Police work and new 'security devices' : a tale from the beat

Mobile technologies have brought about major changes in police equipment and police work. If a utopian narrative remains strongly linked to the adoption of new technologies, often formulated as 'magic bullets' to real occupational problems, there are important tensions between their 'imagined' outcomes and the (unexpected) effects that accompany their daily 'practical' use by police officers. This article offers an analysis of police officers' perceptions and interactions with security devices. In so doing, it develops a conceptual typology of strategies for coping with new technology inspired by Le Bourhis and Lascoumes: challenging, neutralizing and diverting. To that purpose, we adopt an ethnographic approach that focuses on the discourses, practices and actions of police officers in relation to three security devices: the mobile digital terminal, the mobile phone and the body camera. Based on a case study of a North American municipal police department, the article addresses how these technological devices are perceived and experienced by police officers on the beat.

Corrupción, reforma y realidad. Incidencia de la corrupción publicada por los medios de comunicación en la estructura de la policía nacional de Colombia (1993 – 2012)

El texto analiza el impacto de la corrupción policial presentada por los medios de comunicación desde 1993 hasta el 2012 en la estructura interna de la Policía Nacional de Colombia. En el primer capítulo se plantea un estado del arte del concepto de corrupción policial, asimismo, se incluyen las teorías bajo las cuales se ha entendido el fenómeno a nivel mundial buscando generar soluciones plausibles a un flagelo en el que se ven inmiscuidos una gran cantidad de cuerpos policiales en el mundo. En el segundo apartado, se evalúa de manera cuantitativa cómo los casos de corrupción han modificado la estructura de la Policía Nacional, pero a su vez, cómo éstas modificaciones han sido evanescentes. En el tercer capítulo, se escudriña el impacto y los cambios estructurales desde la perspectiva de los miembros del cuerpo policial, recurriendo a la recolección de datos de manera cualitativa por medio de entrevistas y encuestas. En el cuarto momento se analiza la incidencia de los directores de la policía en la lucha contra la corrupción policial y como se establece una relación entre los subalternos y los mandos medios al momento de realizar este tipo de actividades. Finalmente se plasman las conclusiones a las que se llegó posterior a la realización del trabajo investigativo.

Local police enforcement, public information and education strategies to foster more and proper use of child safety seats by toddlers: evaluation of demonstration project. Final report.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Washington, D.C.

An overview of diversion strategies for Australian drug-related offenders

This paper provides a descriptive overview of options for diversion of drug-related offenders from the criminal justice system. Drug-related offences include drug offences (for example, possession of a prohibited substance); offences that are directly linked to intoxication (for example, drink-driving or assault); and offences committed to support drug use (for example, theft). After an offence has been detected by police, multiple opportunities for diversion occur throughout the criminal justice process. (a) Pre-arrest: when an offence is first detected, prior to a charge being laid. This is known as police diversion and includes fines, warnings and cautions, sometimes with educational information or referral to assessment and treatment. (b) Pre-trial: when a charge is made but before the matter is heard at court. Examples are treatment as a condition of bail, conferencing and prosecutor discretion. (c) Pre-sentence: a delay of sentence while assessment and treatment are sought. (d) Post-sentence: as part of sentencing, for example suspended sentences, drug courts, noncustodial sentences and circle sentencing. (e) Pre-release: prior to release from a sentence, on parole. Issues for diversion programmes include net widening, the ethics of coercion to treatment, the needs of families and intersectoral collaboration. A framework for diversion is presented in which increasingly treatment-focused and coercive diversion strategies are used as offenders' criminal careers and drug problems increase.

Occupational stress and coping among portuguese military police officers

This study describes the professional experience of military police officers from the Portuguese Republican National Guard (N = 95). We focused on the main sources and consequences of stress and the coping strategies used to deal with stress. The evaluation protocol included one closed-ended question and four open-ended questions. Data analysis of meaningful text segments was conceptually based and data categorization followed deductive content analysis. Results allowed the identification of 483 meaning units. Factors intrinsic to the job and the relationships at work were the main stressors referred by participants. The consequences of stressors were evident at an individual level, affecting family, psychological, and physical/health domains. The coping strategies used to deal with the main source of stress in the professional career were focused on problem solving (e.g., active confrontation) and emotional regulation (e.g., situation acceptance). Practical implications and future avenues of research with these professionals are discussed.

