European national police systems and metropolitan realities

Devroe, Elke; Ponsaers, Paul

doi:10.4324/9781315668130-2

Cited by 15 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…Finland has a unified national police force (Devroe & Ponsaers, 2017). The police are accountable to the central government that sets the general objectives and allocates finances for it.…”

Section: Description Of Countrymentioning

confidence: 99%

Inter-Agency Cooperation and Coordination

Delpeuch

Bonnet

2021

Improving Frontline Responses to Domestic Violence in Europe

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In the past, the feminist movement exposed a sexist police culture as the main cause for police apathy in the face of domestic violence. This critique led to an ongoing transformation of police organisations. This transformation is composed of two main processes. The first process is a movement to constrain police activity, force police officers to take domestic violence seriously by enacting laws and rules that aim to reduce police officers' discretion. The second process also aims at transforming police activity, not by constraining it, but by improving the skills of police officers and making them work in partnerships with other stakeholders from medical or social service professions in the best interest of the victim. These partnerships may be within the police organisations or between the police and other stakeholders — typically social workers, magistrates, social housing representatives, NGOs, city administrators, etc. This chapter focuses on this second transformation process and aims at drawing comparative lessons from case studies in eight countries to document the characteristics of a "good partnership" against domestic violence.

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“…Finland has a unified national police force (Devroe & Ponsaers, 2017). The police are accountable to the central government that sets the general objectives and allocates finances for it.…”

Section: Description Of Countrymentioning

confidence: 99%

Inter-Agency Cooperation and Coordination

Delpeuch

Bonnet

2021

Improving Frontline Responses to Domestic Violence in Europe

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“…In comparative policing research, Nordic countries are commonly regarded as constituting a distinctive policing system or regime (Devroe et al, 2017; Virta and Taponen, 2017; Virta and Suve, 2016). Devroe and Ponsaers (2017) argue that public police systems express the state structure where they function. They call Nordic public police a ‘unified police system’, setting it apart from the ‘territorially divided systems’ of England and Wales, Germany, Switzerland and Belgium, and the ‘historically diverse police systems’ of France, Italy, Portugal and Spain.…”

Section: The Nordic Welfare State and Policingmentioning

confidence: 99%

A case for trans-local police governance

Houtsonen

Huotari

2019

European Journal of Criminology

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We argue that in the present conditions of differentiated societies a preferable form of police governance and accountability should both be built upon and actively strive towards universal and trans-local criteria, rather than be built upon on some local features or idiosyncrasies. The local governance of the police appears too simple a remedy for police legitimacy and accountability since it might predispose the police to unprofessionalism and heterogeneity of standards, making it vulnerable to co-optation by powerful local interests. The article is based on our experiences of the Finnish form of police governance that has functioned quite well, partly because policing is embedded in the Nordic welfare state model, which strongly supports citizens’ universal rights and social equality. However, the ideas put forward are urgently needed in differentiated societies, characterized by increasing socioeconomic inequality and multiple sources of cultural identity and belongingness. For us the concept of spatial representation appears to be a fundamental aspect in all governance. The argument rests on the idea that modern, differentiated society calls for representations of spatiality and belongingness that are inclusive rather than exclusive, universal rather than particular and trans-local rather than local. Our arguments for trans-local police governance are specified in terms of the universal rule of law, a uniform approach to policing, general professional police competencies and a general professional ethos in policing.

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“…Local police, also called municipal police, is a community-level police force, having a competence limited to the administrative boundaries of the local authority (usually the municipality, Caneleppe, 2013). Local police officers have mainly administrative duties, such as enforcing urban regulations and traffic control (Devroe and Ponsaers, 2017), but since the early 2000s their responsibilities have increased and they often work together with the state police in an integrated approach for preventing crime and disorder problems in the communities (Caneleppe, 2013). We chose to focus specifically on local police officers because, as compared to state police officers, they perform a relatively less life-threatening job, have more organizational duties, and have also been less studied (Pancheri et al, 2002).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exposure to organizational stressors and health outcomes in a sample of Italian local police officers

Marcatto

Orrico

Luis³

et al. 2021

Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice

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Exposure to organizational stressors is known to negatively affect police officers’ well-being in terms of mental and physical health and performance. In this study, we adopted the Health and Safety Executive’s Management Standards to identify specific associations between organizational stressors and health outcomes in a sample of local police officers employed in an Italian municipality (N = 111). Compared with benchmark data, participants were exposed to high risks in six out of seven organizational dimensions, and five of those (namely, Demands, Control, Managers’ Support, Relationships, and Role) displayed significant associations with psychological and physical problems, such as perceived stress, hypertension, gastrointestinal disorders, dermatitis, and musculoskeletal pain. While most stress-reduction interventions for police forces are designed at the individual level, the results of the present study also indicate the need for designing and implementing interventions aimed at addressing and preventing organizational stressors. Therefore, periodic in-depth stress assessments to identify key issues that should be the primary targets of such interventions are recommended.

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European national police systems and metropolitan realities

Cited by 15 publications

References 39 publications

Inter-Agency Cooperation and Coordination

Inter-Agency Cooperation and Coordination

A case for trans-local police governance

Exposure to organizational stressors and health outcomes in a sample of Italian local police officers

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