Nightlife Partnership Policing - (Dis)trust Building Between Bouncers and the Police in the War on Gangs

Abstract

This article contributes to the research on trust in policing by examining how private security actors (bouncers) experience the police as a partner in informal policing networks emerging as part of the 'war on bikers and gangs' in Danish nightlife. While much international research about partnership policing has employed a police perspective and a top-down approach, thus emphasizing organizational ties between policing bodies, this article uses a bottom-up, interactional approach, with a focus on bouncers' everyday experiences and understandings of partnerships with the police. Our findings show that the formation of informal police-bouncer networks has significantly increased the degree of police influence in private nightlife environments such as bars and nightclubs. Our findings also indicate that inter-agency trust building is crucial to the collaborative willingness and capability of bouncers. However, collaborative relationships are challenged when the police use coercive tactics in their dealings with bouncers and, also, when there is uncertainty about the partition of roles and responsibilities between bouncers and police.

‘It’s about using the full sanction catalogue’: on boundary negotiations in a multi-agency organised crime investigation

“…Giacomantonio, 2015). These findings align with previous research, which has found that information sharing also relies on informal activities and personal relationships (Dupont, 2004, O'Neill and McCarthy, 2014, Cotter, 2015, Søgaard et al, 2016, and 'that the underlying relational properties of security networks […][make] it difficult to distinguish between formal and informal ties' (Whelan, 2016). …”

“…Pluralisation characterises contemporary policing, and partnerships as well as networked security governance between state and non-state actors have been examined empirically (Gundhus et al, 2008, Nøkleberg, 2016, Søgaard et al, 2016. This study explores the co-ordination of state powers in the multi-agency Lime project.…”

“…The raid marked the beginning of a prolonged multi-agency investigation, covering a variety of criminal and administrative violations. The investigation was structured as a multi-agency project, which meant that investigators from all participating agencies (police, TA, Labour & Welfare) were removed from their daily tasks, co-localised in a shared, rented office space, and co-ordinated by the Lime project's chief investigator.Pluralisation characterises contemporary policing, and partnerships as well as networked security governance between state and non-state actors have been examined empirically (Gundhus et al, 2008, Nøkleberg, 2016, Søgaard et al, 2016. This study explores the co-ordination of state powers in the multi-agency Lime project.…”

Bartenders as street-level bureaucrats: theorizing server practices in the nighttime economy

“…Whereas the law and public authorities feel abstract and absent in many nightlife environments (Søgaard, Houborg, & Tutenges, 2017), patrons are very much present and their commands loud and obvious.…”

Voices of the Banned

“… 3. In recent decades, Danish police have played a key role in enforcing an informal ban on outlaw bikers and gang-related individuals in Danish nightlife, regardless of whether or not they behave in an orderly manner (see Søgaard, Houborg, & Tutenges, 2016). …”