TY - JOUR
T1 - ‘Safer communities … together’? Plural policing and COVID-19 public health interventions in Aotearoa New Zealand
AU - Deckert, Antje
AU - Long, Nicholas J.
AU - Aikman, Pounamu Jade
AU - Appleton, Nayantara Sheoran
AU - Davies, Sharyn Graham
AU - Trnka, Susanna
AU - Fehoko, Edmond
AU - Holroyd, Eleanor
AU - Jivraj, Naseem
AU - Laws, Megan
AU - Martin, Nelly
AU - Pukepuke, Reegan
AU - Roguski, Michael
AU - Simpson, Nikita
AU - Sterling, Rogena
AU - Tunafa’i, Laumua
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Copyright:
Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - International media have praised Aotearoa New Zealand for its response to the coronavirus pandemic. While New Zealand Police played a fundamental role in enforcing pandemic control measures, the policing landscape remained plural. This article employs Loader [2000. Plural policing and democratic governance. Social and legal studies, 9 (3), 323–345] model of plural policing to understand responses to public health emergencies. It identifies two forms of policing which were evident in Aotearoa during the COVID-19 lockdown that should be added to Loader’s model. First, we argue that contexts with colonial history require that the model not only includes by-government and below-government policing but also next-to-government policing by Indigenous peoples–such as the ‘community checkpoints’ run by Māori. Second, and further developing Loader’s model, we argue that the category of below-government policing be expanded to include ‘peer-to-peer policing’ in which government responsibilizes members of the public to subject each other to large-scale surveillance and social control. Since plural forms of policing affect each other’s functionality and legitimacy, we argue that what happens at the synapses between policing nodes has profound implications for the process of community building. Because community building is essential to fighting pandemics, we conclude that the policing of pandemic intervention measures may require an expanded understanding and practice of plural policing to support an optimal public health strategy.
AB - International media have praised Aotearoa New Zealand for its response to the coronavirus pandemic. While New Zealand Police played a fundamental role in enforcing pandemic control measures, the policing landscape remained plural. This article employs Loader [2000. Plural policing and democratic governance. Social and legal studies, 9 (3), 323–345] model of plural policing to understand responses to public health emergencies. It identifies two forms of policing which were evident in Aotearoa during the COVID-19 lockdown that should be added to Loader’s model. First, we argue that contexts with colonial history require that the model not only includes by-government and below-government policing but also next-to-government policing by Indigenous peoples–such as the ‘community checkpoints’ run by Māori. Second, and further developing Loader’s model, we argue that the category of below-government policing be expanded to include ‘peer-to-peer policing’ in which government responsibilizes members of the public to subject each other to large-scale surveillance and social control. Since plural forms of policing affect each other’s functionality and legitimacy, we argue that what happens at the synapses between policing nodes has profound implications for the process of community building. Because community building is essential to fighting pandemics, we conclude that the policing of pandemic intervention measures may require an expanded understanding and practice of plural policing to support an optimal public health strategy.
KW - COVID-19
KW - Indigenous rights
KW - next-to-government policing
KW - plural policing
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85106258274&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/10439463.2021.1924169
DO - 10.1080/10439463.2021.1924169
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85106258274
SN - 1043-9463
VL - 31
SP - 621
EP - 637
JO - Policing and Society
JF - Policing and Society
IS - 5
ER -