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Programme: accepted abstracts

Abstract ID: 1101

Part of General Paper Session (Other abstracts in this session)

Constructing a police apology: an analysis of Scottish police responses to public complaints

Authors: Friskney, Ruth
Submitted by: Friskney, Ruth (University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom)

Questions about what constitutes politeness by the police can have a bearing on whether specific police powers are deemed to have been used legitimately (Nadler and Trout, forthcoming) and whether or not the police are perceived as treating people with politeness and respect is a core component in overall public confidence in the police (Bradford and Jackson, 2009). The influences on police politeness are also more complex than they might at first appear. Although the police might generally be perceived as a powerful institution, authorised by the state to use force, they may also be positioned as an institution providing public service.

The challenges for the police in negotiating these positions of authority and service can be seen in police constructions of apologies – and there are further complications relating to their status as a public institution. Research into public apologies, such as those on behalf of a State, have drawn attention to the differences between these and interpersonal apologies – for example that a person apologising on behalf of an institution is apologising for an act that they themselves may not have done (Jeffries 2007). 

This paper considers data from the Scottish police, in the form of responses to complaints from members of the public, focusing on how apologies are constructed. My analysis suggests two different types of apologies – one close to a traditional act of an apology ‘for’ an offence, and a second type, seeking to negotiate around public expectations of service from the police institution. I argue that the Scottish police are trying to develop a type of apology act that responds to both their own and public perception of what their police service should be and that current formations demonstrate the struggle between these competing demands on police identity.

References:
Bradford, Ben and Jonathan Jackson (2009) “Public Trust in Criminal Justice: A Review of the Research Literature in the United States.” http://ssrn.com/abstract=1369704

Jeffries, Lesley (2007). "Journalistic Constructions of Blair's 'Apology' for the Intelligence Leading to the Iraq War." In Language in the Media: Representations, Identities, Ideologies. Advances in Sociolinguistics, eds. Sally Johnson and Astrid Ensslin. London: Continuum.

Nadler, Janice and J. D. Trout. (forthcoming). "The Language of Consent in Police Encounters." In Oxford Handbook on Linguistics and Law, eds. L. Solan and P. Tiersma: Oxford University Press.