Old, New, Borrowed and Blue – Shifts In Modern Policing

Abstract

This article analyses ambiguity and complexity in proactive policing practices and identifies the paradox that despite the focus on increasing proactivity, police work remains strongly reactive. Drawing on a set of Norwegian case studies of policing in different domains, the article shows how under an overarching objective of ‘combating crime’, the distinctions between non-coercive (mainly proactive) forms of prevention or (mainly reactive) methods such as investigation or intelligence are seen as unimportant. This creates a demand for professionals working across different crime types, leading to a shift towards high policing in everyday life and tension between experts and generalists. Other, unintended consequences include a fragmentation of tasks and a more general and abstract way of policing. The result is pluralization and multiagency partnership strategies, where the police conduct high-policing tasks and external actors conduct low-policing tasks. These findings point to the emergence of new forms of hybrid of policing.

We Will Always Be Better Than a Spreadsheet

“…Recent research on the Norwegian police system confirms that there have been changes in strategy, which are associated with the centralization of police forces and a political vision of a police role restricted to reducing crime and catching criminals (Dahl et al, 2022;Fyfe et al, 2013, Larsson, 2017. In our analysis of the reform's planning documents, we have identified four strategic moves that can be related to changes in institutional logic (Gundhus et al, 2022a).…”

“…These changes have overarching implications for the strategies and organization of the Norwegian police (Gundhus et al, 2022a). Previous studies point to an increasingly entrenched risk-based logic of performance management, where crime fighting is central, which is accompanied by the specialization of sections of the police that collaborate with such agencies as the Tax Administration, Labour Inspection Authority, Custom and Labour and Welfare Administration (Dahl et al, 2022).…”

Preventing prosecution: Narratives on proactive policing

“…Proactive policing caters to the needs of knowledge-hungry, risk-oriented criminal justice and security organisations that frequently operate under conditions of austerity (Brodeur, 2010; Dahl et al, 2021; Sanders et al, 2015). To prevent prosecution represents a fundamental goal of the police both as mode of governance and as institutional arrangement.…”