Law enforcement vs. service provision: normative expectations in police-citizen encounters

• In Event: Reading drug and security policy through the lens of the street-level bureaucrat: Reflections on practice from Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and Ecuador

Abstract

This paper analyses the encounters involving police officers and citizens in Brasilia, capital of Brazil. We examine patterns of police expectations directed to citizens, as well as the consequences of incongruence in normative expectations held by officers and users of police services. The study relies on two data sets: a) ethnographic research conducted in civil police stations and community councils for public safety; and b) surveys conducted in samples of military and civil police of Distrito Federal. Observations point that divergence in normative expectations often occur: while officers emphasize their role as enforcers and guardians of criminal law, emphasizing their legal prerogatives over citizens, users demand “coercive solutions” (Bittner) and hold a broad concern with service provision that emphasizes victim support. Nevertheless, sometimes officers focus on users’ demands – then, congruent expectations provide the basis for an informal police service contract in reciprocity, process that we label as trust. Police-citizen interaction processes of trust and mistrust are described and classified according to their identifiable properties. Divergent expectations of officers and citizens can be related to Durkheim’s forms of solidarity and also to the author’s perspective on democratization, where citizens take on a relevant role in the division of political labour vis-à-vis state incumbents.

Authors

• Rodrigo F Suassuna, Universidade Católica de Brasília

• Claudio Dantas Monteiro, Universidade de Brasilia