Vol. 11 No. 2 (February 2001) pp. 100-101.

GENDER AND COMMUNITY POLICING: WALKING THE TALK by Susan L. Miller. Boston:Northeastern University Press, 1999. 255pp. Cloth $50.00. ISBN: 1-55553-414-7. Paper $20.00. ISBN: 1-55553-413-9.

Reviewed by: Allan K. McDougall, Department of Political Science, University of Western Ontario.

Susan Miller's book is part of the Northeastern Series on Gender, Crime and Law. It is not a book on law enforcement per se but rather it considers social constructions of masculinity and femininity and how they interact with both the organizational culture of the police and the officers' own sexuality, race and gender (p. xi). The priority given to the place of gender is explicitly declared when the author states on p. 5, "The pages that follow represent the first steps in the construction of a feminist conceptual framework of community policing, which also introduces related policing questions...." Throughout, the balance between the analysis of the impact and form of community policing and the normative privileging of a "feminist" approach is uneasy. By the conclusion the tension leads to the advocacy of the following wide ranging transformation of the police mandate: "With supportive leadership and well-designed plans, police departments can ease the change from being a masculinist (sic) crime fighting organization to being a strong force that plays an active role in establishing community stability and a better quality of life" (p. 224). The assertion reifies the gender contrast, after extensive discussion of the social construction behind such stereotypes, while Miller argues at the same time that these constructions can be mediated by training and packaging techniques.

The analysis focuses on a mid-western community, in a university/capital city of about 200,000. The research was conducted primarily in the summers of 1995 and 1996 by three faculty and three graduate students. Data were collected through open-ended questionnaires, in-depth interviews with both neighborhood police officers and personnel assigned to mobile reactive patrol duties, and through participant observation techniques. The analysis is presented as a case study with material aggregated qualitatively to present the experiences and perspectives of the neighborhood officers. Interview data are quoted extensively without attribution. Miller thus created a coherent narrative on the need to adjust gendered assumptions if policing is to change from a traditional, masculine, reactive, aloof, law enforcement mode to a problem oriented, caring and cooperative order maintenance function.

The case study focuses on a reform oriented police force. Police management had supported community based policing initiatives for over a decade. The lack of crises within the force or the community at the time of the study helped as the analysis could assume a contextual normalcy which made the analysis and generalization of gender stereotypes possible. With unexceptional social relations, and a facilitative set of managers, the interplay between advocates of crime fighting and

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neighborhood officers could assume center stage.

Through in-depth interview data, and the recording of the stories of the first and second wave of neighborhood police officers, Miller moves beyond the discourse of community oriented policing to study the everyday "on the job" experiences of police personnel. In so doing, service delivery is replaced by personal perceptions, challenges and experiences. Poorly defined mandates, few standing orders, isolation from centralized deployed police resources, and a poor safety net are presented clearly as challenges facing the neighborhood officers walking the talk. At times the author invokes a touch of irony. The first neighborhood police officers faced the challenge of a lack of structure. Except for a regulation that set their shift times, few guidelines or regulations existed as they represented the force in their community. The shift regulation had officers on duty when they were of little use to the community. That regulation had to be changed so officers could attend community meetings when on duty! The touch of the normal offers a helpful contribution to the usual structural orientation of community policing literature.

Miller's analysis of recruitment to neighborhood police positions has a similar ring. She argues that the first personnel to volunteer were women and two black male officers since they were low in status on the force and thus had little to lose through their involvement. At the same time, the freedom to set priorities and to create a job for themselves was attractive to the less risk adverse members of the force. When promotion followed assignment to the program, however, a broader spectrum volunteered, encouraged by the opportunity for promotion. With the new wave, the motivation of the neighborhood officers changed. Miller's documentation throughout focuses on personal experiences of the participants; it thus offers good empirical data, but in so doing loses the broader lessons on the challenges inherent in the devolution of police power. For example, some reference to the British literature on the Office of Constable would have helped.

One disturbing aspect on the argument was its willingness to accept invasions of privacy, such as the use of rental information (p. 207) to improve the effectiveness of police intelligence. In a similar vein, the acceptance of "linking up with security officers" employed by local property owners did not seem a problem. Reverting to Miller's emphasis on caring and cooperative policing, I found this positioning of the neighborhood police officer with an agent of the property owner to be problematic. Again, recognition of the challenges to the accountability of the police in law and to their communities would have added to her analysis.

Overall this book presents a rich picture of the human challenges within a police force undergoing a community oriented policing transformation. The gradual adaptation of the structure and its personnel are well presented through personal stories. A list of policy proposals is included based on that data. However, there is little recognition of the literature that has addressed the potential and the challenges of implementing community policing. That, however, would undercut the coherence of the argument on gender that ties the book together.


Copyright 2001 by the author, Allan K. McDougall