Routinely Unarmed Police

The aim of this presentation is to explore the extant literature on police conflict resolution tactics from a practitioner’s perspective. Empirical research on police conflict resolution tactics is limited, despite a large amount of literature on police ‘use of force’. The literature will be discussed in the following ways:

• Understanding the transactional nature of police-citizen encounters and associated theories
• Discussing empirical research of police tactics utilised when resolving conflict
• Exploring the difference between conflict resolution and use of force
• Exploring methodological and ethical issues in the study of police-citizen encounters

For example, two empirical studies of police conflict tactics include a scenario-based questionnaire to English and Australian police officers (Wilson & Gross, 1994), and a study of Norwegian police officers (Abrahamsen & Strype, 2010). While both studies yield interesting results, their utility is questionable. The questionnaire method only allows for the examination of a singular police tactic; one chosen by officers on the basis of their interpretation of the likely behaviour of the subject. This approach does not allow for variation or unpredictability of citizen behaviour; the test relies on the officer’s perception of citizen behaviour. As a result the unpredictability and dynamics prevalent in police-citizen encounters, remains unaccounted.