‘Soft’ Policing in Rural Scotland

Abstract

Soft' policing is a strategy which borrows from concepts laid out by Nye (2004), who argues that nation states should adopt 'soft power' over 'hard power' in response to a range of geopolitical challenges. Soft policing as a concept sits under the reassurance and neighbourhood policing banners, where 'police power is based less upon the direct enactment of coercion and rests instead upon a persuasive mode of social control' (Innes, 2005: 157). Soft policing therefore focuses on the non-coercive elements of policing, where community engagement, situated knowledge and negotiated order maintenance play important roles in shaping the police response (Innes, 2005; McCarthy, 2014). Although critiqued for 'obscuring the 'hard' realities of the 'coercive state'' (Loader & Walker, 2007: 76), soft policing styles are often synonymously linked to rural policing, with the common perception being that negotiated order maintenance tends to take precedence over enforcement policing styles in these environments (Donnermeyer & DeKeseredy, 2014; Wooff, 2015; Yarwood & Wooff, 2016). Rural environments, however, by their very nature tend to be isolated, complex and multifaceted, requiring a nuanced and context dependent policing response. Given that rural policing remains at the margins of the policing literature (Mawby & Yarwood, 2011) and with the recent (re)emergence of discussions around 'soft' policing (see McCarthy, 2014), this paper provides a timely examination of the extent to which the concept is relevant in rural policing discussions. While cautious not to create a false dichotomy between 'hard' and 'soft' policing, in a practical sense the police routinely slip between tactics described as 'soft' and 'hard', philosophically it is useful to focus on the soft policing responses of officers in rural Scotland. The early 2000s witnessed the introduction of the National Reassurance

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“…Despite claims of the idyllic nature of rural areas, interactions between the police and the public can still be an issue (Wooff, 2015(Wooff, , 2017. Rural areas also have their own unique beliefs about and interactions with the police.…”

Rural Victimization and Policing during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…For instance, Liederbach & Frank ( 2003 ) conducted systematic social observations in five rural, Ohio police departments with an average of six employees per agency and concluded, “there is evidence to suggest that the work of small- town and rural officers is somewhat shaped by the unique social and demographic climate of smaller, less urban environments” (p. 69). Tight-knit communities in rural areas have close relationships with their officers ( Liederbach and Frank, 2003 ), who are expected to eschew arrest and use informal remedies when possible ( Falcone et al, 2002 ; Wooff , 2015 , 2017 ). Relatedly, RLE officers are more service- and prevention-oriented than officers in urban places who focus on law enforcement ( Johnson and Rhodes, 2008 ; Meagher , 1985 ), even to the point of serving as de facto social workers in some rural areas ( Marenin and Copus, 1991 ).…”

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