Positioning the Citizen Within Contemporary Policing

Abstract

It should be clear that the role that the citizen can and should play in political decision making has long been a contested one. As we have seen, a central rationale for citizen participation - however conceived - in political decision making is to hold those who govern to account. With its central role in enforcing the laws of the land, the mechanisms through which police officers are held to account for their actions are highly pertinent to policing in the UK and around the globe. That the police should come under some form of democratic scrutiny is generally accepted. However, given the sensitive nature of policing some measure of distance between the democratic state and the police service has also been viewed to be essential. Finding a balance between the need to place the police under a democratic gaze in order to hold them to account and to accord a degree of independence to avoid the undue politicisation of crime control is a central concern of liberal states. However, holding the police to account is not the only reason for involving citizens in policing since, as we have seen, citizen participation has also been justified on the grounds of improving the nature of decision making, facilitating the development and wellbeing of citizens and fostering the democratic state.