Police stops are teachable moments, as they generate information concerning the status of the parties involved and the relationship between them. In France, research has highlighted the concentration of identity checks on young males from ethnic minorities living in urban areas. However, the contents of the interactions during police stops and the consequences of these stops have seldom been explored. On the basis of two research projects (a survey from the French Defender of Rights, and some direct observations of police-public interactions), we analyze here experiences of police stops. Although the behaviour of the police officers is mostly said to be polite, the relaxation of professional standards is, nevertheless, significant, and more accentuated for the young, male and minority populations. We find the roots of a vicious relational circle. The risk of a ‘police stops trap’ is obvious, as reciprocal hostile attitudes feed one another. We argue that targeted police practices undermine trust in the police and feed a more critical conception of citizenship.

Previous studies point to an increasingly entrenched risk-based logic of performance management in policing, where crime fighting is central. This article analyses how police crime preventers respond to these shifts and develop their practice. We explore empirically how intelligence-led policing is employed in police crime prevention efforts in a vulnerable area and the dilemmas that arise. Drawing on institutional logic theory we examine the rejigging of the pressures and complexities of institutional logic in question. We particularly highlight how a risk-based logic affects the practices of the police crime preventers: the type of data that is seen as important and how it is used. Crime prevention and intelligence-led policing both are future-oriented, although they have different time frames and requirements for what is defined as valid knowledge. To conclude, our findings indicate there have been shifts in relations and the power balance within the police organization, owing to the demands of data-driven police practice.

In this paper changes in rural policing in the Netherlands over the past few decades are investigated. This study is an example of oral history, using interviews with rural police officers. The main changes in rural policing are related to different issues: organization of rural policing, views about police work, local knowledge and commitment, relations with local communities, and style of policing. This study shows that since the 1980s the Dutch police have gradually withdrawn from the countryside. Not much is left of the strong traditional position of the police in rural communities. Notwithstanding these developments, the rural police has partially kept is distinctive characteristic in policing style, which makes it different from the police that is often found in urban areas. Larger social density, less anonymity, stronger sense of community, and more social control are among the factors that have contributed to the continuity in the styles of rural policing. Still it looks as if a shift is being made to a different kind of policing in rural regions: less socially embedded, mainly operating from the outside, not as an integral elements of the local community, and generally operating reactively, only after an incident happened.

In this article, we build on some of our previous empirical research to develop the value, logic and nature of the craft learning model, as an alternative to the dominant, administrative rulemaking paradigm for governing patrol officer discretion. We do this by conceptualizing the craft model in relation to Egon Bittner’s observations on two distinct mechanisms of police organization and control: legality and workmanship. Second, we illustrate the largely overlooked potential of body-worn cameras for learning about and advancing craft knowledge and skills. And third, we address three challenges to what we propose and consider how these might be mitigated or overcome: (1) resistance from the police culture; (2) the limited role of first-line supervisors; and (3) the current lack of community participation in guiding street-level decision-making. Our overarching purpose is to encourage advocates of police reform to explore new models that account for the complex technical and normative dimensions of everyday policing and facilitate more reasoned, transparent and principled decision-making on the front lines.