Force Selling: Policing and the Manufacture of Public Confidence?

Abstract

This paper explores aspects of the ways in which police image work is conducted in NSW. Specifically, it looks at the links between such image work and the project of public confidence building in the police. Based on research interviews with NSW Police public affairs professionals the paper draws out a number of themes articulated by respondents. It also places these themes in a broader context of changing relationships between the police and media. It concludes by suggesting the modern police agencies have little choice but to engage in image work and confidence building but sounds a word of caution about the growing capacity of policing agencies to frame preferred images of crime and policing.