‘It’s not like it used to be’: Respect and nostalgia in the policing of nightlife
| Author | Phillip Wadds |
| Published date | 01 June 2019 |
| Date | 01 June 2019 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0004865818781204 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
Australian & New Zealand Journal of
‘It’s not like it used to be’:
Criminology
2019, Vol. 52(2) 213–230
!
Respect and nostalgia in
The Author(s) 2018
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the policing of nightlife
DOI: 10.1177/0004865818781204
journals.sagepub.com/home/anj
Phillip Wadds
School of Social Sciences and Centre for Crime, Law and Justice,
University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
Abstract
Contemporary debates regarding criminal justice, law and order, and also the occupational
consciousness of policing itself, are often concerned with a mythical period of heightened
‘respect’ for authority that is contrasted with the decline of such respect in contemporary
work patterns and interaction with the public. This nostalgia features most prominently in
discussions about spaces and work practices where officers feel threatened, challenged or
‘under-siege’. One such site is the night-time economy, where expansion of drinking-based
leisure and a long-term liberalisation of regulatory controls have exerted more pressure on
police and produced urban spaces where this ‘lack of respect’ is keenly felt. This paper
analyses themes that emerged from 15 interviews conducted with current and former
members of the New South Wales Police Force to argue that the emergence and growth
of urban nightlife have played a key role in promoting a nostalgic discourse that reflects
ambivalence about historical efforts to lift police–community relations and the more
formal regulation of interaction with the public. Such nostalgia also serves as a personal,
social and existential resource that helps fortify shared meaning and a sense of solidarity in
the working lives of officers.
Keywords
Masculinities, nightlife, night-time economy, nostalgia, police, policing
Date received: 27 October 2017; accepted: 14 May 2018
Corresponding author:
Phillip Wadds, School of Social Sciences and Centre for Crime, Law and Justice, University of New South Wales,
Sydney, Australia, G44 Morven Brown Building, UNSW Sydney 2052, Australia.
Email: p.wadds@unsw.edu.au
214
Australian & New Zealand Journal of Criminology 52(2)
Introduction
In police consciousness, an idealised past is often contrasted with a supposed contem-
porary decline in public respect for the police. Perceptions about this lack of respect are
not unique to specific settings, but are particularly sharpened in the circumstances of
expanded night-time economies (NTEs) – social spheres of frequently abrasive police
interaction with drunken and drug-affected patrons, venue staff and private security.
Promotion of urban nightlife as a break from restrictive day-time norms has created
spaces in which regulation and governance of behaviour are complex and riddled with
inherent challenges. In fact, Hobbs, Hadfield, Lister, and Winlow (2003, p. 269)
remarked on the British experience of deregulated NTEs, stating: ‘the quasi-liminal
zones that have developed in our urban centres are essentially non-conducive to
normal comportment’. While this view probably exaggerates the extent of transgression
in urban nightlife, it is the potential absence of civility and order that makes policing
nightlife spaces particularly demanding.
The scale of the contemporary policing task relating to urban public order is mag-
nified by changes to police organisations that no longer – if, indeed, they ever did – have
the capacity to sustain security in society (Garland, 1996). Consequently, while state-
based police retain a near-monopoly on legitimate violence, they no longer dominate the
policing occupation, and this transformation is acutely evident in the NTE (Wadds,
2015). Neo-liberal state policies (Jones and Newburn, 2002), the rise of mass-private and
quasi-private property (Kempa, Stenning, & Wood, 2004; Shearing & Stenning, 1983;
Wakefield, 2003), and increased social demand for security (Lee, 2007) have all provided
the backdrop to the expansion of the private security industry, now assuming new roles
beyond the scope of state-based policing agencies.
