Citizens’ Safety, Business Trust and Greek Police
| Published date | 01 March 2004 |
| Date | 01 March 2004 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0020852304041233 |
| Subject Matter | Journal Article |
International
Review of
Administrative
Sciences
Citizens’ safety, business trust and Greek police
Effi Lambropoulou
Abstract
This article examines the possibilities for the Greek police to use performance
measurement. The article first presents the context from which the monopoly of the
state police began to be questioned. It briefly describes the development and essen-
tial trends in this type of evaluation for police forces in Great Britain, the initiator of
quality reforms in the public sector in Europe and where considerable experience has
been accrued. In the second part, the concepts of security and trust are explored and
used as the theoretical background for a small-scale empirical study. It examines
whether testing the effectiveness of policing can help in developing the necessary
sense of security and trust required by small businesses to expand their enterprises.
Furthermore, it examines whether such knowledge could motivate security com-
panies to offer a more economic service to a larger number of households and pri-
vate enterprises by cooperating with the state police and if such measurement would
prove useful for them and their customers. Finally, some conclusions are formulated
in reference to safety, police culture and organization, as well as to the quality of
reform in Greece.
Introduction — methodology and limits
In modern societies, a major characteristic of crime control is the pluralization of
policing, which is no longer the monopoly of the state but is offered either as a com-
modity by numerous private security providers or by volunteers in communities.
Moreover, the supremacy of the police with respect to expertise, knowledge and
authority in their own sphere of activity has vanished (Bayley and Shearing, 1996).
The police seem to be undergoing an identity crisis. Public confidence cannot be
Effi Lambropoulou is Associate Professor of Criminology, Panteion University of Social and Political
Sciences, Athens, Greece. CDU: 65.012.3(495)
Copyright © 2004 IIAS, SAGE Publications (London, Thousand Oaks, CA and New Delhi)
Vol 70(1):89–110 [DOI:10.1177/0020852304041233]
02_RAS 70_1 articles 2/27/04 1:00 PM Page 90
90 International Review of Administrative Sciences 70(1)
taken for granted and police effectiveness is strongly disputed. Every aspect of police
performance — strategy, goals, orientation, objectives and measures — is under
examination and constant control. This has pressured some countries during the last
decade to restructure their police forces and policing style and even the police them-
selves have reconsidered their role and profile. In the context of the increased need
for effectiveness and trust in the police by the public, performance measurement has
been introduced (e.g. in Great Britain, The Netherlands) corresponding to the ‘new’
wave of management emerging in the public sector.
Although the reorganization of the Greek police force has been discussed many
times, effectiveness or accountability does not exist in their vocabulary or in that of
the government. Instead, in recent years, emphasis has been given to their proximity
to the public, together with citizens’ feelings of trust and safety. In the meantime,
political and institutional leadership has focused on image-making within the corps.
Taking into account the fact that the police are to undergo quality measurement and
will have to use performance indicators, in one way or another, because of EU com-
mitments (OECD, 1999) and the move towards (re)legitimization, within the general
context of challenges to policing, the possibilities for such measurement and any
subsequent management will be examined.
This article is, therefore, based on a study of relevant reforms in countries such as
Great Britain and The Netherlands, where considerable experience has been accrued.
References to Greece are founded on research by the author in the field of policing
and crime policy, as well as on interviews with representatives of professional associ-
ations in a Greek town and the managers of two of the country’s bigger security
companies. The absence of police research in Greece and credible publications from
their side poses a serious difficulty.
‘Disputing the sovereign state’
A key element in the politics of the 1980s in Europe was a decrease in the role of the
state in several fields and its substitution by private enterprises. However, crime con-
trol has been omitted from the discussion for many years. In Great Britain, ‘measures
introduced in the field of policing and community safety in the 1980s demonstrate
convergence of policy across the main political parties’ (Wright, 2002: 157). In Greece,
during the last elections in 2000, community and public (‘internal’) safety were
among the most emphasized issues by the two big rival parties, PASOK and Nea
Dimokratia. The social democratic party, PASOK, which advocated a ‘modern’ face for
the issue, promoted activating citizens and communities in the fight against crime
and their participation in partnerships with the police (Article 16, Law 2721/1999).
