Third Party Policing: Prospects, challenges and implications for regulators

Third party policing’ describes police efforts to persuade or coerce third parties, such as landlords, parents, local governments and other regulators, and business owners, to take some responsibility for preventing crime or reducing crime problems. In third party policing, the police create crime control guardians in locations or situations where crime control guardianship was previously absent. Sometimes this results from cooperative consultation with community members. At other times, the police use coercive threats, with the backing of a range of civil and regulatory laws, to engage third parties into taking some crime control responsibility. Our paper describes the dimensions of third party policing and identifies its prospects and challenges, including its implications for regulators. Introduction A central part of police work is forging partnerships with individuals, groups, and organisations in an effort to control and prevent crime. Police team up with building inspectors, environmental regulators, community groups, business leaders, local government personnel and anyone else who is ready, willing and able to work with police. But what happens when police co-opt and coerce regulators and individuals to help the police pursue their crime control and crime prevention functions? What happens when regulators and individuals are unmotivated or unwilling to go outside of their routine activities to take on a crime control or crime prevention responsibility? This process of cooption and coercion by the police is part of what Michael Buerger and Lorraine Mazerolle have termed ‘third party policing’ (1998: 301). Third party policing is defined as police efforts to persuade or coerce other regulators or non-offending persons, such as health and building inspectors, housing agencies, property owners, parents, and business owners, to take some responsibility for preventing crime or reducing crime problems (Buerger & Mazerolle 1998: 301). In third party policing, the police create or enhance crime control guardians in locations or situations where crime control guardianship was previously absent or non-effective. Sometimes the police use cooperative consultation with community members to encourage and convince third parties to take more crime control or prevention responsibility. At other times, the police use coercive threats, with the backing of a range of civil and regulatory laws, to engage third parties into taking some crime control responsibility. Third party policing exists in many forms. For example, in some police agencies the police might use coercion or persuasion of third parties to solve ongoing problems within the context of their problem-oriented policing program. In other police agencies, third party policing might exist as an especially designed, stand-alone policing program. The Beat