1、 Psychology and Behavioral Sciences 2014; 3(2): 41-45 Published online March 10, 2014 (http:/ doi: 10.11648/j.pbs.20140302.11 “Jack of all trades and master of none,” is this a true reflection of todays British police Kwan Choi1, Ju-Lak Lee2, *, Hyungoo Shin2 1Dept. of Police Administration, Hansei
2、University, Gunpo, Korea 2Dept. of Security Management, Kyonggi University, Suwon, Korea Email address: julakleekgu.ac.kr (Ju-Lak Lee) To site this article: Kwan Choi, Ju-Lak Lee, Hyungoo Shin. “Jack of all Trades and Master of None,” is this a True Reflection of Todays British Police. Psychology an
3、d Behavioral Sciences. Vol. 3, No. 2, 2014, pp. 41-45. doi: 10.11648/j.pbs.20140302.11 Abstract: The purpose of present study is to explore the British policing methods and their effectiveness. Generally, four key goals of their policing include preventing crime and disorder, pursuing and bringing t
4、o justice those who break the law, keeping the peace, and helping the public. When considering these aims carefully, it leads to a subsequent question: If the majority of regular police officers are not directly fighting crime, what are the reasons for it and what are they actually doing? This is th
5、e foundations for the “Jack of all trades” argument of this paper, which gives rise to the two competing paradigms. One is that the role of the police should involve much more than simply apprehending criminals. Furthermore, the other paradigm suggests that the police are simply spending too much ti
6、me on the activities that are not part of their main duties. These polarised viewpoints need to be taken into account before any meaningful conclusions can be drawn. This paper argues that the answer can be found in the culture of policing by examining the goals that the British police forces are cu
7、rrently attempting to achieve. It is clear that as the police have finite resources, they have to make choices about how to deploy them. This requires reconsidering their priorities and placing more emphases on some activities more than others. Keywords: British Police, Policing Methods, Crime and D
8、isorder, Crime Prevention 1. Introduction The purpose of present study is to explore the British policing methods and their effectiveness. With this in mind we must acknowledge that the police are called upon routinely to perform a bewildering miscellany of tasks, which range from controlling traffi
9、c to controlling terrorism 1. Despite the diverse range of their duties police activity can be clearly categorised. This was illustrated by the report of the Sheehy Inquiry, which “saw policing as encompassing four main aims: to prevent crime; to pursue and bring to justice those who break the law;
10、to keep the peace; and to protect, help and reassure the public” 2. Such analysis spawns a further question: “if the majority of police officers are not directly fighting crime, what are they doing” and why? 3. It is here that we see the foundations for the “Jack of all trades” argument which gives
11、rise to two competing paradigms. The first of these is that “the role of the police should involve much more than simply catching criminals”, while the latter suggests that “the police are simply spending too much time on activities that are not part of their main job” 4. These polarised viewpoints
12、need to be considered before any meaningful conclusion can be drawn. But even if we agree that the police are “Jack of all trades” does it really follow that they are “master of none”? An answer can perhaps be found in the culture of policing by objectives currently attempted by police forces in Bri
13、tain 5. It is clear that the police have finite resources and consequently they have to make choices about how to deploy them which inevitably means prioritising some activities over others 6. Strong argument can thus be made that the opening title to this work is a truism which reflects the harsh a
14、nd bureaucratic reality of modern policing, and this is what this paper will investigate. 2. Jack of all Trades 2.1. Generation The police force has held a statutory duty for the prevention of crime since it first gained a permanent 42 Kwan Choi et al.: “Jack of all Trades and Master of None,” is Th
15、is a True Reflection of Todays British Police? presence in London in 1829 7. While this fundamental objective remains unchanged, modern times have given birth to a service orientated approach with an aim to de-emphasise the more forceful aspects of policing and to inculcate a more responsive image 8
16、. Resultantly it is evident that the traditional model of state police is being challenged by a growing diversification of policing provision 1. This idea is reinforced by studies which have consistently shown that not more than 25 per cent of all calls to the police are about crime, more often the
17、figure being 15-20 per cent 3. This suggests that a large portion of police time is spent restoring order and providing general assistance with typical instances involving young men drinking beer on a street corner, tenants refusing to leave an apartment from which they have been evicted, a dog bark
18、ing persistently late at night and a neighbour obstructing a driveway with his car. These are but a few examples of the “Jack of all trades” nature of police work which clearly demonstrate that despite the popularity of the crime fighting image, a great deal of police work is mundane 9. Confident as
19、sertion is hereby made that police work cannot accurately be encompassed by terms such as law enforcement of crime control 4 as it is increasingly apparent that officers have to act as untrained and temporary social workers giving rise to what is in effect a secret social service 10. Consequently “t
20、he police are working and responding almost as an all-purpose emergency service whether or not a call involves a crime” 4. With this in mind how do the police organise themselves relative to the diverse range of work they are expected to undertake. 2.2. Jack of all Trades: From Models of Methods The
21、 idea of “Jack of all trades” can be demonstrated through a series of policing models in effect the theory behind the practice. These are best illustrated as “the enforcement model, the service model and the community model” although it is imperative to remember that there is no perfect model of pol
22、icing, and it is probably necessary to borrow elements from each model to arrive at a police service that meets all the demands of the public 11. This quotation is of particular importance as it classically illustrates the point we now to turn to examine. The conceptual basis of the enforcement mode
23、l concentrates on the control of crime and the enforcement of the law. This largely coincides with “the basic message given by western democratic governments during the twentieth century that crime could be controlled by catching criminals and processing them through the system”. Not only does this
24、approach physically remove criminals from our streets it is also seen to bring offenders to justice and thus act as a general deterrent to others tempted to commit crime 12. Central to this model is the notion that the police adopt a reactive stance, their responses being controlled by the public, f
25、or it is the public which activates demand for their service 11. Notwithstanding the enforcement model it is evident that the meaning of police crime prevention has shifted in recent years. This has been exemplified by an expansion of specialist crime prevention departments in police forces, providi