In recent decades, high crime rates have become a ‘normal’ social fact and, in the
West, an indicator of a country’s development. Property and violent offences
are especially on the rise. The acceptance of the normality of high crime rates
has affected governmental (re)action, criminal justice organizations, as well as
criminological discourse. Crime control has become highly politicized, as the myth
that the state is capable of providing security and crime control to an acceptable
degree is disputed (Garland, 1996: 446–8). Better management of risks, a reduction
in criminal justice expenditure and the costs of correctional institutions, a decrease in
02_RAS 70_1 articles 2/27/04 1:00 PM Page 91
Lambropoulou Citizens’ safety, business trust and Greek police 91
a fear of crime and support for victims were the main topics put forward (Garland,
2001: 53–74).
‘Post-legitimacy’ and ‘getting results’
The initiator of quality reforms in policing, as well as in the public sector, in Europe
was Great Britain, followed by The Netherlands. The remaining European countries
are now starting to apply quality and performance measurement models in the field
(Waters, 1996, 2000). In Britain, both the Conservative and New Labour administra-
tions have understood policing as an activity that should be subject to rational
management techniques. The promotion of ‘New Public Management’ (NPM) has
been a response to the perceived failure in the performance of many public sector
organizations including the police (Wright, 2002: 160–6). NPM has two central
principles: the decline of differences between the public and private sectors; and
moving ‘methods of doing business in public organizations’ away from complying
with procedural rules towards ‘getting results’ (Leishman et al., 1996: 9–11). This
means the promotion of greater efficiency, developing performance indicators and
making public agencies more consumer-responsive.
The Home Office emphasized that police forces should know exactly what their
priorities are and develop ways of assessing their work (Home Office, 1983). This
focused on the importance of planning, the measurement of outputs and the
adoption of the rational, scientific systems of management.1 Research, long ago, had
found that crime reduction, as the real outcome of police activities, was almost never
attained. Other studies determined that insufficient training, inadequate information
technology, poor management systems and unpredictable events were often the
causes (Chatterton et al., 1998; Wright, 2002: 162–3). Moreover, they noticed that a
positive rewards system and reliable information on crime could help the work of
lower rank officers (Chatterton and Rogers, 1989), as well as assisting with higher
management (Weatheritt, 1986).
While during the 1980s emphasis was placed on reducing the costs of services
and controlling outputs, in the 1990s the stress was on ‘quality’ (‘public service ethic’)
(Farnham and Horton, 1996: 253) and ‘consumer’ demands (QOS) (Halachmi, 1999).
These two elements resulted in a strain between the ‘professionally’ oriented quality
and the ‘consumerist’ quality. In any case, quality embodies three dimensions:
functional, internal and interactional (Waters, 2000: 264–8). Functional quality
includes operational aspects such as crime clearance rates and response times to
emergency calls. Internal quality refers to organizational culture, management and
staff development, while interactional quality relates to cooperation with other agen-
cies and responding to community requirements. Therefore, most police forces
developed local problem-solving models together with other agencies and with
communities, attempting to be more flexible on the management of performance.
However, we cannot bypass what many authors claim, because this also refers in
a way to the Greek police. They attribute the reform efforts and the emphasis on
quality of the British police to their ‘delegitimization’ (to ‘post-legitimacy’) (Reiner,
2000: 48–81), the decline in public satisfaction (Johnston, 2000), the increasing crime
levels, the government pressure on them to become more efficient and growing
02_RAS 70_1 articles 2/27/04 1:00 PM Page 92
92 International Review of Administrative Sciences 70(1)
consciousness of service leaders that the police could not fight crime alone (Stephens
and Baker, 1994: 24). It is highly probable that all played a role as...
To continue reading
Request your trial