ABSTRACT
The chapter provokes reflection and debate on whether the aspiration towards democratic policing requires an expansion and reorientation of the study of policing. The chapter is structured as follows. First, it outlines the case for a social justice-based conception of democratic policing. Second, it considers some definitions of policing, and identify a safety-based definition as most useful for thinking about democratic policing as policing for social justice. Third, it makes some proposals for reorientating the study of policing by including a broader range of scholarship and decentring the police organization by challenging key elements of police mythology. A view of democracy as inextricably entwined with justice is evident in some recent attempts to identify the characteristics of democratic policing. The identification of democracy with social justice provides a useful starting point for thinking more imaginatively about what democratic policing might mean.
