Switching on, switching off: reflections of a practitioner researcher examining the operational behaviour of police officers

Hendy, Ross

doi:10.1080/15614263.2018.1558585

Cited by 3 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 36 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…While police ethnography has been somewhat commonplace in the Northern Hemisphere (Manning, 2014; Bacon et al , 2020), there is no such tradition in Australia and New Zealand. Therefore it is important to acknowledge the foresight of New Zealand Police (NZPOL) and South Australia Police (SAPOL) to provide research access, a decision perhaps somewhat mediated by my status as a sworn officer at the time of the research (see Hendy, 2020b).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Participant observation and fieldwork are financially and emotionally taxing (Manning, 2014; Hendy, 2020b). Such realities have practical implications.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Yet, one complication of practitioner research is the risk that one might inadvertently focus on one's “own shoes”. Other challenges of practitioner research include the risk that one's role can be complicated by relationships with research participants who are colleagues, particularly in hierarchical organisations such as police agencies, and by resisting the temptation of being an active participant during interactions (see Hendy, 2020b). Moreover, the privileges associated with an “insider-insider” membership may, at times, challenge the researcher's emotional and cognitive distance from those who are researched (Brown, 1996; Adler and Adler, 1987).…”

Section: Methodological Notementioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Suspicious minds and suspicioning: constructing suspicion during policework

Hendy

2021

JOE

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

PurposeThis article explores officer use of suspicion before informal police-citizen encounters as a method to further understand police officer decision-making. There is a body of research focused on officer decision-making before formal “stop and search” encounters, yet, while the more informal “stop and chat” encounters are ubiquitous, they are a comparatively under-researched part of policework.Design/methodology/approachThe research takes an ethnographic approach to explore police decision-making. It used participant observation (800 h over 93 patrol shifts) of front-line first response officers from New Zealand (n = 45) and South Australia (n = 48). Field observations were complemented with informal discussion in the field and 27 semi-structured interviews.FindingsIt reveals that officers applied three situational “tests” to assess the circumstances or actions observed before initiating an informal encounter. Officers then weighed up whether the circumstances were harmful, contrary to law, or socially acceptable to determine the necessity of initiating a police-citizen encounter. This process is conceived as suspicioning: deciding whether circumstances appear prima facie suspicious, how an officer goes about collecting more information to corroborate suspicion to ultimately inform a course of action.Originality/valueThe findings present a new perspective to understanding how and why police officers decide to initiate encounters with members of the public. Moreover, as the first ethnographic cross-national research of officers from New Zealand and South Australia, it provides a rare comparative glimpse of Antipodean policing.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Participant observation and fieldwork are financially and emotionally taxing (Manning, 2014; Hendy, 2020b). Such realities have practical implications.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%