Remaking place and securitising space: Urban regeneration and the strategies, tactics and practices of policing in the UK

Urban regeneration programmes in the UK over the past 20 years have increasingly focused on attracting investors, middle-class shoppers and visitors by transforming places and creating new consumption spaces. Ensuring that places are safe and are seen to be safe has taken on greater salience as these flows of income are easily disrupted by changing perceptions of fear and the threat of crime. At the same time, new technologies and policing strategies and tactics have been adopted in a number of regeneration areas which seek to establish control over these new urban spaces. Policing space is increasingly about controlling human actions through design, surveillance technologies and codes of conduct and enforcement. Regeneration agencies and the police now work in partnerships to develop their strategies. At its most extreme, this can lead to the creation of zero-tolerance, or what Smith terms 'revanchist', measures aimed at particular social groups in an effort to sanitise space in the interests of capital accumulation. This paper, drawing on an examination of regeneration practices and processes in one of the UK's fastest-growing urban areas, Reading in Berkshire, assesses policing strategies and tactics in the wake of a major regeneration programme. It documents and discusses the discourses of regeneration that have developed in the town and the ways in which new urban spaces have been secured. It argues that, whilst security concerns have become embedded in institutional discourses and practices, the implementation of security measures has been mediated, in part, by the local socio-political relations in and through which they have been developed.

Gender on the Range: Feminine Strategies in the 1913 Michigan Copper Strike

In the autumn of 1913, a small, remote Michigan mining community attracted national attention as miners and management found themselves embroiled in a conflict that would prove no easy victory for either side. The strike came as a shock to management, who, with the help of a nearly perfected paternal system, had come to expect a generally docile and compliant workforce. But what was even more shocking was the involvement of the miners’ wives in the strike effort, and the lengths they went to in order to keep men from crossing the picket line. This paper focuses on that effort, arguing that the women of the Michigan copper country developed strike strategies that were derived from their domestic experience, and justified their involvement through maternal arguments. However, these public actions allowed the management to disregard the respect and courtesy generally given to the domestic sphere as police and private agents perpetrated a number of home invasions in an attempt to break the strike. The involvement of women in male dominated labor disputes (mining, steel productions) has been largely ignored in the literature due to their indirect connection to the company as wives and not workers. This paper seeks to remedy this gap, and gain a better understanding of that indirect relationship. Sources include newspaper articles, private correspondence, public investigation records, and oral histories, found largely in the Michigan Tech Archives and Copper Country Historical Collections, Michigan Technological University, Michigan.

Redrawing Identity Boundaries through Integration Policies: Strategies of Inclusion/Exclusion of Immigrants in Québec and South Tyrol. EDAP Paper 01/2013

Following the research agenda introduced by Will Kymlicka, this qualitative study offers an interpretation of how the sub-national elites of Québec and South Tyrol police the integration of immigrants. For these national minority groups, which are constantly undergoing a process of redefinition of their collective identities by differentiating themselves from the Others who do not belong to the in-group, immigrants have progressively become the most significant Others as they are not part of the original system of compromises. This article questions how sub-national elites are handling this relatively new kind of ethnocultural diversity brought about by large-scale permanent immigration on two levels: first, the political narrative of the ruling sub-national parties, their electoral appeals, manifestos and speeches; second, the policy arrangements for the integration of immigrants in education, language and social policy. The initial approach of the article is pessimistic, as it assumes that sub-national elites will marginalize immigrants to please core nationalist supporters. In fact, the hypotheses to be tested are whether the national minority groups of Québec and South Tyrol engage in a process of reconstruction of their ethnic identity bounded by opposition to real or imagined Others – the newcomers; and whether they adopt practical measures that force newcomers to be assimilated into the group or to be marginalized. The comparison between Québec and South Tyrol provides a basic understanding of the impact of immigration in two sub-national polities that are very different, but still adopt similar political narratives and policy strategies with regard to the integration of newcomers.

Strategies for aggressive driver enforcement.

Mode of access: Internet.

Strategies for success: combating juvenile DUI.

Mode of access: Internet.

Summary report: field test of combined speed, alcohol, and safety belt enforcement strategies. Final report.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Washington, D.C.

Site report: Wichita, Kansas field test of combined speed, alcohol, and safety belt enforcement strategies. Final report.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Washington, D.C.

Site report: Knoxville, Tennessee field test of combined speed, alcohol, and safety belt enforcement strategies. Final report.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Washington, D.C.

Site report: Lexington, Kentucky - field test of combined speed, alcohol, and safety belt enforcement strategies. Final report.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Washington, D.C.