A crucial element of the perpetual cycle of policing is the necessity to declare social problems at once an existential threat to society but also ones that can be successfully managed by the “right” and righteous authorities. This year, I had the opportunity to work with Dr Johann Koehler in the Social Policy department in collaboration with Dr Tony Cheng at UC-Irvine on a project investigating the persecution complex that ensues in policing institutions, who perceive themselves to be providing an endless, beleaguered service. Focusing on the Chicago Police Department, the project utilised annual reports published from slavery’s abolition in 1862 to present day, 2021, to document how the CPD expressed its self-perceived beleaguerment to gain acknowledgement, capital, and prestige, and how these processes transformed over a century of major technological and social advancements in the US widely, but especially in the business of policing.
My research
As the research assistant, I was responsible for analysing each annual report to produce a qualitative codebook documenting explicit and implicit expressions of a persecution complex. Breaking down implicit expressions of beleaguerment into further sub-categories including comparative heuristics, bargaining attempts, preoccupation with death and safety, expression of competence, among others, was crucial to ensuring that my analysis was nuanced and implored me to look beyond the obvious to read between the lines and extract valuable qualitative data from highly statistical yet ideologically heavy reports, gaining invaluable discourse analysis skills in this process. Implicated in this task was also the responsibility to trace exactly what the CPD ‘did’ over nearly 160 years and how they understood their own position within first, the city of Chicago as “protectors” of the city, and increasingly within the bureaucratic framework of the United States policing system. I prepared in-depth memos summarising the CPD’s work, where I especially focused on identifying “eras” of specific policing patterns as they related to the CPD’s changing self-perception. In engaging with these reports in depth, what was perhaps the most interesting to me was how expressions of beleaguerment did not disappear as the CPD grew more confident in its position as a pioneer of novel policing methods but became increasingly implicitly implicated in its projection of success to governmental organisations and citizens. I was also deeply interested in how the CPD’s development was centrally tied to responding to a rapidly urbanising city and the specific zoning policing methods the department employed to differentially patrol its “problem populations.”
My experience
By working explicitly with police reports rather than academic literature, I gained a unique insight into the historical development of racial and juvenile policing in the United States from the perspective of the state and its more violent assemblage. Further, Dr Koehler and Dr Cheng’s constant support in contextualising my understanding of the reports against Chicago’s wider historical context deeply enriched my understanding of how policing institutions produce their own myth, the ends such lore-creation serves, and to what end. Having now completed the research assistantship, I have gained immense confidence in my research abilities and insight into how valuable statistical and coding methods may be for qualitative research. As a researcher, I believe there is little more gratifying than dedicating yourself to work that is tethered to pressing social realities. Working on a project critically examining police work in the United States at a time when we are undergoing rightful cultural transformations in how we understand the role of police in society and are reckoning with their deeply racialised histories was truly an invaluable experience.