As a consequence of the 2013 police reforms in the Netherlands and Scotland, the police in both countries have made a shift towards a fundamentally different kind of organisation: the Abstract Police. The increasing abstract character resulted in changes in the internal and external relations of the police. The police became more formalised and dependent on rigid systems and system information. Citizens and communities became more at a distance. Gradual and long-term processes may have similar consequences. For that reason it may be expected that the increasingly abstract character of the police may also be found elsewhere.This paper puts forward the thesis that over the past years the police in many Western European countries have made a shift towards a fundamentally different kind of organisation, a change with far-reaching consequences, but which have remained unnoticed until now. To understand this process, we introduce a new concept, Abstract Police. With this concept we mean that, both internally and externally, the police have become more at a distance, more impersonal and formal, less direct, and more decontextualised. The abstract police are also less dependent on personal knowledge of officer(s), as this is increasingly being replaced by 'system knowledge', framed within the 'logic' and categorisations of computer data systems (Ericson and Haggerty, 1997).This break with traditional ways of organising the police can especially be found in countries such as the Netherlands and Scotland, where police reforms in 2013 have resulted in considerable organisational scale enlargement and highly centralised national forces Fyfe, 2014, 2015). The main arguments for these reforms were to improve the effectiveness of the police (especially with regard to transregional problems), partially also their efficiency, and to find solutions for problems of organisational fragmentation (Fyfe and Scott, 2013;Terpstra, 2013). As we try to show in this paper, the rise of the abstract police can partially be seen as a significant unintended outcome of these reforms. However, more gradual and long-term social developments have also contributed to this new kind of police organisation. Seen from that perspective, the 2013 police reforms in the Netherlands and Scotland have mainly strengthened and accelerated this process, making it more prominent than elsewhere. This implies that it may be assumed that increasingly abstract police forces can also be found in other Western European countries, perhaps as yet in more modest and rudimentary forms.We expect that in the future the abstract character of the police will gain in importance and have far-reaching consequences for the relations between members of the police services, for police work, and for the relations with citizens and local communities. It may also have an impact on the dominating views about what is 'good' policing and about police professionalism and leadership. For that reason we believe that the abstract police is also an important concept for reflecting on future d...

The standard model of police culture assumes that internal and external stress shapes police culture and that this culture promotes certain styles of policing. This model has been tested using a survey of police officers in the Netherlands. The street-level culture of the Dutch police has some elements in common with what we know from Anglo-Saxon studies, but there are also important differences. Dutch rank-and-file police are less conservative, the machismo element is less dominant and the fundamental mistrust of strangers is not as widespread. The findings of this study generally correspond with the causal relations of the model. Remarkably, no relationship was found between the professional police style and cultural elements in the police.

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Purpose -The managerialization of the police may be seen as an effort to restore the legitimacy of the police. This paper aims to show that the managerialist strategy presently occurring within police forces creates new pitfalls and unintended consequences. Design/methodology/approach -The paper concentrates on the managerialization of the police in The Netherlands. It is based on a study of large numbers of police policy documents over the last 20 years, on interviews with key persons and on long term survey data on citizens' views on the police. This analysis focuses on four elements of managerialization: creating the police as a businesslike organization, performance management, quality management, and the view on citizens as customers of the police. Each of these elements is analyzed as a police presentational strategy. Findings -The managerial strategies that police organizations use as endeavors to restore their legitimacy, are described. There are no clear empirical indications that the managerialization of the police restored citizens' trust in the police. On the contrary, it may even undermine the police legitimacy.Research limitations/implications -The analysis focuses on one country, The Netherlands. Because police organizations in many countries were confronted with similar managerial changes, it is expected that many of the findings and conclusions are more generally relevant. Practical implications -The paper presents a critical view on the common managerial assumption that police legitimacy may be restored by promoting police instrumental performances. Originality/value -This paper views managerialization as an endeavor to restore police legitimacy. It concentrates on managerial presentational strategies and image work as forms of legitimacy management of police organizations.

In 2013 the governments of the Netherlands and Scotland established national police forces, replacing a tradition of largely autonomous regional police organisations. In both jurisdictions, these radical reforms have raised concerns about the consequences of these national police structures for local policing and for relationships with local communities and local government. Drawing on documentary sources and interview material from each jurisdiction and informed by insights from the policy implementation literature, the key question addressed in this paper is how has the legislation that created the new national police forces been put into effect at a local level? Focusing on the impact on the governance, organisation and delivery of local policing, the paper reveals how the implementation in both jurisdictions involves interpretation and discretion by multiple actors so that gaps are emerging between the national 'policy promises' set out in the legislation and the 'policy products' experienced in local contexts. Key wordsPolice, Reform, Governance, Implementation, Netherlands, Scotland Final Word Count: 9114 BiographiesJan Terpstra is Professor of Criminology at the University of Nijmegen (Faculty of Law), the Netherlands. His main research topics are police work, police policy, private security, and local security networks and strategies.