ABSTRACT
This chapter anchors discussion of front-line policing in a theoretical framework that has been applied to a number of jobs in public management. This is the idea of an "impossible job". This is a phrase coined by Edwin C. Hargrove and John C. Glidewell (1990), and it has a particular meaning. The chapter reviews the literature on impossible jobs. Drawing on extensive multi-site, multi-method data, the chapter analyses public disorder focusing on the 2011 riots. During the riots, gangs suspended territorial postcode (zip code) rivalries, calling a temporary truce to exploit the chaos. A key theme in the August riots was that use of technology unexpectedly and radically altered the police's client base: spreading criminality in real time through "copycatting". Public confidence in police authority vanished on the mainstream media as rioters were shown seemingly acting without sanction. The chapter concludes by outlining theoretical extensions to the "impossible jobs" framework.
