Force to sell

Policing the image and manufacturing public confidence

Bibliographic Data

ID12363391
AuthorsMurray Lee (0000-0003-2220-0313, corresponding author), Alyce Mcgovern (0000-0003-4568-2546)
Year2012
Volume23
Issue2
Pages103-124
Publication date2012-01-11
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenuePolicing & Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1043-9463 • E-ISSN: 1477-2728
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/10439463.2011.647913
OpenAlexW1992682836
LanguageEN
Citations received36
References cited32

In recent years, policing organisations have become increasingly savvy at producing positive images of police work through both the old and new media via the growth in professionalised police public relations (PR) infrastructure. This image work comes as a response to a number of modern policing and political challenges such as the public fear of crime, a range of police reform agendas, the perceived crisis in policing consent and the withering of ‘old media’ such as newspapers and a proliferation of new media, social media and citizen journalism. With a growing body of international research pointing to the need for policing organisations to foster public confidence and organisational legitimacy through the practice of procedural and distributive justice, much less research has looked at public confidence in the context of police media work. Based on original qualitative data,1 1. Policing Public Opinion is a research project funded by a University of Sydney Faculty of Law small research grant and the University of NSW Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Early Career Researcher Grant. which includes interviews with key uniformed and civilian directors of PR branches in Australian police organisations, this article constitutes a comparative case study and explores how media and PR directors within Australian police organisations conceive of the links between their ‘image work’, public confidence in the organisation, trust in policing and legitimacy in the police institution. We investigate both the discourses and practices of public confidence raising amongst a number of elite police PR managers

Context (archaeology · Criminal justice · Criminology · Journalism · Legitimacy · Perception · Political science · Politics · Procedural justice · Public opinion · Public relations · Public trust · Qualitative research · Social media · Social science · Sociology · Crime Patterns and Interventions · Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis · Law · Policing Practices and Perceptions · Psychology

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