{"id":5071,"date":"2020-03-30T10:52:23","date_gmt":"2020-03-30T09:52:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sspssr-news-events\/?p=5071"},"modified":"2021-10-12T17:17:52","modified_gmt":"2021-10-12T16:17:52","slug":"police-power-during-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sspssr-news-events\/2020\/03\/30\/police-power-during-covid-19\/","title":{"rendered":"Police power during COVID-19"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u2018Britain \u2013 along with much of the world \u2013 is currently navigating its way through\u00a0<strong>unprecedented times<\/strong>\u00a0as the COVID-19 pandemic forces\u00a0<strong>rapid social, political and legal developments<\/strong>. Concerns about over-zealous policing rest on the interpretation, enforcement and continued existence of these\u00a0<strong>new powers<\/strong>. Already, we have seen police forces respond to the Government\u2019s instructions in different ways, including:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Humberside, Greater Manchester, Avon and Somerset and West Midlands police operating\u00a0<strong>online portals for members of the public<\/strong>\u00a0to report those who appear to be flouting the rules.<\/li>\n<li>Derbyshire police using\u00a0<strong>drones to spot people<\/strong>\u00a0venturing into countryside for exercise.<\/li>\n<li>Durham and North Yorkshire police employing\u00a0<strong>checkpoints on roads<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u2018Such powers may be deemed\u00a0<strong>necessary in the current climate<\/strong>, but the public must be assured that they will indeed be time-limited if policing is to be considered legitimate \u2013 and not unduly authoritarian \u2013 once the pandemic is over. Similarly, efforts should be taken to dissuade the development of a\u00a0<strong>perceived \u2018surveillance state\u2019<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Contemporary policing is underpinned by a \u2018policing by consent\u2019 model, through which police legitimacy is founded upon\u00a0<strong>trust, shared values, fairness and effectiveness<\/strong>. In light of the ongoing confusion surrounding best practice during the pandemic, it is vital that people are not\u00a0<strong>unduly or unfairly penalised<\/strong>. For example, while the police can issue fixed penalty notices of \u00a360 to those considered to be flouting the rules (or \u00a3120 for repeat offenders), many members of the public will be\u00a0<strong>facing unexpected financial hardship<\/strong>\u00a0as a result of the emergency measures.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Finally, these new policing powers must not come at a cost to\u00a0<strong>assisting genuine victims of crime<\/strong>. Domestic violence rates are\u00a0<strong>rising fast<\/strong>; Avon and Somerset Police reported\u00a0<strong>a 20% increase<\/strong>\u00a0in incidents in the last two weeks alone. The vast majority of these incidents involve existing victims who are now at more risk due to being forced to spend all day every day with their abuser. On average,\u00a0<strong>two women a week are killed as a result of domestic violence<\/strong>\u00a0in England and Wales. Domestic violence experts know that by the time this pandemic is over that\u00a0<strong>the average will have increased<\/strong>; it\u2019s imperative that the police do everything in their powers to limit by how much.\u2019<\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kent.ac.uk\/social-policy-sociology-social-research\/people\/1574\/duggan-marian\">Dr Marian Duggan\u00a0<\/a>is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology and Director of Studies for Criminology at the University of Kent. Furthermore she is the Director of Kent\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/research.kent.ac.uk\/gender-sexuality-culture\/\">Gender, Sexuality and Culture Research Cluster<\/a>. Marian\u2019s research focuses on informing policy and practice to reduce sexual, gendered and hate-based victimisation. She has published widely in these areas and is actively involved in the charitable sector, acting as a Trustee for the Rising Sun Domestic Violence and Abuse Charity.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>The University\u2019s Press Office provides the media with\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.kent.ac.uk\/news\/tags\/comment\/\">expert comments<\/a>\u00a0in response to topical news events. Colleagues who would like to learn more about how to contribute their expertise or how the service works should contact the Press Office on 3985 or\u00a0<a href=\"mailto:pressoffice@kent.ac.uk\">pressoffice@kent.ac.uk<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u2018Britain \u2013 along with much of the world \u2013 is currently navigating its way through\u00a0unprecedented times\u00a0as the COVID-19 pandemic forces\u00a0rapid social, political and legal developments. &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sspssr-news-events\/2020\/03\/30\/police-power-during-covid-19\/\">Read&nbsp;more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59459,"featured_media":5072,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10482,124],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sspssr-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5071"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sspssr-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sspssr-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sspssr-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59459"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sspssr-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5071"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sspssr-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5071\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5073,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sspssr-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5071\/revisions\/5073"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sspssr-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sspssr-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sspssr-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sspssr-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}