Weekly schedule:

Week 1

Policing  emerged  from  a  change  in  the  relationship  between   state  and  society.  Its antecedents can be traced back centuries before Robert Peel, but he is credited with the establishment of the first professional police force in the world. Before establishing the

‘Met’, Peel had created the Irish Constabulary.  There could be no sharper difference between the two. This session maps out the key historical developments in policing and provides an analysis of how that has shaped the police service of today.

Week 2

Police organisations are highly bureaucratised and an often unwieldy structures. They operate in a 24/7 environment dealing with complex problems. Much of their work is unseen but the political costs of failure are high. Because policing exists at the nexus of state and society its relationship with the government of the day is critical. This session will focus on the political context in which police operate.

Week 3

Police in a liberal democratic society require effective oversight and transparent forms of accountability.  Yet  they  also  need  a  high  degree  of  independence  to  conduct  their activities. Striking the right balance is problematic especially during periods where there is a perception, real or otherwise, that society is ‘falling apart’. This session examines the issues of accountability and governance from an ‘agent/structure’ perspective.

Week 4

Community Policing and Problem-Oriented Policing are significant models of policing which came to prominence in the 1980s and still influence policing today. This session will examine their genesis, impact on local policing and legacy for policing in 2012.

Week 5

This presentation outlines the growing trend of privatisation of policing services and its interactions with law enforcement.  It also identifies the causes and effects of forces that have resulted in the adoption of corporate practices by law enforcement bodies and its effect practice.

Week 6

This session will examine two prominent models of policing.

The first, ‘Zero tolerance’ policing which is closely identified with reforms in the New York Police Department (NYPD) during the 1990s. A key concurrent element was the use of crime statistics and mapping—COMPSTAT—by the NYPD. A second model to be examined is Intelligence-Led Policing which has its origins in British policing. How both models use Police intelligence will be examined.

Week 7

An area of policing not often examined is the rapid change and development in structures and approaches to policing serious and organised crime in the last 20 years. This session will consider how the investigation and intelligence arms of policing have combined with the aim of creating more effective agencies to deal with organised crime, transnational crime and terrorism.

Week 8

The national movement for human rights is gaining momentum. In the Australian Capital Territory and Victoria there exist legislated human rights in the form of an Act and a Charter respectively. Some have labelled the Human Rights Act in the UK, the ‘Villian’s Charter’, because it is perceived to prevent police from doing their job. This session looks at  policing  and  human  rights  both  in  an  international  and  national  context  with  a particular focus on the difficulty of dealing with members of society who have serious mental health issues.

Week 9

The attitudes of police officers can greatly affect the way in which they use necessarily wide discretion in the exercise of their powers and discharge of their functions. These attitudes, which are not always positive, can in varying degrees be shaped by vocationally-determined informal occupational acculturation.  The formal standards and expectations for ethical conduct affecting police officers are higher than in comparable vocations, yet corruption remains a perennial problem.  This session examines the phenomena of ‘police culture’, the nature of professional ethics, the exercise of discretion and how police are held accountable for their conduct.

Week 10

Whilst policing takes place world-wide under a wide range of diverse environments, fundamentally it remains predominantly concerned with the prevention of crime, the detection and bringing to justice of offenders and the maintenance of safety, security and order of and within the relevant community. However, the nature and manner in which policing is practiced is heavily conditioned by the character of the particular criminal justice system of which it is part.  Throughout the world, such systems fall into four main categories of prevailing legal/political frameworks – common law systems, civil law systems, socialist law systems and religious law systems. The prevailing political/legal system; the degree to which the practice of policing is ‘democratized’ or authoritarian;  whether an organization is more militarized or civilianized, centralized or decentralized can each heavily influence the way in which policing is practiced. The resultant wide variety of varying adaptions, strategies and objectives provide a rich field for comparison and analysis.

Week 11

This session examines the threats that influence the application of policing currently and into the future, particularly in a global context. It identifies that factors such as climate change, globalisation of crime and proliferation of the internet will continue to offer new challenges for police. It preludes the following presentation, in which policing responses to these threats are addressed.

Week 12

Police  are  able  to  play  a  significant  role  in  restoring  law  and  order  after  military intervention. Their skills and professional knowledge is an invaluable asset. With civil conflict on the rise around the world, states are rethinking and reconfiguring where and how police can be deployed. This session looks at some recent experiences as a backdrop to the increasing internationalisation of policing.

Week 13

This presentation identifies the potential for policing responses to the threats identified previously. It highlights the need for collaborative approaches and highly flexible work practices to combat opportunistic crime trends and environmental factors that will govern policing approaches into the future.