Report - Guardian

120 The LSE Identity Project Report: June 2005Internationally the mandate of police is primarily seen as the enforcement of order,where ‘order’ refers to law enforcement. However, this definition is not appropriate forthe mandate of the police in the United Kingdom. The mandate of UK police is insteadthe implementation of order through the act of peacekeeping, where peacekeeping is themaintaining of order within agreed social principles. Peacekeeping relies on thediscretion of police officers and on their common sense, much like the work of socialworkers. Thus the essence of police work is contained in common sense, discretion anda situational understanding which acknowledges the unwritten norms of a community.In the UK, these agreed social principles are reflected in common and statutory law.More importantly, they are reflected in a non-codified, relatively fast changing systemof localized socially accepted norms of behaviour. 315 These socially acceptable norms ofbehaviour influence police work as much as common and statutory law.What makes peacekeeping different from law enforcement is the flexibility provided bythe extra consensus reached between the community and the police. Seen in this light,the police are not anti-crime machines but priority seekers. Therefore, the acceptednorms of the community are the benchmark from which they deal with a community.According to field studies documenting police activities, police officers exercise theirmandate through talking to individuals (both giving suggestions to victims andthreatening arrest for an inappropriate behaviour), finding solutions or mediationsamongst parties, withholding people with dangerous behaviours, and providing a senseof presence.Technology and the Police MandateIt would be easier to assess the value of technology strategy in police work if we wereable to define more precisely the ends to which the technology would be applied and inwhat ways it could be expected to work. 316Whilst the police mandate is inherently flexible it is not necessarily wise to have thatflexibility dictated by the characteristics of the technology that the police employ.Technology may provide a subtle shift in the role of the British police sufficient todisplace them as peacekeepers and transform them into a law enforcement machine.This would create a significant change in the policing of Britain.The potential of technology to improve the effectiveness of crime control, as well as toenhance the professional status and organisational legitimacy of the police, has created alongstanding affinity between technology and police work. 317 The image and practice ofthe police is shaped by information technologies. 318315 Manwaring-White, S. (1983). The policing revolution : police technology, democracy and liberty in Britain.Brighton, Harvester.316 Manning, P. K. (1997). Police work : the social organization of policing. Prospect Heights, Ill., Waveland Press.317 Manning, P. K. (2003). Policing contingencies. Chicago, University of Chicago Press.; Ericson, R. V. and K. D.Haggerty (1997). Policing the risk society. Toronto ; Buffalo, University of Toronto Press.318 Manning, P. K. (2003). Policing contingencies. Chicago, University of Chicago Press.