ABSTRACT

The Policing and Crime Act 2017 (PACA) aims to promote integrity within policing via a reformed police complaints and discipline process that focuses on lesson learning. Integrity and lesson learning are virtuous aspirations, but this paper queries the degree to which the reforms deliver them. Importantly, the analysis here provides a novel contribution to debates about lesson learning within the police by distinguishing lesson learning directed towards street-level officers from the accountability of police professional standards departments (PSDs) for how that is delivered. Focusing on the latter and drawing on the findings of the Chapman Review and a detailed analysis of police complaints statistics, it concludes that true lesson learning (from which increased integrity within forces can develop) requires increased external scrutiny of PSDs. In contrast, the analysis demonstrates that the PACA significantly increases PSDs’ de facto autonomy over the police complaints and discipline process and incorporates a shift in how independent oversight of police complaints is conceived. The paper borrows from Valverde’s suggested analytical framework to probe the underlying logic of the reforms, considering also the techniques they employ and the scale at which they operate. This reveals that the lesson learning agenda reframes expressions by citizens of mistreatment at the hands of the police as data upon which future policy might be based. In doing so, far from working to improve integrity, it may instead be ushering in a concerning biopolitical conception of policing which has the potential to exacerbate the worst features of police operational culture.

摘要

2017 年《警务和犯罪法》(PACA) 旨在通过改革后的警察投诉和纪律程序，重点是吸取教训，以促进警务工作的廉正。诚信和经验教训是美德的愿望，但本文质疑改革实现这些愿望的程度。重要的是，这里的分析通过将针对街道官员的经验教训与警察专业标准部门 (PSD) 的责任制区别开来，为关于警察内部经验教训的辩论提供了新的贡献。重点关注后者并借鉴查普曼审查的结果和对警察投诉统计数据的详细分析，得出的结论是，真正的经验教训（从中可以提高部队内部的完整性）需要加强对 PSD 的外部审查。相比之下，分析表明 PACA 显着增加了 PSD 在警察投诉和纪律程序方面的事实上的自主权，并纳入了对警察投诉的独立监督的构想方式的转变。该论文借鉴了 Valverde 建议的分析框架来探讨改革的潜在逻辑，同时考虑了改革所采用的技术和运作的规模。这表明，经验教训议程将公民对警察虐待的表达重新定义为未来政策可能基于的数据。这样做，远非致力于提高诚信，反而可能会引入一种令人担忧的生命政治警务概念，这有可能加剧警察行动文化的最坏特征。分析表明，PACA 显着增加了 PSDs 在警察投诉和纪律程序方面的事实上的自主权，并纳入了对警察投诉独立监督的构想方式的转变。这篇论文借鉴了巴尔韦德建议的分析框架来探讨改革的基本逻辑，同时考虑了改革所采用的技术和运作的规模。这表明，经验教训议程将公民对警察虐待的表达重新定义为未来政策可能基于的数据。这样做，远非致力于提高诚信，反而可能会引入一种令人担忧的生命政治警务概念，这有可能加剧警察行动文化的最坏特征。分析表明，PACA 显着增加了 PSDs 在警察投诉和纪律程序方面的事实上的自主权，并纳入了对警察投诉独立监督的构想方式的转变。该论文借鉴了 Valverde 建议的分析框架来探讨改革的潜在逻辑，同时考虑了改革所采用的技术和运作的规模。这表明，经验教训议程将公民对警察虐待的表达重新定义为未来政策可能基于的数据。这样做，远非致力于提高诚信，反而可能会引入一种令人担忧的生命政治警务概念，这有可能加剧警察行动文化的最坏特征。