Policing the Risk Society

Anna Leslie is an associate professor of sociology at Sir Wilfred
Grenfell College, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

Policing the Risk Society examines the evolution of policing in the
information age. The authors argue that the police have become
“information brokers” who communicate knowledge to insurance
companies, social welfare agencies, and other institutions that use
information to control danger. The objective of traditional police and
policing agents in other social institutions is to provide a
society-wide basis for risk management and the protection of society.

The process is complicated by the different communication systems each
institution employs to define, identify, and manage risk. Risk is
broadly defined as any external danger, which can include natural
disasters, enemies’ threatening behavior, and hazards of scientific
and technological innovations. The additional definition of risk as
“the communication rules, formats and technologies used to manage
dangers” leaves the police in an “ambiguous, shifting and
contradictory field of risk management in relation to other
institutions.” The authors contend that risk communication systems,
which are activated when external institutions access police for
knowledge, have the effect of circumscribing “both the autonomy of
police organizations and the discretion of individual police
officers.”

This challenging, informative, and insightful book marks a major
departure from conventional theorizing about police work in several
areas, including mobilization, visibility, compliance-based law
enforcement, and community policing.