The ‘what’, ‘why’, ‘how’ and ‘so what’ of police reform: Scotland in comparative perspective Nick Fyfe Scottish Institute for Policing Research & University of Dundee May 2014
Jan 09, 2016
The ‘what’, ‘why’, ‘how’ and ‘so what’ of police reform:
Scotland in comparative perspective
Nick Fyfe
Scottish Institute for Policing Research
& University of Dundee
May 2014
Overview• The ‘what’ (trajectories),
‘why’ (drivers) and ‘how’ (windows of opportunity and policy entrepreneurs);
• The ‘so what’: competing narratives and some Scottish evidence;
• What kind of ‘local policing’ do we want from reform?
What I:Diverging trajectories ? police reform within the UK
England & Wales Scotland
Political logic of change
Challenging public sector bureaucracies
Economic efficiency and ‘state building’
Accountability Electoral/democratic
Bureaucratic/technocratic
Distribution of power Towards localism Towards centralism
Police Mission Crime-fighting Community well-being
Policy influence United States Northern Europe
Two contrasting perspectives….• The Government does not
support the imposition of structural changes on local forces which will be seen by the public as creating vast and distant conglomerations, weakening their capacity to influence and hold to account those who keep them safe. Scarce resources in challenging times need to be focused on strengthening front line policing, not bank rolling controversial mergers with little public or political support. (Home Office, June 2010).
• We cannot afford to keep doing things eight times over. To do nothing would mean going down the route south of the border where there is no alternative to massive reductions in police numbers (Justice Secretary, September , 2011)
What IIConverging trajectories?
Country Date of Major Reforms Key changesBelgium 1998 Creation of a single integrated police
force on 2 levels: the federal level and the supra-local level of 195 inter-policing zones
Denmark 2007 Merger of 54 police districts to create 12 larger districts
Norway 2007 Merger of 57 police districts to create 24 districts
Finland 2009/10 Reduction in the number of police districts from 90 to 24.
Scotland 2013 Merger of 8 regional police forces to create a single, national police force.
Netherlands 2013 Merger of 25 regional police forces to create a single, national police force.
Sweden 2015 Merger of 118 police districts to create 21 and will now replace the 21 police authorities with a single police organisation
Why? Different drivers….
• Fiscal pressures;• Influence of New Public Management (NPM)
discourse;• Loss of police legitimacy;• Crisis and scandal;• Policy transfer.
How?
• ‘Windows of Opportunity’: linking ‘problems’, ‘policies’ and ‘politics’;
• The role of ‘policy entrepreneurs’
The ‘So what?’…
• ‘A fundamental lesson of the sociology of policing is that there is little fit between policy formulated by any governance structure at the top of the organization (even locally) and practice in the streets and cells’ (Reiner, 2013)
The Danish experience‘five hens are easily reduced to one feather’
• A more hierarchical and centralized police organization
• Less time for preventive activities
• Less police presence at the local level
• Less police knowledge about local affairs
• Less professionalization than expected
The challenges of evaluating police reform
– Multiple and inter-connected objectives and reforms;
– Complexity of research design;– A mix of intended and unintended
consequences;– The politics of evaluation: competing narratives
of ‘success’ and ‘failure’.
Contested narratives of evaluation : critical and reassuring voices….
Tracking the impacts of reform in Scotland
• National social attitude survey (2012-2015);• Local policing in transition project (2012-2015);• Mapping a changing organisational culture (2012-?)• Understanding the perceptions of divisional commanders
and senior managers (2013);• International comparative research with the Netherlands on
policy processes and local policing (2013-)
6
46
7
42
49
13
3
35
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
There is a single nationalpolice force
There are 8 separateregional police forces
There are 32 local policeforces
Don t know/not sure
2012 2013
How survey participants think policing is currently organised in Scotland (%)
Source: 2012 and 2013 Scottish Social Attitudes surveys
Level of knowledge about the single force (%)
Source: 2012 and 2013 Scottish Social Attitudes surveys
32
29
33
5
2826
36
9
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
I've not heard anythingabout it
I've heard about it but don tknow anything about what it
involves
I've heard about it and knowa bit about what it involves
I've heard about it and knowa lot about what it involves
2012 2013
Pubic confidence in local policing (pre-reform)
SCJS 2012/13
Source: 2012 and 2013 Scottish Social Attitudes surveys
Whether having a single national police force for Scotland makes people more or less confident about local policing
Source: 2012 and 2013 Scottish Social Attitudes surveys
Public confidence in local policing and engagement
A final question…
What kind of ‘local policing’ do we want from police reform?
The contours of a ‘progressive localism’
• ‘Models’/’blueprints’ are replaced by ‘ingredients’, ‘menus’ and ‘frameworks’;
• Selection according to local circumstances not central targets;
• Permits local experimentation, innovation and creativity.
Elements of ‘progressive policing’
• Aligned with the principles of ‘democratic policing’ and ‘procedural justice’: equitable, responsive, fair, participatory;
• Brings evidence of ‘what works’ into public debates about policing;
• Involves listening to local communities and tracking harm – focus on ‘what matters’
‘Progressive policing’:from reassurance to co-production