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所说的“视觉转向”。在视觉犯罪学的重要研究议程已经制定了监狱和社区的惩罚，犯罪和惩罚的恐惧，以及犯罪和越轨行为的媒体代表。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视觉在理论和方法上的影响。这个空白特别令人困惑的原因之一是，在警察社会学中有一个长期存在的工作机构，强调象征意义，警察体现国家主权，警察活动有很强的表演和沟通维度。例如，警察制服和巡逻汽车，连同仪式旗帜和徽章，被认为对公众的看法、信任和合法性具有重要意义。在这项研究中，对这些问题的分析得到了进一步的发展，但也包括了更广泛的可见度。警察建筑的位置，设计和建筑，警务在儿童玩具的物质文化表现，以及警务的社会媒体形象是在这项研究中考虑的警察能见度的新维度。没有以前的研究认为这些广泛的条款或测试公众对这些不同方面的看法，使用视觉research methods.In政策方面，在警务的能见度主要是在狭义上解决的潜在的巡逻人员提供放心焦虑的公众。在最近关于未来部署日益减少的资源的政策辩论中，经常承诺提供可见的前线警务。在2010年后几年削减资金的背景下，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力的警务方面。然而，反对者认为，削减开支应该逆转，以保留一线服务。无论辩论的哪一方，都以工作人员步行或乘车作为公共场所的实际存在来提出提供可见巡逻的问题。在社会学、犯罪学、媒体、文化研究和人文地理学的新兴研究机构的基础上，该项目通过研究越来越多地塑造警务观念但在研究方面被忽视的更广泛的活动和物质做法，审查可见警务的性质和影响。三股知名度被确定：1。警察局的象征性权力。这一点特别重要，因为随着新的物业（往往在新的地点）采用现代形式，以及由于资源压力导致与其他机构共用房地，警察产业的建筑结构发生变化。2.警察物质文化的象征性属性，包括礼仪制服、旗帜、徽章、旅游纪念品、儿童玩具等。这一部分将包括对警察人员的组织和专业身份以及公众对合法性的看法的分析。3.警察在社交媒体上的能见度，包括警察官方账户以及警察个人、工作人员协会和其他网络拥有的账户。将从对公众的影响角度考虑这些问题，包括警察是否在网上发挥类似于真实的世界巡逻的作用，例如，在向公众提供保证方面。照片启发和照片叙事技术将用于生成数据，以解决关键的研究问题，并提供一个视觉材料，将通知焦点小组讨论的身体。将通过一个专门网站、一个公开展览和制作一部纪录片来传播调查结果，以提高知名度。

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.