Defining Policing Policies and the Political Agenda

Police officers influence the British policy process through their representative organizations. One of the main ways in which this is achieved is through police domination of the definition of certain sorts of issues at the central governmental level. This definition also occurs at the local level. Analysis of the location of the police as an interest group in the structure of the British state suggests how the politics of policing might be understood. Five issues relating to the police policies towards behaviour –street assaults, ‘rural public disorder’, rape, battered women and racially motivated assaults – illustrate how the police define issues and affect the policy process. The debates about police ‘politicization’ and accountability should be set in the context of the relationship between political structure, issue definition and the political agenda.