British Policing in the Nineties: Free Market and Strong State?

Abstract

This paper considers how the two strands of British conservative ideology, "free market and strong state," have shaped British policing policy in the 1980s and how they are likely to have continued impact during the 1990s. The paper begins by examining some recent changes in British policing. First it considers developments at the level of the "strong state": notably, the problems posed for police legitimacy by changes in public order policing and by controversies surrounding the issue of police accountability. Next it examines the way in which free market ideology is having an impact on public police forces while at the same time encouraging the development of various private policing initiatives. It concludes that the formula "free economy and strong state" fails to recognize the in-creasing interpenetration of the public issues. First, how is one to conceptualize the complex connections between "public" and "private" policing when the boundaries between those spheres are in-creasingly indistinct? Second, how far are consumer-based models of policing compatible with traditional conceptions of police legitimacy?

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