Preventing the damaging effects of the Community Policing-rhetoric by tackling its ‘double binds’

• In Event: POLWG Panel 14. Police Culture: Police Officer identity, values and the impact of police reform

Abstract

The police face many paradoxes (i.e. contradicting expectations that are persistent over time and that are mutually dependent (Smith & Lewis 2011)) such as ‘proximity vs. distance’ or ‘external accountability vs. internal hierarchy and professionalism’. While these paradoxes are already difficult to cope with, policing models such as Community Policing (CP) further exacerbate the situation by emphasizing just one side of the paradox. In doing so, they create ‘double binds’ for police officers: situations that require people to do something that is actually not feasible or legal. For example, CP-rhetoric tends to push police officers to be more accessible and responsive to citizens, while denying that good police work often also requires a sufficient degree of distance. Thus, by imposing such a ‘proximity to citizens’ rhetoric, management cops create a potentially very damaging ‘double bind’ for police officers.

Research on double binds within organizations shows that these have nefarious effects that are notably consistent with descriptions of traditional police culture: distrust, withdrawal, and sarcasm. Thus, research on double binds helps to explain why CP-rhetoric can inadvertently strengthen, instead of weaken, traditional police culture. This presentation will draw on double bind research within organizations to propose ways of implementing CP (and other policing models) without creating such double binds, e.g. by using techniques to introduce formal and informal metacommunication (naming and discussing the paradox instead of pretending it is not there) or by creating a context of genuine psychological safety.

Author

• Jeroen Maesschalck, Leuven Institute of Criminology, KU Leuven