When it comes to violence in my place, I am the police!’ Exploring the policing functions of service providers in Edinburgh's Cowgate and Grassmarket
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12364152 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Laura Huey (0000-0003-2508-9542, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2008 |
| Volume | 18 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 207-224 |
| Publication date | 2008-09-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Policing & Society (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1043-9463 • E-ISSN: 1477-2728 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/10439460802008751 |
| OpenAlex | W2017203126 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 9 |
| References cited | 10 |
This study explores the role of social service providers in providing basic policing and security functions to residents of a marginalised community in Edinburgh. Through analysis of interview data, social service providers are revealed as routinely engaging in a variety of activities traditionally associated with public policing, such as crime prevention activities, peacekeeping and order maintenance tasks, receiving complaints regarding criminal and disorderly activities, surveillance of suspect identities, as well as informally liaising with the public police on crime and security issues within the community. The hitherto informal policing functions of service providers have recently begun to change with the implementation of a Remote Reporting programme that formalises the crime reporting functions of service providers, linking voluntary service agencies more closely to the criminal justice system. Both formal and informal policing activities are explored within an analysis that draws on the conceptualisation of contemporary security governance as ‘networked’. Notes 1. The exact dimensions of criminal victimisation within this community remain largely unknown as official reporting is sketchy, and no self-report surveys could be located with the exception of the Manson (2002) study discussed shortly. 2. Officers interviewed stated that in most cases individuals are asked to move along because of complaints about noise or behaviour received from tourists or local businesses. 3. One shelter worker who was critical of this practice noted two separate occasions when staff were asked by police to search resident logs for alternate names that a victim might have registered under in order to identify aliases under which they might have outstanding warrants. 4. Manson (2002) reports that crimes reported to the interviewer included assault, rape, attempted rape, and various forms of theft. 5. The first Remote Reporting programme in Edinburgh was established by the L & B in response to a series of local gay bashings. Shortly thereafter violence against members of the City's minority communities was also identified as an issue for police. In response to failures of affected groups to report victimisation, in June 2000 the Lothian and Borders Police Department implemented Remote Reporting. 6. Outstanding warrants for serious crimes can still lead to arrest of complainants once charges have been laid against alleged victimisers. 7. Following implementation, a fifth agency subsequently joined the network. 8. According to the material released through a freedom of information request, the breakdown of criminal complaints received under the Homeless Remote Report Reporting programme is as follows: 2003-15 reports 2004-5 reports 2005-2 reports 2006-2 reports (as of 11 May 2006) (L & B Citation2006). 9. The Remote Reporting programme has met with some significant challenges: one of the four service agencies temporarily suspended its involvement when a complainant was arrested for allegedly filing a false report. As a service worker explained of the decision, this arrest ‘completely gutted the confidence of the support team’. Another incident involving the arrest of a complainant for outstanding warrants – a clear breach of programme policy – also threatened to jeopardise the programme's future. Meetings between police and service personnel subsequently took place, with the result that all four founding service agencies decided to continue their involvement. As a member of one of the service agencies involved stated, ‘the whole idea is far too good an idea to throw it down because one mistake happened’
Business · Community policing · Criminal justice · Criminology · Panopticon · Poison control · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Service (business · Service provider · Sociology · Suicide prevention · Suspect · Victimisation · Crime Patterns and Interventions · Homelessness and Social Issues · Law · Medicine · Policing Practices and Perceptions
‘Folks Should Have Access … How You Do it is the Difficult Thing’
Police-led partnership responses to high risk youths and their families
Informal security nodes and force capital
Engaging non-policing partners to prevent or respond to crime
Managing Multiple Disadvantages
Taking stock of networks across the security field
Any Girl Can Call the Cops, No Problem
A Precarious Place’
False security or greater social inclusion? Exploring perceptions of CCTV use in public and private spaces accessed by the homeless
Code of the street
The policeman in the community
The Culture of Control
New Strategies of Policing the Poor
Security in the age of networks
From ‘pluralisation’ to ‘the police extended family’
The Information Age
Social Theory and Social Structure
Materials for an exploratory theory of the network society1
| Citations per year | 0.56 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2010 - 2023 (14) |
| Highly cited | No |