Enforcement and Public Order Maintenance: The Role of the Police on the Night-time economy

There exists a large body of sociological and criminological literature concerned with policing. It is beyond the scope of this Guide to give extensive references to work that has been conducted in this field, but nevertheless, some generalists texts have been included; other references cited here relate to either the work of the police on the ground, during routine patrols, or to difficulties encountered in dealing with drunken offenders.

Burns, L; Flaherty, B; Ireland, S; and Frances, M (1995) “Policing Pubs: What Happens to Crime?”, Drug and Alcohol Review, 14, pp 369-5.
The aim of this study was to test the effect of heightened police enforcement of the NSW Liquor and Registered Clubs Acts on overall criminal offences and, specifically, the number of assaults. Ten police patrols were included in the study, Five of these patrols were allocated to the experimental condition and five were allocated to the control condition. Beat police in the experimental controls conducted frequent but random visits to predesignated licensed premises over a 2-month period, Police in the control patrols maintained their normal duties, Numbers of offences in the experimental and control patrols were then compared for 2 months before the intervention, for the 2-month intervention phase and for 2 months post-intervention. Results of the study indicated a significant increase in the number of offences in the experimental patrols during the intervention phase. Reasons for this increase are discussed.

Felson, M, Berends, R; Richardson, B; and Veno, A (1997) “Reducing Pub Hopping and Related Crime”, in Homed, R (eds) Policing for Prevention: Reducing Crime, Public Intoxication and Injury, Crime Prevention Studies Vol 7 Monsey, NY: Criminal Justice Press.

Levi, R and Valverde, M (2001) “Knowledge on Tap: Police Science and Common Knowledge in the Legal Regulation of Drunkenness”, Law and Social Enquiry, 26(4), pp 819-46.

Norris,C (1989) “Avoiding Trouble: Patrol Officer’s Perception of Encounters With The Public”, in Weatheritt, M (eds) Police Research: Some Future Prospects, Aldershot: Avebury.

Robertson, G., Gobb, R. and Pearson, R. (1995) “Drunkenness Among Police Detainees”, Addiction, Vol. 90, No. 6, 793-803.
All detainees at seven police stations within the Metropolitan Police Area were observed by the authors. Continuous 24-hour cover was provided at each station for periods of 3 weeks. The number of people arrested for offences of drunkenness was noted, as was the apparent degree of drunkenness of all detainees, irrespective of arrest offence. Arrest for drunkenness in London was strongly associated with being white and with having been born in Scotland or Ireland. Within the confines of the station, being drunk was associated with aggressiveness, with the need for medical examination and with delays in implementing interview procedures. The physical condition of many chronically drunk people was very poor and evidence of long-term self neglect teas common. Formal cautioning of drunkenness offenders has effectively removed such people from the courts; in the present study only 5% of those arrested for drunkenness alone were subsequently charged. Despite this the police in London must continue to arrest and detain the drunk and incapable for want of suitable alternatives.

Van Maanen (1978) “The Asshole”, in Manning, P & Van Maanen, J (eds) Policing: A View from the Streets. Goodyear: Santa Monica.

Valverde, M (2003) “Police Science, British Style: Pub Licensing and Knowledge of Urban Disorder”, Economy and Society,32(2) pp 234-252.
In mainstream legal scholarship and political theory as well as in some governmentality studies, police is presented as an eighteenth-century form of power/knowledge with close links to the administrative sciences developed in absolutist states. Commentators often state that police regulation has not disappeared but has been largely replaced by liberal governance. This article argues that police powers and knowledge are not, as is generally thought, in a zero-sum, mutually exclusive relationship with liberal governance. The problem space of 'police' is that formed by the desire to prevent urban disorder and incivility. Because it is a field of governance, not a theory or a mentality, police projects can use both liberal and illiberal mechanisms. The legal technology of licensing, a very widely used but under-studied legal tool, allows an old police objective - the promotion of urban order and 'civility' through measures targeting spaces and activities - to be effected by turning the work of managing risks over to the private sector, hence avoiding direct state interference with citizens' liberties. Licensing governs the field of police with a liberal tool. This argument is empirically grounded in a sketch of the history of the rationalities used to justify and evaluate pub licensing in the UK, a history whose ending is taken to be New Labour's 2000 White Paper on liquor licensing and urban disorder.

Wiley, J.A. and Weisner, C. (1995) “Drinking in Violent and Non-Violent Events Leading to Arrest: Evidence from a Survey of Arrestees”, Journal of Criminal Justice, Vol. 23, No. 5, pp 461-74.