For example, private security in pubs, clubs and bars now provide a more visible
corporeal presence than police (Rigakos, 2008; Wadds, 2015), with the physical dispar-
ity between doorstaff and police diverging from a past in which minimum physical
standards including height, weight and fitness (in this research context, from
New South Wales (NSW), Australia) ensured police were physically imposing. These
requirements were dropped in the 1970s and opened-up the Force to a range of new
recruits, including more women (Chan, Doran, & Marel, 2010). While these changes
may have had some effect in transforming the image of the police, they have also meant
reliance on officers who are often physically smaller than private security and many
members of the public. It is within nightlife spaces where this new discrepancy in phys-
ical capital is most visible (Rigakos, 2008; Wadds, 2013). In fact, key to the movement
towards mixed public/private policing has been the emphasis on bodily size and strength
from the private sector. With a lack of body size, muscularity and fighting competence,
it has been suggested that public police have suffered a crisis of confidence and become
increasingly concerned with the projection of armed collective strength to reassert con-
trol in spaces of embodied risk (McCulloch, 2001). Further, McCulloch (2001) reflected
on how new police dress style, closely modelled on military or paramilitary uniforms,1
combined with the adoption of frequent gun wearing and a new range of less-lethal
weapons including OC (capsicum) spray, extendable batons and taser guns, now serves
as a means of combating changing public perceptions. This militarisation of policing is
now a general feature of contemporary policing around with world, with research from
Wadds
215
Canada (Roziere & Walby, 2018); the United States (Hill & Berger, 2009; Kraska, 2007);
the United Kingdom (Hills, 1995); throughout Europe (Linke, 2010); Africa (Rauch &
van der Spuy, 2006); South America (Prado, Trebilcock, & Hartford, 2012); and
Australia (Salter, 2014), all documenting the normalisation of paramilitary and military
tactics, styling and technologies into everyday policing practice.
The projection of collective strength in attire and visible weaponry developed along-
side other important shifts in public policing, especially the regressive movement away
from late 20th-century strategies that actively sought local community engagement in
crime prevention and risk management (Chappell & Lanza-Kaduce, 2010). Local polic-
ing strategies now favour highly public and targeted ‘hot-spot’ operations (Weisburd &
Braga, 2006) that ostensibly build media and general public (rather than minority
group) confidence (Kochel, 2011; Wadds, 2015). In practice, these highly symbolic
campaign-style measures are so spasmodic they are unlikely to produce lasting change
in criminal patterns and often alienate the communities in which they take place
(Kochel, 2011). For example, in Sydney, the pronounced use of large teams of heavily
armed uniformed officers and sniffer dogs in streets, pubs and events in nightlife areas
has fostered resentment about the perceived intrusive and aggressive nature of actions
that typically target minor drug possession (see Hughes, Ritter, Lancaster, &
Hoppe, 2017).
This paper analyses themes that emerged from 15 interviews conducted between 2010
and 2013 with members of the NSW Police Force engaged in policing nightlife.
Following an outline of the methodology, the first half of this paper analyses the per-
ceived and actual risks that police experience while working in the NTE, examining the
reasons why interviewees believe policing urban nightlife is such a difficult occupational
challenge. A critical feature of discussion will be the changing trends in policing recruit-
ment standards and the influence of these changes on policing culture, practices and the
broader occupation. The final section then moves on to examine an occupational nos-
talgia that emerged from various interviews, focusing on themes of respect/disrespect
and the ways in which nostalgic discourse reflects ambivalence about occupation-
al change.
Methodology
Sample
Participants in the 15 in-depth interviews ranged in age and experience from
Probationary Constables to veterans in senior positions within NSW Police, enabling
an exploration of the perceptions of those working at the ‘coal-face’ as well as those
charged with implementing operational strategies and policy.
The gender ratio of interviewees was 6.5:1, with 13 male and 2 female officers par-
ticipating. Significant effort was made to recruit female officers, but only two (Carly and
Kelly2) accepted the various invitations to participate. To compensate for the lack of
women in the sample, more time was given to the discussion of these interviews.
These interviews, part of the author’s doctoral research, were complemented by
others conducted with doorstaff and people working in policy related to Sydney’s
NTE. All interviews were undertaken as part of a broader ethnographic study of
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Australian & New Zealand Journal of Criminology 52(2)
Sydney nightlife and were used to triangulate information from field observations made
over an 18-month period between late 2008 and mid-2010, improve the validity of
findings and identify key themes in the research (Berg, 2001).
Participant interviews, recorded and transcribed with participant consent, drew out
in-depth accounts of experiences of working in night leisure,...
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