Stuart Lister

Receiving shadows: governance and liminality in the night-time economy.

This paper focuses upon the emergence of the night-time economy both materially and culturally as a powerful manifestation of post-industrial society. This emergence features two key processes: firstly a shift in economic development from the industrial to the post-industrial; secondly a significant orientation of urban governance involving a move away from the traditional managerial functions of local service provision, towards an entrepreneurial stance primarily focused on the facilitation of economic growth. Central to this new economic era is the identification and promotion of liminality. The States apparent inability to control these new leisure zones constitutes the creation of an urban frontier that is governed by commercial imperatives.

‘This town’s a different town today’ Policing and regulating the night-time economy

This article considers recent policing and regulatory responses to the night-time economy in England and Wales. Drawing upon the findings of a broader two-year qualitative investigation of local and national developments in alcohol policy, it identifies a dramatic acceleration of statutory activity, with 12 new or revised powers, and several more in prospect, introduced by the Labour Government within its first decade in office. Interview data and documentary sources are used to explore the degree to which the introduction of such powers, often accompanied by forceful rhetoric and high profile police action, has translated into a sustained expansion of control. Many of the new powers are spatially directed, as well as being focused upon the actions of distinct individuals or businesses, yet the willingness and capacity to apply powers to offending individuals in comparison to businesses is often variable and asymmetrical. The practice of negotiating order in the night-time economy is riddled with tensions and ambiguities that reflect the ad hoc nature and rapid escalation of the regulatory architecture. Night-time urban security governance is understood as the outcome of subtle organizational and interpersonal power-plays. Social orders, normative schemas and apportionments of blame thus arise as a byproduct of patterned (structural) relations.

Violence in the night-time economy; bouncers: The reporting, recording and prosecution of assaults

This paper, based on ethnographic research, is concerned with the accountability of licensed premise door staff – better known as ‘bouncers’.2 The situational dynamics of the bouncers enacted environment ensures that theirs is a role consistently exposed to the interactions of violence. As such, allegations of assault, both upon and by door staff, are common. This paper reports upon incidents of door staff violence and why they often fail to be investigated and, when they are investigated, why they frequently fail to be successfully prosecuted at court. In doing so, the paper highlights the adopted attitudes and procedural methods employed by both bouncers and police officers, which have a detrimental impact upon the deterrent function of the criminal law. The paper ends by offering some policy prescriptions to local police managers, suggesting that the state police become more (pro)actively involved in overseeing the provision of this expanding sector of the private security industry.

Additional Security Patrols in Residential Areas: Notes from the Marketplace

This article presents an overview of an emerging market in residential security patrols in England and Wales. Drawing on recent empirical research, it outlines the fragmented and uneven nature of current developments and highlights coordination deficits and the absence of regulatory oversight. The research illustrates how the growth in competitive relations between different providers of patrol can stymie the development of effective networked security alliances. It demonstrates the capacity of additional policing schemes to fuel unrealistic expectations among local publics and raise security thresholds. Furthermore, it highlights how policing as commodity through residential patrols can foster exclusionary tendencies by serving parochial rather than public interests. This raises important challenges that demand robust forms of governance and accountability to guarantee an equitable and fair distribution of policing and security.

Violent Hypocrisy Governance and the Night-time Economy

The development of alcohol-based night-time economies as part of government-sponsored post-industrial urban regeneration involves two interconnected political and economic processes. The first is the shift to a consumer economy, and the second is the movement within local governance from the provision of services towards a focus upon nurturing economic growth. The violence and disorder that have resulted from the huge expansion in these night-time economies have produced a crisis for state policing that has led, via licensing, to the expansion of commercially relevant control strategies. This paper, based upon extensive empirical research, discusses the hypocrisy that is inherent in the governance of liminal licence.

The patchwork shape of reassurance policing in England and Wales

This article presents an overview and assessment of recent reforms that have contributed to a pluralisation and fragmentation of policing in England and Wales. It considers the emergence of new forms of visible policing both within and beyond the public police. These include the growth of private security guards and patrols, local auxiliaries such as neighbourhood wardens and the introduction of second tier police personnel in the shape of the new police community support officers. To varying degrees plural forms of policing seek to offer public reassurance through visible patrols. The article goes on to explore the complex nature of relations between the “extended police family” and the different modes of governance they suggest. It concludes with a consideration of the future shape of reassurance policing.

Electing police and crime commissioners in England and Wales: prospecting for the democratisation of policing

This article explores the prospects for greater democratic governance and accountability of policing arising from the inaugural elections for Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) across England and Wales. It argues that the democratic credentials of PCCs have been undermined not only by a failure of local politics to confer on them a strong mandate but also by wider inadequacies in how their role and remit have been defined and structured in law. The analysis proceeds to consider whether PCCs represent a truly local vision of governance, particularly in the light of the size of their areas of jurisdiction, but also given the centralised political affiliations of many PCCs. The implications for whether PCCs will be able to deliver a more socially democratic form of policing are discussed. The article concludes by suggesting the prospects for more democratically governed policing depend on a much wider range of social, economic and political features than a cyclical election for a Commissioner. Few of these are within the remit of PCCs and the risk of populism and majoritarianism might mean that the new office privileges rather than democratises local policing.

Scrutinising the role of the Police and Crime Panel in the new era of police governance in England and Wales

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of Police and Crime Panels (PCPs) within the new constitutional arrangements for governing police forces in England and Wales. Design/methodology/approach – Desktop research of the web pages of PCPs, combined with documentary analysis of reports of panel meetings and a literature review of relevant academic materials. Findings – During the first year of their operation the role of the PCP in the new constitutional arrangements for governing police forces in England and Wales has been widely criticised. This paper explores reasons that may impinge on the effectiveness of these local bodies to scrutinise how Police and Crime Commissioners discharge their statutory functions. In particular, it draws attention to the limited powers of the panel, the contradictions of the “critical/friend” model of scrutiny, the extent of political alignment between “the scrutinisers” and “the scrutinee”, and the ability of the latter to constrain the scrutiny function of the former. Originality/value – This paper is the first to explore the scrutiny role of PCPs in the context of the research evidence regarding the development and use of scrutiny within the local government context.

Young people, police and dispersal powers

The Anti‐Social Behaviour Act (2003) gives police powers to designate areas as ‘dispersal zones’ for up to six months, where there is evidence of persistent antisocial behaviour. Findings from research into the use and impact of dispersal orders are presented and comparisons are drawn with the Scottish experience. A central message from the research is that where enforcement alone is the defining attribute of dispersal order implementation, the powers constitute a ‘sticking plaster’ over local problems, but invariably fail to address the wider causes of perceived antisocial behaviour.

The Private Sector and Criminal Justice: An Introduction

This introductory chapter contextualises the wide range of developments and debates discussed in this collection of essays. This is done in three ways. The first is by emphasising the contentious nature of debates exploring the relationship between the private sector and criminal justice. The second is by suggesting that developments in contemporary law and policy in criminal justice and the role of the private sector have been significantly influenced by the critical shift of the post-modern era from ‘government to governance’. This move has resulted in the act of governing no longer being tied to monopolistic ‘command and control’ modes of government but instead drawing on the capacities of a more pluralised or ‘nodal’ set of institutional formations, including public, private and voluntary sector agencies. The third is by identifying the parameters of key debates and competing perspectives. In so doing, the chapter demonstrates that the entanglements of state and market in how criminal justice responses are formulated and operationalised generate debates that attend to the very heart of the political, legal and social order.