Unit information: Policing and Police Regulation in 2018/19

Unit name	Policing and Police Regulation
Unit code	LAWD30119
Credit points	20
Level of study	H/6
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 4 (weeks 1-24)
Unit director	Dr. Torrible
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	First Year Core subjects, Tort, Constitutional rights
Co-requisites	None
School/department	University of Bristol Law School
Faculty	Faculty of Social Sciences and Law

Description including Unit Aims

A defining characteristic of the public police is that they have the right to use coercive force against citizens. While they are predominantly associated with crime, research repeatedly confirms that the majority of police time is not, in fact, spent on activities directly related to criminal investigations. Instead they operate at a range of practical, political and symbolic levels, being the embodiment of law and order for some and an oppressive and sometimes arbitrary arm of state to others. Significantly, the police occupy a constitutionally unique position in society and each Chief Constable enjoys operational independence. This makes the regulation, governance and accountability of the police a particularly fascinating area of study.

This unit will explore the constitutional position and role of the police. It will also provide students with an in depth understanding of the political nature policing and the mechanisms in place for police governance. Particular attention will be paid to the issues of legitimacy, accountability, and public confidence in the police and the legal and regulatory mechanisms for redress of citizen s grievances concerning officer conduct.

Topics Covered will include:

The history and constitutional position of the public police, the nature and role of policing in society; the public police and private securities; what it means for the police to be ‘legitimate’.

• The institutions of police governance and their interrelated roles; Police and Crime Commissioners, the College of Policing, Her Majesties’ Inspectorate of the Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Service, the Independent Police Complaints Commission.
• Perceptions of policing; police operational culture and police professionalisation; police media relations, citizen journalism and the impact of body worn cameras.
• Police, politics and the judiciary; the legal and political accountability of Chief Officers for operational decisions; policing and political protest.
• Private law actions against the police, human rights, negligence, the intentional torts; the courts’ role in police officer accountability.
• Police complaints and discipline mechanisms; legitimacy, accountability and public confidence; officers’ criminal liability and the history and development of the current mechanisms for handling police complaints; the literature on complainants’ experiences and the IPCC’s role regarding statistics, reports and recommendations.

Unit Aims:

• To enable students to develop an understudying of the necessarily contested and political nature of policing and the complexities of police regulation and governance.
• To ensure students can identify and outline the interconnected roles of the bodies engaged with police governance.
• To enable students to explore and critique the courts’ varied roles in relation to police governance and accountability, via judicial review, private tortious actions and claims under the Human Rights Act
• To ensure students understand and can critically assess the current mechanisms in place to handle complaints against and discipline of officers and demonstrate an appreciation of the difficulties in assessing the effectiveness of such mechanisms.
• To enable student to discuss and engage with key areas of debate concerning policing and police regulation in ways that demonstrate and nuanced appreciation of how the contested nature of policing necessarily pervades beliefs concerning how the police should be governed and regulated.

Intended Learning Outcomes

By the end of this unit the successful student will be able to demonstrate a detailed and accurate knowledge and understanding of:

• The constitutional position of the public police and the contested and necessarily political nature of their role.
• The legal and regulatory mechanisms in place for the governance of the police and the operational independence of Chief Constables
• The difficulties in regulating officer conduct at street level, (including police occupational culture), the current regulatory mechanisms in place for handling complaints against and the discipline of street level officers, and the history and development of these mechanisms.
• The potential regulatory role of the civil courts via individual tortious actions and actions under the Human Rights Act by private citizens
• Draw connections between the areas outlined above, delineating common themes (e.g. independence, accountability, discipline, public confidence, legitimacy, transparency) and, comparing and contrasting the areas of study where different themes dominate debates.
• Critically assess contemporary debates on policing and police regulation by employing a sophisticated knowledge and understanding of how the connections and themes noted in 2 above inform those debates.
• Form and justify coherent and well-reasoned arguments in relation to current debates on policing and police regulation which demonstrate a nuanced appreciation of the political and practical complexities in this area.

Teaching Information

10 hours of lectures

20 hours of seminars

Assessment Information

1x Formative essay (1,000 words)

1x 3 hour summative exam in the summer assessment period

Reading and References

There is no single text book which covers all the topic taught on this unit. Students will be referred to Reiner, R (2010) “The Politics of the Police” as a classic if now rather dated text; Prenzler, T and Den Heyer, eds (2016) “Civilian Oversight of Police Advancing Accountability in Law Enforcement” and Lister, S and Rowe, M, eds (2017) “Accountability of Policing”.

The majority of sources will be online as follows:

Government texts, for example:

Chapman, C, “ An Independent Review of the Police Disciplinary System in England and Wales”

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-police-disciplinary-system-in-england-and-wales

And extensive use will be made of IPCC publications, for example

IPCC Pubic Confidence Survey 2016 available at https://www.ipcc.gov.uk/sites/default/files/Documents/guidelines_reports/IPCC_Public_Confidence_Survey_2016.pdf

Academic articles, for example:

Conaghan, J., Torrible, C., 2017. “Policing, professionalism and liability for negligence”. Professional negligence, 33(2), 86-108

De Maillard, J. and Savage, S., 2017. “Policing as a performing art? The contradictory nature of contemporary police performance management”. Criminology and Criminal Justice, 1-18

Torrible, C., 2016. Reconceptualising the police complaints process as a site of contested legitimacy claims. Policing and Society, 1-16.

Sillince, J.A. and Brown, A.D., 2009. “Multiple organizational identities and legitimacy: The rhetoric of police websites”. Human Relations 62(12), 1829-1856.

Wilcox, A. and Young, R., 2007. “How green was Thames Valley?: Policing the image of Restorative Justice Cautions”. Policing & Society, 17(2), 141-163.