Making and Breaking Barriers: Assessing the Value of Mounted Police Units in the UK

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

In this project, we propose to investigate the ways in which mounted police work is experienced in the UK through a unique observational methodology alongside focus groups with police officers and policed citizens. This research will build on current work being undertaken through the University of Oxford on behalf of UK police forces, to build an evidence base on which future strategies and priorities regarding mounted policing can be set. This project is being supported by mounted police units across the UK, and has secured significant financial and in-kind contributions from police partners. Mounted police - police horses and riders - are used as a tool of public policing around the world. They are used primarily in public-order police work, and are thought to be particularly useful in the pacification of large crowds. They have become a nearly ubiquitous sight at football matches, and they have also been used in more creative deployments including search-and-rescue operations, burglary prevention initiatives, and urban patrols. They represent a symbol of physical force as well as a connection to past eras of policing. They are also among the most poorly-understood tools in modern public police work.Police on horseback are thought to calm crowds and avert serious instances of disorder. Anecdotal evidence suggests that one horse and rider may be equivalent to six or more officers on foot in some situations. However, in current conditions of austerity, they are under threat of elimination across the UK and these policy decisions are being undertaken without recourse to evidence. Police forces across the UK are considering disbanding their mounted capacities or reducing their contributions to mounted work through amalgamating these units with multiple other forces. The relative costs and savings of these decisions are only vaguely understood at present, since virtually no focused research has ever been conducted on the effectiveness of mounted units. They cannot be easily compared to other forms of police work and there is no empirical basis on which to make claims regarding their utility.The project's research team is currently involved in initial work with UK police, including literature review and the development of quantitative criteria for measuring the performance of mounted units. However, it is recognized by all project partners that standard measures of police performance, such as arrest statistics, will be inadequate to understand these units' overall value in the relationship of UK police to society. In the research proposed here we are therefore seeking to understand the qualitative aspects of mounted police work, in particular to understand how they are seen by citizens subject to mounted policing.The core research questions of this project are: How do publics and police experience mounted police work? And, are there situations in which mounted police have special value when compared to similar non-mounted police? Over 12 months, we will address these questions by engaging in systematic observation and focus-group work with police and citizens who have experienced mounted policing. We will engage in ethnographic observations alongside the systematic approach, and will seek input from police forces internationally - such as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police - to help situate our research within a broader policing picture.The research will generate user impact through a report, multiple workshops and a national event for police partners. The project has also received attention in the national media, highlighting the importance of police and horses in UK society. It will also be the first substantive investigation into this aspect of police work, and will be of interest to academic audiences internationally. We intend to produce 2-3 articles for publication in high-quality journals such as Policing and Society and will present our findings at the 2014 British Society of Criminology conference.