26、ng advice to citizens on methods of minimising the risk of becoming the victims of crime, and alerting them to the dangers of some kinds of offences 13. Consequently it is submitted that the police have become knowledge workers with their main function to broker information about risks to public and
27、 private organisations concerned with the regulation and governance of people and territories. The above has given rise to concept labelled as the “service” and “community” models of policing. The former advocates that policing priorities are set in consultation with the public while the latter give
28、s precedence to maintaining order and public tranquillity over crime control, with the police and the community sharing responsibility for dealing with crime and disorder 11. To fully comprehend this new approach we must acknowledge that these two ideas are interdependent in respect of the fact that
29、 the latter is largely a product of the former. With this in mind they have strong ties to a concept known as “problem orientated policing”, a system concerned with “systematically addressing relevant problems in the community” 14. It is clear that the service model features a close responsiveness t
30、o what the community wants and is largely reactive. Here we see a system where public concerns are built into the priority-setting process via some type of community forum 11. By contrast to the enforcement model a service orientated force would have to re-think the balance of effort it expended on
31、crime control, order maintenance and general services taking care not to deplete the number of officers available for general patrol. This manner of policing is becoming increasingly prevalent in present times. Implementing the community model comprehensively has proved to be very difficult as those
32、 communities most in need of community policing seem to have taken to it least enthusiastically 14. This is best explained in one of two ways, firstly that the marginalised and disaffected and those living in fractured communities, among whom relationships with the police have been least trusting, h
33、ave not been quick to embrace a redefinition of policing and secondly because those who would like to work more closely with the police can be deterred because of intimidation from other residents 15. Either way it is apparent that this method of policing has been met with a mixed response, perhaps
34、because the term community itself is notoriously slippery it often seems to imply shared norms, values and ways of life often where no such attributes exist. The above has demonstrated the practical and theoretical principles behind the “Jack of all trades label”. Despite this we must remember that
35、models of policing are in Psychology and Behavioral Sciences 2014, 3(2): 41-45 43 themselves nebulous and elusive concepts, often the subject of heated academic debate. 3. Master of None 3.1. Policing the Goals of Government Published in 2005 the National Policing Plan (2005-2008) presents five key
36、policing priorities: to reduce overall crime, to provide a citizen-focused police service which responds to the needs of communities and individuals, to take action with partners to increase sanction detection rates, to reduce peoples concerns about crime, and to combat serious and organised. While
37、the above objectives seem credible in reality they represent the politicisation of the police, a phenomenon codified by the Police Act 1996 which gave the Home Secretary power to determine the national policing objectives and performance indicators for all police forces. This was later supplemented
38、by the Police Reform Act 2002 which allowed the Home Secretary to issue guidance to police authorities and chief officers of police as to the matters to be contained in any three-year strategy plan, and as to the form to be taken by any such plan. Thus the priorities listed in the National Police Pl
39、an have been set at central government level and are often linked to budgetary constraints and political ideology. The problems arising from such centralised objectives stem from the fact that the inherent dominance of efficiency over effectiveness will encourage monetary value rather than social va
40、lue in policing 16. This prompts a situation where the appearance of rationality is satisfied by the publication of statistics on expenditure, objectives, performance and crime thus suggesting a magic formula by which resources can be converted into actions and actions into outcomes for society 17.
41、As a result it can be said that the adoption of business excellence models is on the increase in the police and this type of approach is bound to dominate for the foreseeable future 8. This is perhaps best summed up in the words of the regularly recited maxim whoever controls the purse strings contr
42、ols policing. A further concern arising from the centralisation of police priorities lies in the nature of their relationship with government. Examples of this are counter-terrorist initiatives which all too often have involved the passage of new, emergency legislation, generally providing for the e
43、xtension of the powers available to the police and / or the security services. These powers are often presented as being temporary with the reality being that over time there is a long-term process of normalisation in which the gap between special and normal policing powers narrows or even disappear
44、s 18. This gives cause for concern out of 895 arrests made under The Terrorism Act 2000 a mere 23 have resulted in conviction. Others were dealt with under conventional criminal justice disposal methods and a massive 496 resulted in no action whatsoever. Additionally, in the case of A Secretary of S
45、tate for the Home Department (2005) the House of Lords ruled that Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001 (which authorised the detention of foreign nationals for 90 days without trial) was incompatible with the Human Rights Act 1998. A different but equally valid example can be found in the pol
46、icing of the miners dispute in the mid-1980s, and the subsequent violence on the picket lines between striking miners and the police 9. Here the police were seen by many as enforcing the political will of the Thatcher government. Both of the above instances highlight the problematic nature of the re
47、lationship between police and government in which the former are sometimes seen to act as the enforcement wing of the latter. Despite these negative examples a clear benefit of centralising policing work can be seen in the establishment of both “the National Crime Squad (NCS) and National Criminal I
48、ntelligence Service (NCIS)” 19. Created by central government these units second officers from other police forces with an overall remit to target criminal organisations committing serious and organised crime. This has clearly increased the ability of police forces to co-ordinate their activities ac
49、ross force boundaries 20. Nevertheless it is evident that there are undercurrents of opposition among the British police to claims about how serious and widespread organised crime is 21. 3.2. How Effective are the Police? There were 5.6 million crimes recorded by the police in 2005/2006, a fall of one per cent compared with 2004/2005. It is widely acknowledged that measuring police effectiveness is not an easy task with the standard measure for many years being the clear up rat
