Områdets polis eller polisens område? En analys av hur områdespolisen i Bergsjön gör sig relevant för sitt område och sin organisation

Abstract

The aim of the thesis is to illustrate how a group of community policing officers makes themselves relevant to their community, this in relation to wider organizational circumstances and exterior structures of society. Earlier research on the subject tells us that community policing can be proactive and crime preventing in such a way that the confidence and trust in the police is increased. Research is also making clear that proactive police work is hard to measure and evaluate, which is why my contribution to the field is to explore how this effects the way the police officers in Bergsjön, Gothenburg is making themselves relevant and the way that they see themselves as community policing officers. The relationship police – community will be regarded as how someone treats their audience, attentive to its feedback, in order to get ones message out, in this case confidence and trust in the police, under influence of the audit society. To achieve the aim of the thesis, participating observation was chosen, to experience the police officers everyday work. The observations were carried out during 15 shifts à 10 hours. Field notes were taken and afterword transcribed. The results show that the community police can make themselves relevant for the community in two ways. As a “law officer” gaining confidence by being a powerful force, and as “peace officer” gaining trust through personal relations. This however is complicated by the organization demanding police work to be measurable, which is a problem for the law officer resulting in community police officers trying to make their work measurable or doing measurable work. It is argued that both law and peace officer strategies are needed in creating confidence and trust.