Power, politics and policing: how the pandemic has highlighted fractures and fault lines in our society

Abstract

This paper considers the issues of policing in the pandemic and describes the relationship between the use of power within society with political systems and the ways in which police outcomes are achieved. The year 2020 created a unique opportunity to reflect upon the way policing systems are structured and how this affects the whole of society, and this paper looks at how the dynamics of race and oppression played into this. The risk for policing is that it fails to make use of its community assets to engage effectively with the community, and becomes reliant on the use of blunt tools and force. This paper concludes that the challenge for police leadership is defined by how society (and their forces) manage issues of fairness to reduce the amount of force and violence in society and ensure the state is there to protect all citizens.