Inleiding en context
Woensdagmorgen 6 januari 2021, de kop van de maand januari is er vanaf. En dat is mooi want het is altijd weer even wennen aan zo´n heel nieuw en vers jaar. En natuurlijk gaat het dit jaar beter dan het vorige jaar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYPXkA0hyfA
Vandaag een overzichtsartikel over ´vraag naar politiewerk´. Die vraag is volgens vele critici oneindig, van hulpverlening tot ordebewaring tot reactief en proactief reageren tot arresteren tot verhoren tot allerhande handhaving. Kortom, een wirwar aan werkzaamheden die deels gevraagd of ongevraagd worden uitgevoerd. De politie speelt veel verschillende rollen die vaak complex van aard zijn. Hoe kun je al die verschillende werkzaamheden en rollen op een goede manier vorm geven in de grillige politiepraktijk? De beschikbare politiecapaciteit en de daaraan gekoppelde budgetten blijken in de regel niet voldoende om aan de ogenschijnlijk oneindige vraag naar veiligheid te voldoen. Hoe komt die vraag tot stand? Welk conceptueel model kan worden gebruikt? Welke databronnen worden gebruik om die vraag te kwantificeren? Bijgesloten overzichtsartikel probeert daar een antwoord op te geven.
Naar mijn mening is dit overzicht zeer relevant binnen de Nederlandse context waarin de politie haar werk moet doen. Die relevantie is vooral gelegen in het kader van de lopende discussies over taken van de politie, het beleid rond de opsporing, de preventieve taken en de verhouding tussen beschikbaar budget en keuze in de tijdbesteding. Kortom een mooie bijdrage die ´food for thougt´ geeft.
Bron
Laufs, Julian, Kate Bowers, Daniel Birks & Shane D. Johnson (July 2020). Understanding the concept of ‘demand’ in policing: A scoping review and resulting implications for demand management. Policing and Society: An International Journal of Research and Policy, July, pp. 1-25. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10439463.2020.1791862
Samenvatting
As literature around policing and society grows, there is increased use of, and focus upon the concept of police ‘demand’. The concept itself, however, is ill-defined and no consensus exists about how it should be measured. This paper addresses these issues by undertaking a scoping review of literature on the topic, and by exploring how demand has been conceptualised in both academic and practitioner communities. The review reveals that while key interdependencies between police demand and supply are widely discussed, they are often analysed in isolation. To add to the academic discussion of police demand, the paper introduces a comprehensive conceptualisation including the various forms police demand can take and the different manifestations of drivers for police demand. Subsequently, it outlines several approaches that might be levied to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of demand management approaches. These include the consideration of trade-offs that need to be considered. For example, there is a need to balance any resources allocated to deal with proactive demand reduction and that necessary for (reactive) response. Considering the dynamics of police demand and – by necessity – supply through the lens of complex adaptive systems we propose potential ways forward that capitalise on this framing.
This paper constitutes the first part of a larger project to develop computational models of the police supply and demand system, and as such has a two-fold purpose. First, we take stock of current knowledge about police demand and how it can be understood and conceptualised. To do this, we conducted a scoping review of the existing literature, both academic and practitioner-generated, and synthesise the findings of the research identified, discussing how demand has been defined, what types of demand have been identified, and how it has been measured. Using these findings, we employ an iterative approach to develop a definition of police demand as the paper progresses, discussing various elements of the concept. Subsequently, we synthesise the findings of the literature search in the form a conceptual model to better frame different types of police demand and its drivers.
Our review aimed to address three core issues. Firstly, to explore how ‘policing demand’ is defined and used in the literature, and in what context it is usually framed. This included exploring synonyms and terminology surrounding the field of police demand, both in an academic and policing context. It also meant examining different conceptualisations of policing demand in terms of their focus (e.g. on internal or external demands) and their operationalisation (e.g. how they are measured). Secondly, we sought to identify relevant case studies or operational foci within the literature (e.g. public order policing or police decision making) to act as illustrations. This included surveying both academic and non-academic publications and clustering publications thematically. Finally, the review aimed to provide an overview of what the most commonly used data sources in the literature on police demand are (e.g. calls for service data) and where literature on police demand and its management can predominantly be found. This element is useful in assessing the current state-of-the-art and identifying gaps in evidence and understanding what needs attention.
Afsluitend
Een prima overzichtsartikel waarin systematisch de bijna onverzadigbare vraag naar politiewerk wordt beschreven en wat daar aan te doen. Onderstaande figuren visualiseren de factoren die de vraag naar politiewerk beïnvloeden en de mate waarin die vraag fluctueert binnen een bepaalde tijdperiode. Opnieuw kennis om van te leren en om de (oneindige) vraag naar politiewerk systematisch te conceptualiseren. Hopelijk biedt dit handvaten om onder meer de juiste keuzen te maken.
