Police Legitimacy: A Young People’s Perspective

1. Police Legitimacy: A Young People’s Perspective Professor Kevin Haines Dr Mark Hawes Centre for Criminal Justice and Criminology Swansea University

2. Legitimacy is based on: An authority holder treating a subordinate in a manner which is perceived by the subordinate as fair (just or reasonable), such that the subordinate is more likely to (voluntarily) comply with the authority holder and to exit the encounter with a (more) positive view of the authority holder and ‘authority’ itself.

3. What happens when we get it wrong?

4. Jeffrey, a year nine pupil, told of one occasion where he considered he wasunfairly treated by the police. Jeffrey: They [the police] told us to moveon. Somebody got scared. There was about sixty or seventy people in thepark and about 12 of them walked through [the park] and there was a guy, an old man, walking his dog. He got scared and he phoned thepolice. We got moved on. We was all walking away. I turned around…and we stopped a minute and she [a female police officer] pulled me in the car. She grabbed me and I grabbed the fence. I was like, “No, I’m notgoing anywhere. I didn’t do anything.” So, she started booting me in theback of the leg.

5. Graham: She did that for no reason at all. He didn’t do anything. Diane: He didn’t actually do nothing. I was there. The result was that Jeffrey was placed in the police vehicle andtaken home to his parents. The following day, Jeffrey was sent home early fromschool because his leg was so badly bruised that he couldnot walk properly. Diane: You should have seen him the next day… his leg was like proper bruisedand everything.

6. Jeffrey: I got annoyed, so I just thought, ‘I don’t deserve this so, I’m going to doher head in now’. She asked me my name and I told her my name was‘Peter File’. She wasn’t happy with that. She goes ‘What’s your date ofbirth?’ I go, ‘Seventh of January’.[Police officer] ‘What Year?’[Jeffrey] ‘Well every year, innit’. And then she took me home.

7. “The relationship between how people are treated and their generalconfidence in the police may be asymmetrical, rather than balanced.Good days may not balance out bad days. At its worst, the police may getessentially no credit for doing a good job, while a bad experience deeplyinfluences people’s views of their performance and even legitimacy.” (Skogan 2006: 100)

8. Individual vs institutional legitimacy

9. The young people said that because they do not get on with many policeofficers, the relationships between the two groups can be very strained. Young peoplefrom each year group stated, however, that the relationship they had with the police was dependant on the way that individual officers treated them. Jasmine: Some of them [Police Officers] were like really nice. Some of them just haven’t got timefor you. They just treat you like rubbish. Ryan: They just think, ‘Look we’re police officers. We’re better than you. Weknow right from wrong.’ Ryan: [referring to a PCSO]He’s not very nice, yeah. He’s not very nice. He’s very aggressive…I findhim aggressive. Diane:Some police officers are real, you know that word. I’m not going to sayit, but they are absolutely… Susan: [interjecting] Pigs. They are pigs. There’s no other word. I don’t like saying that wordbut…

10. Diane: On a Saturday night their [the police’s] attitude’s completely different…They’re just like, “You shouldn’t be here”. They’re like lecturing you andbeing like, really blunt about it. You’re up to no good when you’re sittingthere perfectly with a bottle of pop. Lianne: ‘…there’s like....one who comes up there and he’s horrible.’ Jeffrey: ‘He’s a knob. No, he is, seriously. He’s one of the worst police officersGod put on this earth. Trust me.’

11. Ruth: Generallythe police are ‘alright’, [but there’s one officer] you see him coming and you walk the other way… He patrols with L, one of the women [female officers]... She’s lovely Lis. But, when she’s with him she sort of like, stands back. He like, walksin the street and he’s only got to see you and he gives you the look, andhe knows my name, and he comes up and he’s like, “Whatever you’redoing, stop now or I’ll take you home to your mother.” You know, whenyou see him coming, he gives you the look and he turns the other wayand walks. Then he’ll shout at you. He’ll be like, “Stop”. But, I’ve justbeen to the shop to get my mother bread, but he won’t see it like that.You’re up to something.

12. Getting legitimacy right

13. Ruth: Andrew was lovely. Andrew was just funny. He used to sit with uswhen we used to have dinner and everything. He used to standoutside the gate as well. Graham: He talked to you as well.He let’s you explain your side ofthe story. Ruth: If Andrew used to…if you used to be drinking up the park orsomething, Andrew would be like, “Aw come on now, guys” andhe’d like take it off you. He’d be like, “We were all young once,but you don’t get caught do you”. Jeffrey: That’s what I think is better. ’Cos if people like come up therebossing you around, you think, who are you to tell me what to do? Iknow he’s a police officer, like, but if, like, a guy comes up thereand he’s having a joke with you, having a laugh round, you think,well he’s an alright guy. Ruth: The more you get told not to do something, the more tempting itis. Chorus: ‘Yeah.’ Jeffrey: If you talk to them like normal people. Ruth: Yeah, like young adults. Graham: If you talk to them like a friend, then you listen to them. Jeffrey: Like Andrew. Ruth: Yeah, like Andrew.Yeah, I’d listen to Andrew.

14. Conclusions: • Legitimacy is dynamic • Legitimacy is malleable • Legitimacy matters