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Why We Trussed the Police: Police Governance and the Problem of Trust

NCJ Number
222575
Journal
International Journal of Police Science and Management Volume: 10 Issue: 1 Dated: Spring 2008 Pages: 51-64
Author(s)
Stan Gilmour
Date Published
2008
Length
14 pages
Annotation
This paper examines the relationship between society and the police, whereby in order to trust that the police will not abuse their power, the public invariably ensure they are trussed.
Abstract
Any attempt to explain the nature and value of trust in the context of the relationships between the police, the public, and the government most also, then, engage with the interrelated concepts of legitimacy, confidence, accountability, and justice. These terms involve trust and are an important feature of the government’s police reform agenda and serve to circumscribe one possible perimeter of theorizing about governance in general and the police in particular. This paper examines the relationship between these four concepts and trust, and by defining each as trust seeks to uncover their significance to the relationship between the police and its public. Trust is examined in its use to facilitate and restrict the activities of the police by underpinning the fundamental features of police decisions, activities, and police governance. The paradox running through this paper concerns the relationship between society and the police whereby, in order to trust that the police will not abuse their power, the public invariably ensure they are trussed. Central to this is the question of how, in thinking about police governance, can trust be acknowledged as a fundamental feature of police relationships, and how can trust be activated to ensure that the police are regarded as legitimate? At issue is a statement of the underlying principles which make for a more democratically responsive police service. Table, references