Policing in partnership. Are organic police partnerships more effective than mandated police partnerships?

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Howe, N., 2019. Policing in partnership. Are organic police partnerships more effective than mandated police partnerships? PhD, Nottingham Trent University.

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Abstract

This thesis adopts a broad qualitative standpoint. It examines police involvement in partnerships before and after the implementation of the Crime and Disorder Act, 1998, legislation which mandated the police to work in partnership. A case-study of Staffordshire Police explores experiences of officers working in partnerships pre and post 1998. The research is used to provide insights into the complexity that is partnership, which has wider applicability beyond policing. The thesis examines also the concept and specific mechanisms of policing in partnership that have, in the main, been championed by successive government administrations since New Labour in the late 1990s and are now largely assumed as being an 'effective and efficient' way of working.

The thesis identifies an important hitherto strangely underexplored fact, namely: that the foundational policy document, which framed the Crime and Disorder Act mandating police-partnerships, the Morgan Report (1991), produced zero-evidence as to the efficacy of the partnership approach it advocates. Despite being unevidenced, the Morgan Report set in motion a national framework, bureaucratization and professionalization of partnerships. Consequently, there now exists a complex web of professional clustering’s around pre-defined problems. Significantly, the research identifies, that the formality of partnership has encouraged the police to withdraw from elements of their pre-Morgan service and care functions. Equally, partnership has little or no connection to current policing strategy. More recently Police and Crime Commissioners provide a new dynamic to partnership governance and their increasing 'influence' is being felt. However, government fiscal austerity has shifted contemporary partnership discourse with evidence presented of organizations withdrawing support and re-entrenching core activity. The thesis concludes by framing a new conceptualization for assessing partnership effectiveness.

Item Type:	Thesis
Creators:	Howe, N.
Date:	June 2019
Rights:	© "This work is the intellectual property of the author. You may copy 5 per cent of this work for private study, or personal, non-commercial research. Any re-use of the information contained within this document should be fully referenced, quoting the author, title, university, degree level and pagination. Queries or requests for any other use, or if a more substantial copy is required, should be directed to the owner of the Intellectual Property Rights."
Divisions:	Schools > School of Social Sciences
Record created by:	Linda Sullivan
Date Added:	21 Oct 2019 11:31
Last Modified:	21 Oct 2019 11:31
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/38009