Det är inte det att jag kan rädda världen - En analys av hur en grupp polisers engagemang formas

Abstract

The aim of this study was to create an understanding of how a group of community policing officers engagement are shaped. Previous research argues that there is a police culture which conveys cynicism to the individual police. The research also says that the police adopt a pessimistic view of society, they are isolated and at odds with the rest of society. Furthermore, research has also shown how a narrative can exist that explains the police way of doing things. My contribution to the field is to explore how a narrative can be located, which precedes and shapes the police engagement. I am searching after a structure in the narrative, elements which the narrative revolves around, and how its content can be understood. Participating observations and interviews were carried out with a team of community policing officers in Gothenburg. Based on the experience of everyday police work an interview guide was created in which the police were given the opportunity to express their own thoughts about what is important to their sense of engagement. The result has been created from a theoretical basis mainly derived from symbolic interactionism and narrative analysis. Four elements are identified in an collective narrative. These show that police engagement is related to the officers ability to be creative and communicative, and that they are eager to seek development and meaningfulness of work through relationships. It also shows that engagement is related to the possibility of obtaining concrete results as well as a perceived participation in their occupation. It is argued that police officers express a different form of policing than the previous research presented. It is also emphasized that the police need to experience more concrete results in the context of their occupation.