Summary
"An influential body of research into policing and security has suggested that routine policing in Western European democracies has been subject to a process of‘securitisation’. Securitisation refers to the identification of ‘existential threats’ which require emergency powers and extraordinary counter-measures outwith ‘normal’, democratically accountable, government (Weaver, 1996). Such is the preoccupation with the threat posed by transnational terrorism that it is argued routine policing is increasingly driven by this logic of securitisation (King and Sharp, 2006; Virta, 2008). However, the extent to which routine policing is actually being securitised remains a moot empirical point. This is due in part to the fact that such arguments are based primarily on textual analyses which tend to impute action from talk, by inferring policy impact on the frontline from policy rhetoric and exhortation. This thesis contends that research needs to move beyond a concern with policy elites - and the ‘textual footprints’ of their talk and decisions - and focus on the action of everyday, local police routines, in order to establish the extent, nature and impact of ‘securitisation’."--Abstract.