Visible Policing: the Affective Properties of Police Buildings, Images and Material Culture

近几十年来，社会科学领域出现了许多人称之为“视觉转向”的现象。在视觉犯罪学中，重要的研究议程包括监狱和社区惩罚、对犯罪和惩罚的恐惧以及媒体对犯罪和越轨行为的报道。在这种背景下，很难理解为什么警务工作没有更重要地受到理论和方法上由视觉告知的研究的影响。这一空白特别令人困惑的原因之一是，在警务社会学中有一个长期存在的工作机构，强调象征主义的重要性，警察体现了国家主权，警察活动有很强的表演和交流维度。例如，警察制服和巡逻车以及仪式旗帜和徽章被认为对公众的认知、信任和合法性具有重要意义。本研究将进一步对这些因素进行分析，但也包括更广泛的可见性维度。警察大楼的位置、设计和建筑、儿童玩具中的警务物质文化表征以及社交媒体上的警务形象都是本研究中考虑的警察知名度的新维度。以前的研究没有考虑过这些广义术语，也没有使用视觉研究方法测试过公众对这些不同维度的看法。在政策方面，警务工作的能见度主要是在狭义上解决的，即巡逻人员为焦虑的公众提供保证的潜力。在最近关于未来部署日益减少的资源的政策辩论的背景下，经常有人承诺提供可见的一线警务。在2010年之后的几年里，政府削减了资金，在这种背景下，政府部长们倾向于声称，这种削减可以集中在不会减少可见警察存在的警务方面。然而，反对者认为，削减开支应该逆转，以保留一线服务。无论从辩论的哪一方来看，提供看得见的巡逻都是以工作人员步行或乘坐车辆作为公共空间的实际存在的方式提出的。在社会学、犯罪学、媒体、文化研究和人文地理学等新兴研究领域的基础上，本项目通过研究更广泛的活动和物质实践来考察可见警务的性质和影响，这些活动和实践日益塑造了人们对警务的看法，但在研究方面却被忽视了。确定了三种可见性：1。警察局的象征力量。这一点尤其重要，因为随着新物业（通常在新地点）采用现代形式，以及资源压力导致与其他机构共用房地，警察庄园的建筑也发生了变化。2. 警察物质文化的象征性属性，包括仪式制服、旗帜、徽章、旅游纪念品、儿童玩具等。这一链将纳入分析方面的组织和专业身份的警察工作人员，以及公众的合法性的看法。3. 警方在社交媒体上的知名度，包括官方警察账户，以及警员个人、员工协会和其他网络的账户。这些将根据其对公众的影响来考虑，包括警察是否在网上扮演类似于现实世界巡逻的角色，例如，提供公众安心。照片引出和照片叙述技术将用于生成数据，将解决关键的研究问题，并提供一个视觉材料的主体，将告知焦点小组讨论。将通过专门的网站、公开展览和制作纪录片传播调查结果，提高知名度。

Over recent decades there has been what many have called a 'visual turn' within the social sciences. Within visual criminology important research agendas have developed on prisons and community punishments, the fear of crime and punitiveness, and media representations of crime and deviance. Against this context, it is difficult to understand why policing has not also been more significantly subjected to research that is theoretically and methodologically informed by the visual. One of the reasons why this lacuna is particularly puzzling is that there is a long-standing body of work within the sociology of policing that emphasizes the significance of symbolism, that police embody state sovereignty, and that there are strong performative and communicative dimensions to police activity. Police uniform and patrol cars, for example, together with ceremonial flags and regalia, are considered significant to public perception, trust and legitimacy. Analysis of these is further developed in this study but wider dimensions of visibility are also included. The location, design and architecture of police buildings, material cultural representations of policing in children's toys, and social media imagery of policing are among the novel dimensions of police visibility considered in this research. No previous study has considered these broad terms or tested public perceptions of these different dimensions using visual research methods.In policy terms, visibility in policing has been primarily addressed in narrow terms regarding the potential for patrol officers to provide reassurance to anxious publics. In the context of recent policy debates about future deployment of diminishing resources there have been frequent commitments to the provision of visible frontline policing. Against a background of funding cuts imposed in the years after 2010, government ministers have tended to claim that such reductions could be focused on aspects of policing that would not reduce visible police presence. Opponents, however, have argued that spending cuts ought to be reversed in order to preserve frontline services. From whatever side of the debate, the provision of visible patrols has been presented in terms of staff on foot or in vehicles as a physical presence in public space. Building upon an emerging body of research in sociology, criminology, media, cultural studies, and human geography, this project examines the nature and impact of visible policing through the study of a wider range of activities and material practices that increasingly shape perceptions of policing, but have been neglected in research terms. Three strands of visibility are identified: 1. The symbolic power of police stations. This is particularly important since the architecture of the police estate changes as new properties (often in new locations) adopt contemporary forms and as pressure on resources leads to co-location with other agencies in shared premises. 2. The symbolic properties of police material culture, including ceremonial uniforms, flags, badges, tourist souvenirs, and children's toys. This strand will incorporate analysis in terms of the organisational and professional identity of police staff as well as public perceptions of legitimacy. 3. Police visibility in social media, incorporating official police accounts as well as those owned by individual officers, staff associations and other networks. These will be considered in terms of their impacts on the public, including whether the police play an online role analogous to real world patrol, for example, in providing for public reassurance. Photo elicitation and photo narrative techniques will be used to generate data that will address the key research questions and also provide a body of visual material that will inform focus group discussion. Visibility will be enhanced through the dissemination of findings via a dedicated website, a public exhibition and via production of a documentary film.