Police selectivity “on demand”: the role of organisational justice in promoting procedural justice
Journal of Organizational Ethnography
ISSN: 2046-6749
Article publication date: 4 February 2022
Issue publication date: 20 June 2022
Abstract
Purpose
This paper presents the results of an action research with a Brussels’ police force. This research aimed to identify elements or mechanisms within police selectivity that put pressure on the relationship between the public and the police and affect the equal treatment of individuals and groups. Montjardet (1996) looks to understand structural, organisational of other factors as weighing on police selectivity. This article focusses more precisely on the interaction between organisational justice on striving to improve procedural justice.
Design/methodology/approach
This study was made possible through a partnership between UNIA, the PolBruNo police force and the National Institute for Criminalistics and Criminology (NICC). The methodology of this two-year action research around two phases. The first one led through (22) interviews with management, (200 h of) observations and three group analysis to a shared diagnosis of problems regarding police selectivity. The action part centered on intervisions with the patrol officers based during further (over 420 h of) observations, giving extra information that has been integrated in the analysis.
Findings
This research points out that even when police interventions are oriented by the demands of the public – public that sometimes formulates demands based on (ethnic) stereotypes – the intervention can be problematic. Organisational aspects played an important role in how the intervention unfolded: if those demands will be treated rather as orders given by the caller or as problematic situations needing analysis by the police officers. The paper arguments that organisational justice as experienced by the police officers impact how much consideration will be given to procedural justice.
Originality/value
Many scholars have shed a light on the various situations patrol officers deal with and identified problems regarding police selectivity. Procedural justice was developed as an interesting notion to look at the relation of police officers and the (diverse groups within the) public as well as the broader impact of these encounters. The importance to look to the organisational level in the decisions made by the police officers has also been established. The paper arguments that organisational justice as experienced by the police officers impact how much consideration will be given to procedural justice.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The author would like to express gratitude to Polbruno for their invitation to study their organization and to the openness of the many police officers the author encountered. The author would like to thank the staff of the following organizations for enabling the author to visit their offices to observe their daily operations. The author also thank Unia for financing and accompanying this research. The author would also like to express appreciation to Dr. Carrol Tange for his valuable and constructive supervision of this research as well as the two peer reviewers for their comments on drafts of this paper.
Funding: This research was funded by Unia and conducted through a partnership between Unia, Polbruno and the NICC.
Citation
Van Praet, S. (2022), "Police selectivity “on demand”: the role of organisational justice in promoting procedural justice", Journal of Organizational Ethnography, Vol. 11 No. 2, pp. 194-209. https://doi.org/10.1108/JOE-01-2021-0004
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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