Performance Management, Social Welfare and the Public Interest: Emergency Call Handling in the Lincolnshire Police-G4S Strategic Partnership

• In Event: POLWG Panel 20. Everyday Policing: Managing Conflict, Reassurance, Community Welfare and Public Service Delivery

Abstract

This paper explores the tensions between two conceptions of the public interest within the context of police emergency call handling – one conception driven by performance management indicators (e.g. the volume of calls within a set time), the other animated by social welfare (e.g. meeting the needs of callers in distress). To do this, it focuses on one of the most performance managed force control rooms (FCR) in the policing landscape – the Lincolnshire Police FCR in the period 2012-2022. During this time, this FCR was governed not only by national police performance indicators, but also by local performance indicators arising from an outsourcing deal with G4S, whose staff were responsible for answering all 999 calls. This resulted in a multilayered regulatory structure whereby Lincolnshire Police were accountable to national inspectorates for emergency call handling performance while, at the same time, G4S were accountable to Lincolnshire Police for the delivery of the same service. Drawing on interviews with leaders in Lincolnshire Police and G4S conducted in 2022/23, the paper examines how, even in this hyper-regulated environment, managers recognised the importance of carving out extra time and space for frontline call handlers to address the complex needs of callers in crisis. Through this analysis, it showcases the resilience of social welfare conceptions of the public interest in the contemporary performance-driven police institution.

Author

• Adam White, University of Sheffield