Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

The importance of liberal values within policing: police and crime commissioners, police independence and the spectre of illiberal democracy

The importance of liberal values within policing: police and crime commissioners, police... The introduction of police and crime commissioners (PCC) in England and Wales has reignited discussions about police governance. This paper contributes to these debates by focusing on the role liberal values play within liberal democratic ideals of policing. It suggests, policing principles historically have been informed primarily by liberal goals; that is to say these principles are liberal before they are democratic. Policing in England and Wales today, however, is increasingly informed by democratic values at the expense of liberal principles. The spectre of illiberal democracy is considered here as a warning in light of this development. The paper argues that there is a growing disparity between the rhetoric of liberal policing principles, historically rooted in pre-democratic times, and the reality of contemporary policing in societies that are increasingly sensitive to democratic expectations. Police independence is used to illustrate this argument. Police independence is still revered in rhetoric today, but the liberal origin of this concept is not recognised. But the idea that the police should retain a degree of freedom from political interference makes sense from a liberal perspective, one that is increasingly difficult to defend as liberal values decline in importance, and democratic aspirations come to the fore. The paper concludes by suggesting that liberal values are, on the one hand, increasingly difficult to accommodate within contemporary ideas of policing, but are at the same time becoming more necessary, especially following the introduction of PCCs. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Policing & Society Taylor & Francis

The importance of liberal values within policing: police and crime commissioners, police independence and the spectre of illiberal democracy

Wood, Dominic A.
Policing & Society , Volume 26 (2): 17 – Feb 17, 2016
Download PDF
17 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/taylor-francis/the-importance-of-liberal-values-within-policing-police-and-crime-Dz6hGVefY7

References (120)

Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Copyright
© 2014 Taylor & Francis
ISSN
1477-2728
eISSN
1043-9463
DOI
10.1080/10439463.2014.922086
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

The introduction of police and crime commissioners (PCC) in England and Wales has reignited discussions about police governance. This paper contributes to these debates by focusing on the role liberal values play within liberal democratic ideals of policing. It suggests, policing principles historically have been informed primarily by liberal goals; that is to say these principles are liberal before they are democratic. Policing in England and Wales today, however, is increasingly informed by democratic values at the expense of liberal principles. The spectre of illiberal democracy is considered here as a warning in light of this development. The paper argues that there is a growing disparity between the rhetoric of liberal policing principles, historically rooted in pre-democratic times, and the reality of contemporary policing in societies that are increasingly sensitive to democratic expectations. Police independence is used to illustrate this argument. Police independence is still revered in rhetoric today, but the liberal origin of this concept is not recognised. But the idea that the police should retain a degree of freedom from political interference makes sense from a liberal perspective, one that is increasingly difficult to defend as liberal values decline in importance, and democratic aspirations come to the fore. The paper concludes by suggesting that liberal values are, on the one hand, increasingly difficult to accommodate within contemporary ideas of policing, but are at the same time becoming more necessary, especially following the introduction of PCCs.

Journal

Policing & Society – Taylor & Francis

Published: Feb 17, 2016

Keywords: liberal democratic policing; police independence; police and crime commissioners; illiberal democracy

There are no references for this article.