Cops and customers: Consumerism and the demand for police services. is the customer always right?

Abstract

Research has drawn attention to the incorporation of localised political elites and a new 'urban officer class' into police consultation processes. The resulting corporatist-style bodies mediate a range of political and economic tensions in the development of local policing priorities. Most research on this issue has focussed upon formal police consultation processes (PCCs) and multi-agency initiatives. Here, however, we examine the extent to which a rather wider section of 'the community' shares this essentially 'local corporatist' approach to police policy making. More specifically, in the light of an increasing application of consumerist approaches to public service management, the article attempts to assess the extent to which public attitudes to policing display an increasingly individual and consumerist ideology. The article discusses some possible implications of this.

Fit for Purpose: Working with the Community to Strengthen Policing in Victoria, Australia*

“…As Casey and Tofymowych (1999) noted, community engagement establishes legitimacy with key stakeholder communities such as business and community elites, local activists, and specific ethnic and racial communities, and it continues to be an integral part of the new public management and governance frameworks applied to policing. Community engagement processes can be essential for mobilising support for police (Squires 1998) and for responding to the consumerist rhetoric of an ethos of effective service and responsiveness to clients. Despite its flaws, community engagement continues to reinforce the current agenda of serving the community and provides the basis for intelligence-led and problem solving approaches to policing.…”

Rethinking ASBOs

“…Almost inevitably, as in any policy field, community safety has had its winners and losers (e.g. Flint, 2002), all the more so as an increasingly consumerist approach to crime prevention resourcing has begun to be reflected in people's local policing priorities (Squires, 1998). As Brown and others have noted, one of the major losers in these localized policy development circles has been young people.…”