POLICE MANAGEMENT AND COMMUNITY POLICING: A CASE STUDY FROM SCOTLAND

Abstract

The present case study is based on police management in Scotland and focuses on orienting the service toward community policing and away from a target-driven approach. Contemporary police report and planning documents are analyzed to chart this shift in orientation towards what is referred to as New Public Governance (NPG). This involves a focus on the public good and represents moving beyond the previous target-driven approach to New Public Management (NPM). New Public Governance emphasizes community involvement and the co-creation of objectives between professionals and the public that they serve. Therefore, an NPG approach to policing is premised on seeking legitimacy for police action through community involvement. This study aimed to identify the presence of NPG and NPM in Scottish police management practices, as outlined through formal reporting structures. A discourse analytic methodology was adopted due to its applicability in examining the rhetorical nature of the documents. The analysis indicates that the Police Scotland documents examined indeed conform to the NPG model, at least on the surface. However, while there is a greater emphasis on public values that align with policing for the good of the communities served, there are still vestiges of the NPM approach in terms of measurable outcomes. While the documents point to a service orientation and a move towards an NPG approach, an alternative interpretation is that the rhetorical style adopted may suggest an exercise in corporate self-presentation given the desire for police legitimacy.