Getting to the Top: Selection and Training for Senior Managers in the Police Service

This paper examines the processes by which the senior police officers in England and Wales are chosen and prepared for their role. Based upon research interviews with a sample of chief constables and assistant chief constables, it develops a critical assessment of the quality of each of the three key stages in this respect: the selection of those considered to have the potential to become senior officers, senior management training, and the appointments process at police authority level. In the light of the assessments made, the paper considers alternative schemes to those which currently operate at each stage of the process.     

Restoring trust through transparency: Examining the effects of transparency strategies on police crisis communication in Mainland China

Employing a 2 (accepting crisis accountability vs denying crisis accountability) x 2 (high vs low information substantiality) x 2 (high vs low participation) online experiment (N = 293), this study examines how different transparency strategies influence public anger and trust in a Chinese police crisis context, offering insights on government social media crisis communication. In general, transparency is crucial for Chinese local governments, especially police agencies, in managing crises on social media. Reporting organizational crisis accountability, delivering sufficient and evidence-based messages, and enabling public discussion on social media are three transparency strategies that can help minimize public anger and rebuild public trust. Results suggest the positive effects of delivering messages in crisis situations by using transparency. Furthermore, the study points out that police organizations in China should consider the possibility of information overload and unexpectedly low overall expectations for government transparency among Chinese publics.     

民初贫困儿童的教育救助——以北京警察设立的贫儿学校为例

北洋政府时期,贫困是北京最为严重的社会问题之一。京师警察厅是负责北京治安的官方机构,为维护北京城市的社会秩序,保障普通民众的正常生活,其采取了多种方式,其中贫儿半日学校是警察厅立足于贫困民众的长远生活,自己筹办的纯粹以教育为目的的贫民救助机构。贫儿半日学校取得了一定的成绩,其不同于传统的社会救助机构,也有别于同时期的其他救助机构,是救助方式转变过程中教育救助的典型代表。     

从北京游民习艺所看传统慈善向近代慈善的转变

清末到民国时期,中国传统的以收养为主的慈善救助方式已不能满足社会救助的需要,在完善传统慈善救助方式的同时,政府和社会大力提倡教养结合、以教为主的现代新式救助方式,其中,纯粹以教育为目的游民习艺所更能代表传统慈善向近代慈善转变的发展趋势,受到政府的重视和社会的推崇,并取得一定成效。     

北洋政府时期京师警察厅的妇女救助——以济良所和妇女习工厂为例

京师警察厅是北洋政府时期北京城的官方治安管理机构,它除了基本的治安警务工作以外,还广泛参与慈善救助工作。中华民国成立后,北京城的慈善救助活动几乎全部由政府接管,其中,大部分的慈善救助机构由京师警察厅负责。京师警察厅作为北京城最重要的官方救助机构,对于贫民女性这一弱势群体进行了慈善救助,其辖属的济良所和妇女习工厂对收容和教养贫困妇女作了多方面的工作。     

The social construction of the meaning of acute stressors: A qualitative study of the personal accounts of police officers using a stress counselling service

The police profession is one in which acute stressors are encountered more frequently than in other occupations. Using the personal accounts of 35 police officers attending an in-house stress counselling clinic, the aim of the present study was to provide a qualitative examination of how the institutional context of policing influenced the ways in which acute stressors signified to individual police officers experiencing felt distress. Using the framework of Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy as an analytical tool, it is argued that beliefs contributing to the experience of felt distress are related to the way in which policing as both an identity and an activity is constructed through the police organizational culture. Not only do these constructions influence the ways in which officers perceive themselves and their environments, but they also operate at the collective level to 'normalize' some emotional responses and to 'pathologize' others which, it is argued, could impact upon the outcomes of interventions such as stress counselling.     

Self-perceived occupational stress and distress in a Scottish police force

Abstract

This paper describes an empirical study (n = 699) of occupational stress in a Scottish police force. The self-perceived stress associated with a variety of organizational and opearational stressors was examined along with the associated distress in the police officers in terms of symptoms of anxiety, somatic complaint, severe depression and social dysfunction. The analysis revealed that in spite of the potential that police work offers for exposure to adverse opeational situations such as violence or death, the highest levels of associated stress lie in relation to organizational factors such as officers' perceptions of staff shortages, inadequate resources, time pressures, lack of communication and work overload. Differential rates of perceived stress are reported accordng to gender, rank and working location. This paper further validates previsous research on stress in British police and addresses the situation from a Scottish perspective.     

甘肃省公安民警心理健康状况及影响因素分析

为了调查甘肃省公安警察的心理健康状况以及受社会支持和职业倦怠的影响作用,对全省3857民公安警察进行了 SCL‐90、职业倦怠、社会支持问卷调查。 SCL‐90结果显示：无论是和全国普通人群进行比较,还是和其他部分省份的警察相比,甘肃警察的心理健康状况更差,表现最多的症状是强迫、躯体化、抑郁。社会支持和职业倦怠与心理健康密切相关,社会支持对心理健康有积极作用,职业倦怠对心理健康有消极作用。     

Police violence and judicial bias in the age of mass democracy: Glasgow, 1933–1935

Using the example of an impoverished, so-called ‘slum’ district in Glasgow, this article argues that poorer, working-class people were subjected to aggressive and frequently violent policing along with systematic hostility from the judiciary and the press in Britain during the 1930s. In Glasgow, attempts to challenge police methods and police officers’ courtroom testimonies met with a highly punitive response from the city’s legal establishment. Despite enjoying the rights of citizenship, working-class people found it difficult to find politicians to take up their complaints about police incivility and brutality, embodied in the conduct of a police constable known locally as ‘Hitler’. Those few politicians willing to do so, whether in Glasgow Corporation or in the House of Commons, found themselves marginalized as mainstream politicians of all parties refused to accept that the British police were capable of inflicting ‘terror’ on civilians. Press sympathy extended only to those working-class women jailed for perjury and separated from their children in the wake of trials of ‘rioters’ at Glasgow Sheriff Court. Human-interest coverage of the plight of their families gave working-class people a voice as victims of misfortune. They were not permitted to speak as victims of miscarriages of justice.     

Side-by-side: An evaluation of Connecticut’s police and youth interaction model

This study evaluated a community-based intervention program designed to promote positive youth development and to create positive interactions between police and youth in a non-enforcement environment. A pre–post-design was used to compare the results of the program for participating youth and police officers, particularly changes in each group’s attitudes toward the other. The results showed that participation in the program improved police officers’ and youths’ attitudes toward each other. For youth, the rate of change in attitudes was greatest for minority youth and for youth who had prior negative experience with the police. That is, youth who had negative prior experiences with police and began with negative attitudes toward police developed more positive attitudes toward police as a result of participating in the program. Furthermore, having opportunities for positive interactions between police and youth played an important role in decreasing negative perceptions of police for ethnic minority youth. This study suggests that community-based programs that involve police with youth can improve participants’ attitude toward each other, which might impact future interactions.