Governing through crime: Surveillance, the community and local crime programming

Abstract

This paper discusses Crimefile, a local crime programme produced by Granada television for the North-West crime region and broadcast on Britain's ITV network. The series is typical of many similar shows produced in the regions in that it focusses on a range of crimes and requests the help of the public in solving them. The aim of this paper is to discuss the ways in which Crimefile makes a contribution to and keys into shifting definitions of community. Crimefile is a product of the new climate in television where the concept and value of the public service has come under pressure from both commercial and state forces. Crimefile also has to be related to the police's various efforts to work and establish a rapport with the community. This paper seeks to discuss the degree of fit between Crimefile's presentation of crime and the various efforts of the police to activate the community. The study is undertaken within the wider frame of governance in which the aims of the state and those of the individual and community are brought together and made to coalesce against the figure of the criminal.