully curated collection of excellent papers we have clustered around several important themes in policing and policing research. These themes are:
policing crimes (strategies, offense types, police response)
police personnel (issues related to well-being, recruitment, officer attitudes)
police training (e-learning, diversity training, specialist training)
community relations (community perceptions, procedural justice, accountability)
police management (police organization, supervision, policy)
police technology (CompSTAT, social media, mobile technology)
police skills (interviewing, crisis response, negotiation)
use of force (public opinion, stop outcomes)
We hope you enjoy this special volume as much as we have enjoyed assembling it!