ABSTRACT
There is now potential for dramatic changes in the configuration of the policing web (Brodeur, 2010). This web includes all those ways in which order is sustained formally. The public police, in particular, are subject to increasingly close governmental scrutiny, and a variety of new efforts have appeared that might alter the sources of payment, conditions of employment and the role and duties of police personnel and staff. Yet, currently, trust in the public police is high, and officially recorded crime (ORC) is declining. This chapter outlines the current climate and rhetoric of police restructuring; the emerging nature of the police mandate; types of policing; and discusses the nature of democratic policing.
