Is it possible to reform police stops? Politicization and police change in two European countries

• In Event: POL Panel 4. Stop and Search and police powers

Abstract

Police officers have the ability to stop a person, prevent him or her from pursuing his or her passage and if necessary, proceed with a search of that person, his or her clothes and everything that person is carrying. The use of police stops therefore presents an important balance for policing in Western countries: on the one hand, police forces seek to be effective in the fight against crime and to assert their capacity to produce order, and on the other, police officers’ actions must be based on a form of consent on the part of the public and respect of individual freedoms. In several Western countries, police stops have become the object of political controversies from opposing coalitions on what the objectives and targets of police activities should be. Understanding how police stops have become political issues and how the subsequent political debates have (or not) changed policies regarding stop and search is the objective of this article.
By using the examples of two European countries (France and Scotland) where the issue has been highly politicised over the last fifteen years, we will show how it has led to significant change in legislation, policy and police practice in Scotland (however it will be qualified) and yet to a policy blockage in France (with the abandonment of the police stop form and no major initiatives in terms of police education or training). Analysing the reasons for these discrepancies will enable us to identify the conditions for effective policy change with regards to stop and search specifically (such as accountability structures, the role of the police unions, openness of the police to external scrutiny and research evidence, the role of policy entrepreneurs within the police, etc.), and to reflect more broadly on the future of relationships between police, governments and societies.

Authors

• Jacques de Maillard, University of Versailles-Cesdip

• Megan O'Neill, University of Dundee