Managing Risk and Preempting Immorality in Private Employment of Public Police

Abstract

This article examines risk management and moral regulation of private employment of public police (or PEPP). Drawing on a study of 104 North American police departments and analysis of interviews with police and private employers, police policies and procedures, and police assignment logs, we first identify PEPP contexts. We then argue that risk management is as much of as by public police officers. This risk management is sometimes preempted by moral regulation of police officers focused on objects, spaces, and suspect employers and which partially aims to preserve police legitimacy. We then discern four means of managing risk: department-coordinated assignments, officer reporting for superior assessment, private user liability insurance for temporarily hired officers, and opportunistic third-party commercial brokers. The article makes an empirical contribution by exploring risk management and moral regulation of PEPP and a conceptual contribution by lending more understanding to risk management and moral regulation in sociolegal studies.

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“…Research on the problem of emotional burnout is being conducted by scientists worldwide. In particular, studies by O. Boe et al (2020) and R.K. Lippert et al (2019) focus not only on the specifics of this phenomenon but also on its impact on an individualʼs relationships with the environment. Researchers note that ethical leadership in public police activities interacts with risk management in this field, forming connections between various components, such as space, objects, and external stimuli, which are not mutually exclusive.…”