Theme: Law & justice | Content Type: Journal article

Trust in the Police: What is to be Done?

Ben Bradford and Jonathan Jackson

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Francois Olwage

| 1 min read

Trust in the police in England and Wales has diminished steadily over the past decade. Police still enjoy levels of trust that other some institutions might envy, so calling this a crisis risks over-statement. Yet, declining trust and intense media, political and social pressure on police—symbolised by a number of high-profile instances of police failure and malpractice—certainly makes many working in and around policing feel like it is a crisis. And trust has gone down; action is needed to protect the idea of policing by consent, the bedrock ideology that underpins British policing. In this article, we review some potential solutions to declining trust, while also acknowledging some costs and difficulties. We close by noting that, despite its importance, public trust is not enough to ensure ‘good policing’, and that more is needed in terms of transparency, accountability and governance.

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    Ben Bradford

    Ben Bradford is Professor of Global City Policing and Director of the Centre for Global City Policing in the Department of Security and Crime Science, University College London. He is an Affiliated Scholar in the Justice Collaboratory of Yale Law School.

    Articles by Ben Bradford
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    Jonathan Jackson

    Jonathan Jackson is Professor of Methodology at the London School of Economics & Political Science. He is an Honorary Professor of Criminology at the University of Sydney Law School and an Affiliated Scholar in the Justice Collaboratory of Yale Law School.

    Articles by Jonathan Jackson
Volume 96, Issue 3

Latest Journal Issue

Volume 96, Issue 3

This issue features a collection titled 'The Intellectual and Political Legacy of David Marquand', who died in April 2024, edited by Colin Crouch, Ben Jackson and Peter Sloman. In this collection, authors including Jean Seaton, Will Hutton and Hilary Wainwright consider Marquand's legacy as a great progressive thinker, his biography of Ramsay MacDonald, Labour's first prime minister, and the role of socialism for Marquand. Other articles include a commentary by Deborah Mabbett titled 'Welfare reform by numbers'; Jeremy Gilbert and Alex Williams on 'The Vices of Values: Matthew Goodwin and the Politics of Motivation'; Helen McCarthy on 'Why the WASPI has no Sting: Gender, Generation and Pension Inequalities'; and Sam Taylor Hill, Tariq Modood and John Denham on 'Multicultural Nationalism: Saving the White Working Class from Blue Labour?' A selection of book reviews feature Edmund Fawcett's review of 'Nationalism: A World History' by Eric Storm and Samuel Cohn's review of 'Controlling Contagion: Epidemics and Institutions from the Black Death to Covid' by Sheilagh Ogilvie.

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